“As the judge pronounced the sentence, which court officials said represented the first time in their memory that a landlord has been ordered jailed on housing code violation charges, a cheer went up from more than 50 Clifton Terrace tenants in the room.
Brown, who is yet to be tried for another 1200 violations at Clifton Terrace cited by housing inspectors, was visibly stunned by the sentence.
As he was led away to the court's basement cellblock, the landlord, his hands visibly shaking, did not appear to be the defendant who moments before had told the Judge from the witness box that the District government was responsible for the lack of heat at Clifton Terrace.
After remaining in the cell block for about 45 minutes, Brown's attorney, George E. C. Hayes, filed notice of appeal in the case and the landlord was released after posting $2000 bond.”
- Carl Bernstein, “Landlord Given Jail Term,” Washington Post, 1967.
On Monday we started a series on the history of the Chicago Residential Landlord-Tenant Ordinance. We covered an enormous span of time from medieval England to the early civil rights movement in the United States of the 1960s. We were introduced to the many issues that faced renters in the early 20th century and the methods used by the first tenants' rights pioneers to try and fight back.
When we left off, it was 1963 and Jesse Gray's rent strikes in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City were getting attention through violence, the civil rights act was up for debate in US Congress, and Chicago had just passed its first fair housing ordinance.
I made several visits to landlord-tenant court that summer [of 1966] as part of my work with the tenants. During one of my visits there, an event occurred that has stuck in my mind as a vivid tableau. The cases were being called by the clerk when a quite elderly, thin, white woman rose from her seat in response to hearing her name. Her gait was quite slow - stooped over, and supported by a wooden cane. She was dressed in a frilly, long white dress and a white hat with a veil. It struck me that she had picked out her finest clothes to wear that morning. Perhaps her generation thought it appropriate to dress up for a court appearance - like going to church. But this was no church. When she was about half way to the front of the court – even before she passed the bar - the judge impatiently asked, "Have you paid the rent?"
She looked up at him as best she could and began softly speaking. "No, but... ."
She was cut off in midsentence by the court, curtly saying, "Judgment for landlord. Call the next case."
The woman continued to slowly approach the bench, raising her right hand - her left still resting on the cane - as if she was trying to get the judge's attention. Her apparent desire to continue talking was stopped by the judge who without a hint of emotion said, "Maam, your case has been decided. You can go now."
Crestfallen, she slowly turned and with small, careful steps, worked her way out the rear of the room. The next case was called and decided before she reached the courtroom door. A few tenants watched her sadly. Most people in the room paid her no attention as additional cases were called and quickly disposed of. I was stunned.
--Richard H. Chused, The Roots of Jack Spring v. Little, 40 J. Marshall L. Rev. 395 (2007)
The rights of tenants and landlords in Chicago are protected by numerous laws, but primarily by a single massive section of municipal code called the Chicago Residential Landlord Tenant Ordinance (CRLTO). It's 10,000 words long. It's been called the “most tenant-friendly legislation of its kind in the United States.” It's also been called notorious, harsh, overly-zealous, and a deterrent that discourages small landlords from investing in Chicago apartments.
As a company that focuses on tenant education, RentConfident has a vested interest in understanding the CRLTO – not only what it means, but the events that lead to its creation. This is the first of a multi-part series looking into the history of the Ordinance from medieval history to modern times that will run across the next several weeks. If you'd like to read more in depth about any of the topics covered in this series, a list of sources will be provided as part of the final article. Continue reading “This Was No Church” (1881-1963)A History of Renters' Rights in Chicago, Part I
In early December 2015 there was a mass murder in San Bernardino, California. In the days that followed, journalists went to the area looking for stories that could provide insight into the background and history of the killers.
It didn't take long for the police and federal investigators to find out where the killers lived. Two days after the tragedy they had already finished examining their apartment. Once they were done with it, the landlord allowed journalists to enter and photograph the apartment.
The behavior of the reports and photographers at the San Bernardino apartment was a vulgar mob scene - NPR called it a "frenzy," a "circus," and a "farce," but they still ran photos. Media correspondents filmed everything from clothes and underwear in closets to photos of family and friends hanging on the walls.
As soon as the media started broadcasting footage of the apartment, my inbox started blowing up with questions from concerned renters. If you were accused of a crime or otherwise the focus of media interest would your landlord have the right to allow nosy journalists to enter your apartment without your permission? Continue reading Could Your Apartment Be the Location of the Next Media Circus?
Your memory isn't fooling you. Apartment hunting has gotten much tougher over the past decade, for a surprising reason. (Photo by Flickr user brunow.)
People often ask me about the thought processes that led to RentConfident. The answer needs a bit of history to understand.
Back in the early 70s there was a play on Broadway about apartment life in New York called "6 Rms Riv Vu." That title will probably look strange to folks under the age of 30. For those of us who grew up in the pre-internet era it's easy to understand: Six rooms with a view of the river.
An Apartment Hunting History Lesson
Until the late 1990s there were three ways to find an apartment. You could walk around looking for signs, you could visit a real estate agent, or you could read the newspaper classifieds.
Pounding the pavement is still a valid way to search for apartments. You can find some great deals - if you're within the group of people with ample free time who are moving locally. It is now and has always been a very time-consuming process.
In the Chicago area, rentals were not added to the Multiple Listings Service that allows sharing of data between agencies until 2010. Each real estate agency would keep their own apartment listings without sharing them. (Many still do.) You'd have to go visit each agency in person if you wanted to sample all of the apartments available.
Classified ads were often days or weeks behind reality. Landlords paid by the letter for their ads, which led to a unique "code. For example:
"1b1ba spac unfurn dplx nr trans incl elec, a/c. Lg kit wbfpl pkg ww carpt wic"
...meant...
1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, spacious unfurnished duplex near transportation, includes electric and air conditioning. Large kitchen, wood burning fireplace, parking, wall to wall carpet, walk in closet."
There were few photos, no fancy descriptive words. To set up a showing in that pre-voicemail age you had to call the landlord until he/she picked up the phone.
Internet Listings Changed Everything.
The digital age was supposed to make apartment hunting much easier. Listings with lots of details and photos are now available for renters to view as soon as they are posted. We have emails, texts and voicemail. It's all fabulously innovative, but I would argue that it has resulted in information overload on the part of the renter. It has also added two flavors that don't belong in the consumer soup: desperation and distrust.
Landlords scramble to "sell the sizzle" and cram their ads full of buzzwords. A new "code" has replaced "6 Rms Riv Vu," this time based on deceit. "Cozy" stands for "cramped." "Bustling" really means "noisy". "Urban" means "high crime nearby." Even photos lie to us. Listing sites are dominated not by landlords but by Photoshop experts. Renters have to read carefully to figure out what is true.
The race is on to book the first showing as soon as an ad goes live. The more vague the ads get, the more showings a renter will book. TV programs such as "House Hunters" make it seem totally normal for a housing searches to take far more showings than really necessary. Renters are following suit, cramming in showings before work, during lunch, and throughout their evenings and weekends. The fast pace means renters are not only viewing but applying for multiple places, facing scrutiny and rejection in hopes that someone will want them.
The End Result: Renters are Exhausting Themselves.
I first entered the Chicago apartment industry in 2005, when Craigslist had just added Chicago to its roster of cities. One of my standard questions has always been, "how many apartments have you viewed so far?" Ten years ago, the answers would top out at around 6.
By the time I stopped doing showings in late 2014, renters woulds regularly toss out numbers in the high teens or low 20s. 20 showings! They would be at home constantly refreshing Craigslist and Zillow. They would apply for apartment after apartment, taking multiple credit score hits. They would be beaten to the punch on listing after listing.
There have been numerous scientific studies on the effects of information overload. It has been consistently shown to impair decision-making skills. An overloaded renter might as well be stopping at the bar before every showing.
The thought of pushing back against the trend of digital apartment hunting is laughable. But your average apartment hunter is overfed with a steady information diet of sugary advertising, with very little truth-based "meat and potatoes" as balance. RentConfident is my way of countering the marketing sugar with a solid dose of reality. Renters can sit back and let our team of researchers dig up the truth - warts and all - about their apartments of choice. A few hours later, we serve up a hearty helping of real data, including code violations, court cases and crime stats.
Share Your Stories and Share Ours Too!
How do you keep from getting worn down by modern apartment hunting? How many apartments did you see in your last search? Can you think of other ways to make the process less of a grind? Let me know! Oh, and please share this with your friends who are moving. I bet they'll be grateful to know that someone out there understands what they're going through.
