A new law signed by Gov. JB Pritzker on Monday will make it easier for police to remove squatters who are illegally staying at a residence.
Squatters are people who enter and occupy a place for a long period of time with the intention of staying there, rather than a trespasser who enters without intentions to stay.
Pritzker signed Senate Bill 1563, which clarifies that a court-ordered eviction is not required for police to remove squatters from a person’s home. The bill stipulates that police can enforce criminal trespassing charges against a squatter.
“Squatters are a problem, and no one should have to get an eviction notice to remove squatters from their home,” bill sponsor Sen. Lakesia Collins, D-Chicago, said in a statement. “Law enforcement need to be able to do their job and return homes to their rightful owners.”
The bill passed through the General Assembly nearly unanimously, with only Sen. Andrew Chesney, R-Freeport, voting against it.
Law enforcement, real estate and property owner organizations supported the bill.
Collins, who represents much of the West Side of Chicago, said the bill came from concerns her constituents expressed and said the goal was to make it easier for police to enforce criminal trespassing. State law does not explicitly give police the power to remove a person squatting in another person’s home without an eviction.
A lawmaker’s encounter
Pritzker signed the bill after Rep. Marcus Evans, D-Chicago, had a first-hand encounter with squatters this summer.
ABC7 Chicago reported last week squatters moved in next door to Evans’ Avalon Park home on Chicago’s South Side. The owners of the house had put the home up for sale, but last week found strangers living inside without buying or renting the home.
According to ABC7, Chicago Police told homeowners they couldn’t remove the squatters from the home and the homeowners would have to go through the eviction process in Cook County court, which can take months. Evans told ABC7 he would call Pritzker directly to ask him to sign the bill, which was sponsored in the House by Rep. Jawaharial Williams, D-Chicago.
“My community is full of hardworking, mortgage- and rent-paying citizens who believe in working, not stealing and scheming,” Evans said in a Facebook post Monday. “We don’t support crooks who prey on hardworking people.”
The law takes effect Jan. 1.
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