Housing

Civil rights complaint filed against 165 Chicago-area realtors, brokerages

The complaints accuse realtors, brokerages and landlords of breaking Illinois law, discriminating against housing voucher holders

NBC Universal, Inc.

A national civil rights watchdog group launched an undercover investigation into housing discrimination in the Chicago area.

The group, Housing Rights Initiative (HRI), spent nine months in the undercover sting operation to see if real estate brokerage firms, agents and landlords were discriminating against tenants with Section 8 housing vouchers.

The group posed as tenants and inquired about properties across the area. The conversations seemed to progress until the tenant said they planned to use a Section 8 voucher.

In one text exchange, an agent asked the undercover tenant if they were available to see the property that day at 5 p.m. The tenant replied to confirm a Section 8 voucher would be accepted, to which the agent said, "Oh sorry the landlord is not accepting sec8."

It is against the law in Illinois to deny showing or renting a property to someone solely because of a housing voucher. The law went into effect January 2023 as a provision to the Illinois Human Rights Act.

"Real estate has a very important job. They are the gate keeper of housing, they get to decide where families live, where they work and where their children go to school," said HRI Founder Aaron Carr. "We're not just talking about a few bad apples, but an orchard of bad apples."

A total of 36 percent of the agents and landlords tested openly denied voucher holders.

"This is the biggest fair housing complaint, as we understand it to be, in the history of Illinois," said Peter Romer-Friedman, the attorney who helped file the complaints. "We want the law to be good, but it has to be enforced for it to mean something."

Romer-Friedman said the Department of Human Rights will take up the investigation.

NBC 5 reached out to several brokerages accused.

Baird & Warner said in a statement, "Baird & Warner is in the process of addressing the complaint, and we do not have any specific comment at this time."

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices CEO Diane Glass said, "Based on the limited information currently available, it appears that one agent formerly affiliated with our Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago firm may have been named in a complaint. HomeServices and Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago are deeply committed to upholding the Fair Housing Act and all applicable housing protections and regulations. We provide comprehensive training and education to ensure compliance and to support the housing needs of all individuals in the communities we serve."

NBC 5 is waiting for a response from Coldwell Banker.

"The faces of voucher holders are families, children, veterans, senior citizens; they're people with disabilities, they're some of the most vulnerable members of our society," Carr said.

The alleged discrimination spans across the Chicago area, from downtown and Midlothian, to Buffalo Grove and Evanston.

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