Nonprofit files series of state grievances against top Chicagoland brokerages, accusing them of breaching law meant to protect low-income renters with housing vouchers
A housing rights nonprofit filed a series of complaints with the state Monday accusing 165 Chicago-area real estate agents, brokerages and landlords of violating Illinois law by discriminating against low-income renters with Housing Choice Vouchers, formerly known as Section 8 vouchers.
Some of the area's top brokerages were named in the complaints, including Coldwell Banker Real Estate, Christie's International Real Estate, Keller Williams Realty, Baird & Warner, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, RE/MAX and Kale Realty.
The allegations were born out of a "sweeping undercover investigation" by Housing Rights Initiative -- a watchdog group that filed the complaints with the Illinois Department of Human Rights. The department will process the complaints and could hold hearings on them that may lead to additional legal action.
The nonprofit spent the last year training and deploying "an army of undercover investigators," who posed as prospective tenants with Housing Choice Vouchers, according to a news release distributed Monday.
The investigators messaged "hundreds" of brokers and landlords to test whether they were in compliance with the Illinois Human Rights Act, which prohibits housing discrimination based on the source of a person's income -- including government subsidies like HCV's, which are still commonly called Section 8 vouchers and cover substantial portions of recipients' rental costs.
The Housing Rights Initiative allegedly found that voucher holders were discriminated against about 36 percent of the time, considering the conversations from which investigators were able to make a determination.
The series of 176 complaints filed against 165 defendants makes this the largest housing discrimination case in Illinois history, according to the release.
"Let this historic filing send an important message to every real estate player: no matter how empowered you feel over the next four years, you will be held accountable to the law," Housing Rights Initiative Executive Director Aaron Carr said in the release. "Break the law and it will not be a question of whether you get caught, but when."
A document containing evidence collected by housing investigators was also distributed Monday, which included photos of alleged text conversations between investigators and real estate professionals. Two such photos appear to show real estate agents from Coldwell Banker and Baird & Warner telling investigators that the owner of the property they were purporting to be interested in does not accept Section 8 vouchers -- a violation of state law as of January 2023, when a rule specifically banning such practices took effect.
Properties included as evidence were located across Chicago and surrounding suburbs such as Palatine, Rolling Meadows, Hoffman Estates, Schaumburg, Glencoe, Evanston and Deerfield.
Representatives from Baird & Warner, Coldwell Banker, Christie's International Real Estate, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Keller Williams Realty and RE/MAX did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday. Kale Realty declined to comment.
This is not the first time that real estate players have made the news for discriminating against voucher holders since Governor J.B. Pritzker prohibited this form of housing discrimination with the signing of House Bill 2775.
Last month, tenants filed a federal lawsuit against Mac Properties, a prominent management company in Hyde Park and other areas of the city, alleging that the company refused to rent to voucher holders at newer lakefront buildings and, instead, steered them toward less-desirable properties.
The Illinois Department of Human Rights, which began accepting source of income complaints at the start of 2023, received 34 complaints in 2023 and 48 last year as of November, according to a Chicago Tribune report.
Multiple Illinois state senators and representatives spoke on Monday's complaints to the Department of Human Rights and drew connections to larger issues of homelessness and the lack of affordable housing in Chicago, calling for more diligence in enforcing the 2022 law.
"It has come to my attention that certain stakeholders, including brokers and landlords, are not only holding apartments off the market but also misrepresenting their rental policies by falsely advertising as accepting low-income tenants," state Rep. Yolonda Morris (D-Chicago) said in the release. "This behavior not only undermines the intent of housing assistance programs but also perpetuates systemic inequality within our communities."
Families, people of color and people with disabilities make up a disproportionate amount of Housing Choice Voucher holders, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.