Note: This letter to the editor was originally published in the April 14 print edition of the Forest Park Review.
Please contact your state legislator and ask them to support HB 116 to repeal the state-wide ban on rent control. As recent decades have shown us beyond any doubt, the housing market does not operate in the interest of actually housing people safely and affordably. Communities need more tools to improve and sustain the availability of decent housing for everyone, especially considering income inequality and the effects of the pandemic.
Rent control is simply a tool that communities should have available as we work to “build back better” following the pandemic. Urge your Illinois state legislator to support HB 116, to give our communities more options in the critical area of housing security. I call on my own state rep, House Speaker Chris Welch, to announce support for HB 116.
Karin Evans, Forest Park
