Keep Chicago Renting Coalition will join an Albany Park family of five today as it asks a bank to accept a rent check instead of making the family vacate its apartment following the bank’s foreclosure on the landlord.
The action will be held at 4 p.m. today at Bank of America, 135 S. LaSalle St.
Ald. Richard Mell (33rd Ward) will introduce the “Keep Chicago Renting” ordinance at next Wednesday’s (July 25) City Council meeting, with 18 aldermen co-sponsors. The ordinance would require banks to offer renters the opportunity to continue to pay rent and stay in their homes when a bank owns the property.
A report released this week by the Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing shows 52,000 units of rental housing – 9% of Chicago’s rental stock – was in foreclosure in the last three years. Bank of America has filed foreclosures on 1,027 rental units last year.
Keep Chicago Renting Coalition is led by the Albany Park Neighborhood Council, with 11 partners: CCH, Action Now, Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, Logan Square Neighborhood Association, Metropolitan Tenants’ Organization, Organization of the NorthEast, SEIU-HCII, Unite Here Local 1, Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing, and Business and Professional People for the Public Interest.