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Recently, a renter called The Metropolitan TenantsOrganization’s (MTO) citywide Hotline becausedespite repeated verbal requests, her landlordwas unresponsive to her requests for repairs. Her apartment needed major plumbing work. After learningabout her rights from a Hotline counselor, she wrotea letter to her landlord detailing the problems andinforming him of his obligations and her rights should
he fail to fulll them. Within days of the landlord’s
receipt of the letter, he was busy making repairs.With funding from the City of Chicago, MTO’sHotline has been a key resource to the nearly 1.3million renters living in Chicago. It has helped many
thousands of renters nd constructive ways to address
problems with their rental housing. The informationrenters have received has allowed them to play animportant part in preserving Chicago’s housing stock.The Hotline has also served as MTO’s eyes and earsinto the lives of renters. Since its inception in 1994,
the MTO Hotline has elded more than 150,000 calls,
carefully collecting information and tracking dataon housing issues. In collecting this data, Hotlinecounselors have spent thousands of hours listeningto the stories told by Chicago’s renters. The story of renters in Chicago is that they are increasingly facing
unpredictability in the rental housing market, nancial
stress, and deteriorated living conditions. Their livesare and have been in tumult for years.In the past decade, market changes – such ascondominium conversions, which displaced thousandsof renters – have taken their toll, making the lackof stable, affordable housing for renters a criticalissue. We decided to commission this report prior tothe collapse of the housing bubble and crisis in the
nancial markets in fall 2008. But these events have
brought about a broader recognition of what low- andmoderate-income renters have known all along – theproblems in Chicago’s housing market are systemic.For years renters have needed and wanted a newnational housing policy that balances homeownershipand rental housing. Part of the reason their problems
Letter from the Executive Director
have persisted and escalated is that policy makershave failed to recognize the importance of stable
rental housing and have an insufcient understanding
of the perspective of renters.Data from the MTO Hotline contextualizes renters’calls relative to Census data on Chicago rentersand rental housing stock. In combination, thesedata sources provide deep insight into the currentenvironment facing renters, and the interconnectionof renters and homeowners, renters andneighborhoods, renters and thriving communities. Bybringing to light the factors impacting renters’ abilityto access and afford stable housing, these research
ndings underscore the need for policy changes.
We would like to thank all of the volunteers whosecountless hours of assistance and advocacy for and with Chicago’s renters allow this organizationto educate, organize and empower tenants to havea voice in decisions that affect the affordability andavailability of decent, safe and accessible housing.Certainly, we thank the City of Chicago and all of our foundation supporters for seeing the ongoing value of this Hotline.In the end, we need to view housing as a right. If we want a healthy, educated and employed society,then housing must be recognized as a criticalcomponent in achieving these goals. Absent livable,affordable and stable housing, individuals andfamilies will continue to face conditions that make
them vulnerable to nancial stress, illness and injury
from home based hazards, absence from school and
missed work. Armed with the ndings in
The
State of Renters in the City of Chicago
, we are well-positionedto catalyze much needed local policy change andbring an informed voice to the important nationaldiscussion of how to ensure that all our citizens areadequately housed.
John Bartlett
Executive Director The Metropolitan Tenants Organization
September 15, 2009
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