[Peace-discuss] Housing discrimination in Champaign - 7pm 6/25 city council study session

[Stuart Levy]

Tomorrow evening 6/25, at 7pm, the Champaign City Council will hold a
study session, looking at a discriminatory ordinance it had passed in
the 1990s.    If you can, especially if you live in Champaign, please
come out and at least let the Council know the public cares about this.

The Champaign law, "section 17-4.5", specifically allows landlords to
discriminate against people incarcerated within the last five years.  It
doesn't matter that their sentence is complete, it doesn't matter what
their current situation is.  They may be fully capable of paying the
rent and being a good neighbor to their fellow tenants - the landlord
can reject them based solely on that history.

The landlords in town generally want to keep this law.   They control
some 55% of all the housing in Champaign - a lot of power over the fate
of formerly incarcerated people.

Some 700+ signatures have been gathered, by the Fair Housing Coalition
and others, asking for section 17-4.5 to be repealed.


Urbana does not have this carve-out to their anti-discrimination
ordinance.    This doesn't mean that Urbana landlords don't discriminate
based on past incarceration - certainly some do, and it's even written
into the rental agreements for some rental properties.   But at least
Urbana has a law which could be used to challenge those policies. 
Champaign doesn't even have that.

[1] Back in the '70s, both Urbana and Champaign passed
anti-discrimination laws.    In 1994, Champaign amended its
discrimination law to allow this specific kind of discrimination.

[2]Since this is a study session, they're not offering a chance for the
public to speak before the Council's discussion.   However there is a
chance to speak afterward.

[3]Here's the agenda for Tuesday at 7:
     http://documents.ci.champaign.il.us/v/1W7f-2oLv7euIlajhsKseyUVQXAgmRdWN
with details here:
     http://documents.ci.champaign.il.us/v/1PwZzZsOzlpbHNyqL-efVLXPIlSGtuIWT

<http://documents.ci.champaign.il.us/v/1PwZzZsOzlpbHNyqL-efVLXPIlSGtuIWT>    
"The Administration requests that the City Council provide direction to
staff on whether to draft modifications to Section 17-4.5 of the Human
Rights Ordinance for consideration by Council at a future Regular Meeting."

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