What We Do
Our Equitable Community Development and Housing practice partners with and supports community-based organizations and coalitions to create thriving, resilient communities of opportunity. Our work advances priorities identified by impacted communities and addresses systems and structures that maintain racism and deny opportunity. We focus on land use, community development, housing, environmental justice, wealth-creation and economic equity.
We use a community-driven advocacy model, recognizing that racial justice must be achieved through the leadership and power of communities of color. Our expertise includes litigation, legislative drafting and advocacy, advocacy through administrative and regulatory processes, transactional support, and strategic communications.
Key Staff
Emily Coffey, Senior Counsel
Micaela Alvarez, Program Counsel
Emma Clouse, Equal Justice Works Fellow
Examples of our work include:
Equitable Planning and Development
We work with coalitions and nonprofit organizations around Chicago to advance policies and developments that create affordable housing, livable wages, and other community investments such as:
Supporting the Obama CBA Coalition, a broad grassroots coalition from communities around the Obama Presidential Center, by helping to write and pass the Woodlawn Housing Preservation Ordinance in 2020.
Working with community partners to reform Chicago’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance to improve the creation of affordable housing and ensure that low- and moderate-income Chicagoans have access to high-opportunity communities.
Environmental Justice
We partner with organizations advocating for environmental and economic justice in Black and Brown communities in Chicago and beyond. This includes:
Working with partners in the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition to craft and pass the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act of 2021 Clean Energy Jobs Act, which effectively targets pollution reduction and millions of dollars of economic investment to communities that are environmentally overburdened and economically underserved.
Providing direct legal representation and policy advocacy support to urban growers in Chicago seeking to remove barriers to water access and create a City approach to urban agriculture that supports long-term sustainability and growth.
Supporting the Cannabis Equity Illinois Coalition to ensure that cannabis legalization in Illinois benefits communities impacted by the War on Drugs. This has included legislative advocacy to better target licensing equity and negotiation of community benefits agreements with individual cannabis business.
Just Housing Initiative
Since 2017, our organization has been a member of the Just Housing Coalition with the goal of introducing and passing a Just Housing amendment to the Cook County Human Rights Ordinance. This amendment passed the Cook County Board of Commissioners on April 25, 2019, and its implementation will help over one million people in Cook County find a home. Read more on our blog post.
Cook County residents who have been incarcerated are over 10 times more likely to be homeless, and policies that ban residents with a criminal record impact people of color and people with disabilities the most. Under the Just Housing amendment, housing providers will be prohibited from denying housing to someone with a criminal record without considering other factors such as rehabilitation and time since the offense, and they would be required to wait until after review of a person’s application to check their criminal history. Find more info at justhousinginitiative.org
Federal Litigation Challenging 25-Year Criminal Background Bans
On October 24, 2018, we joined attorneys at Winston & Strawn LLP in filing a federal lawsuit that challenges a large property manager’s policy of enforcing a blanket ban on individuals with criminal convictions that go as far back as 25 years. The policy does not allow for any individual consideration of an applicant’s circumstances, including the length of time since the conviction, years since release from prison, rehabilitation efforts, or whether the past conviction actually presents any legitimate reason to think that the applicant currently poses any safety risk. We allege that the use of such a policy has a disparate impact on Black applicants who represent a disproportionate share of individuals incarcerated and re-entering society, and denies individuals opportunities for housing.
Press coverage:
Crain’s Chicago Business [October 24, 2018]
The Real Deal [October 25, 2018]
Chicago Lawyers’ Committee (press release) [October 24, 2018]
Source of Income Discrimination
Recently, we have attacked source of income discrimination on many levels. Housing Choice Vouchers, formerly called Section 8, are federal subsidies that allow low-income families to rent housing in the private market. Chicago outlawed source of income discrimination more than 25 years ago, and Cook County followed suit in 2013. However, our testing in Chicago reveals that housing providers discriminate against tenants based on voucher status 32% of the time, and Cook County testing showed similar widespread discrimination. Chicago Lawyers’ Committee is working to address the problem systemically, representing tenants with claims, and educating landlords and tenants. Housing Choice Voucher discrimination contributes to ongoing segregation in Cook County by keeping qualified renters, most of whom are Black, out of areas of opportunity with access to better schools, jobs, and other amenities.
Resources on Fair Housing
Testimony Before the Illinois State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights [May 2019]
Our testimony addresses the barriers to accessing rental housing that individuals with criminal records and other people of color face as a result of longstanding racial and economic segregation in Chicago; how the use of federal disparate impact litigation can challenge policies that entrench segregation; and the need for legislation that expands protections under the fair housing laws for individuals with criminal records.
Out, But Not In: Examining Barriers to Re-Entry [March 2019]
This news report outlines the many barriers that await the 11,000 Illinois residents who re-enter society from incarceration every year. In an interview by Kaisha Young of Medill Reports Chicago, Senior Staff Attorney Barbara Barreno-Paschall talks about the specific barriers that exist in the search for housing, including long criminal history look-back periods, and what Chicago Lawyers’ Committee is doing to help.
Chapter 8 Fiftieth Anniversary of the Fair Housing Act: How the Past Informs the Future [January 2019]
by Barbara R. Barreno-Paschall and Jessica Schneider from Civil Rights Litigation and Attorney Fees Annual Handbook
This article reviews the current state of fair housing law and litigation in the 50th anniversary of the federal Fair Housing Act. The article analyzes how fair housing advocates are dealing with long standing problems in integrating major urban areas and shows how local anti-discrimination laws and agencies may be a more productive place to achieve positive change.
Final Report: Fair Housing Testing Project for the Chicago Commission on Human Relations [August 2018]
This report presents the results of a one-year fair housing testing and training project conducted by Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights for the Chicago Commission on Human Relations. Over a one-year period from April 2017 through April 2018, we conducted 70 tests for discrimination on the basis of source of income and/or race in six neighborhoods in Chicago. We also provided 8 training events on the Chicago Fair Housing Ordinance and other fair housing laws. Read coverage on this report in WBEZ
Our Chicago: The Fight and Future of Fair Housing [Community Summit | April 2018]
On Saturday, April 28, 2018, advocates, experts, and community members convened at Roosevelt University for a free community summit to commemorate fifty years of the federal Fair Housing Act, learn our history, share tools, and organize together for equity and justice.
Fair Housing Laws for Chicago Housing Providers [WEBINAR | April 2018]
On December 14, 2017, the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council and Logan Square Neighborhood Association filed a lawsuit in circuit court alleging that the office of Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios conducts assessments that systematically and illegally shift residential property tax burdens from Whites to Hispanics and African-Americans, and from the rich to the poor. Download the complaint, learn about the case, and submit your own comments below.
