(The Center Square) – Now that the Illinois General Assembly approved $75 million in another round of emergency rental assistance, many landlords are wondering if the taxpayer-funded rental assistance is here to stay.
The Neighborhood Building Owners Alliance recently held a webinar on the significant developments involving evictions. President Michael Glasser said evicting a tenant is a last resort.
“We don’t get there easily, we do it painfully,” said Glasser. “We don’t want to be filing evictions, we try many strategies and approaches to avoid filing, and as we all know sometimes it’s just necessary.”
Attorney Michael Zink with the firm Starr, Bejgeirt, Zink and Rowells said that the funds could cut down on evictions.
“Rental assistance, whatever form it ends up taking in the larger picture in the upcoming months, I would hope that it is reinstated, and to an extent, expedited,” said Zink.
Plaintiffs in eviction cases may now use special process servers immediately, and not first place the case with the sheriff for service.
Peter Selke, director of the Strategic Response Unit with the Illinois Housing Development Authority, said the latest round of funding is not intended to benefit just the tenants.
“We are kind of funding an ecosystem or infrastructure of sorts,” said Selke. “It’s not just for the tenant, we know that housing providers need their funds to pay their rent and insurance and all the other costs.”
Illinois provided over a half billion dollars in taxpayer-funded rental assistance to more than 57,000 applicants in the Illinois Housing Development Authority’s rental assistance program last year.
