In a virtual meeting on Tuesday night, the Normal Human Relations Commission heard a presentation from Prairie State Legal Services about fair housing issues.
Attorney Emily Petri outlined the protections guaranteed to renters and homebuyers under the federal Fair Housing Act, the Illinois Human Rights Act, and local ordinances.
Designed to protect people from unfair housing practices, the laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of characteristics like race, religion, sexual orientation, family status, and disability.
A local ordinance in Normal further prevents discrimination against students, who represent a large segment of local renters. Of Illinois State University's nearly 19,000 undergrads, only 30% live on campus. The rest find housing through the private sector.
Prairie State, which has offices throughout Illinois, focuses on helping clients meet “basic human needs,” Petri explained. The not-for-profit organization helps low-income clients navigate the kind of civil cases that private attorneys are reluctant to take on.
In presenting the basis of fair housing complaints and the recourse available to victims of discrimination, Petri hoped that the human relations commission would feel comfortable referring residents in need to Prairie State.
She also offered to conduct a 90-minute training seminar for commission members if they see an uptick in housing complaints. The Bloomington City Council recently underwent similar training, Petri said.
Having fielded only one complaint in two years, Normal Human Relations Commission (NHRC) members concluded that additional training likely wasn’t necessary at this time. But vice chairperson Jay Tummala wondered if more education was needed around the looming eviction crisis facing the nation as it grapples with the continuing economic fallout from the pandemic.
“This whole COVID (situation) has some people at risk of being evicted. I don’t know how much of that would really fall under fair housing,” he said, musing that the NHRC may need to bone up on the laws in order to help residents.
Chairperson Janessa Williams said unless evictions specifically targeted “black and brown and people of color,” it was unlikely that fair housing laws would be in play.
Nationally, minority communities have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Black Americans are infected at a higher rate than whites and three times more likely to die of the disease. Some experts worry the same disparities revealed in health care will manifest in eviction rates.
According to an analysis by the COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project, 20% of the nation’s 110 million renters risk eviction by September. Black and Latinx residents are projected to be among the hardest hit.
Ultimately, the commission concluded that renters facing eviction due to the pandemic didn’t constitute a “protected class” under fair housing laws and therefore fell outside of NHRC purview.
National police brutality response
Williams reported that she’s been working with Not In Our Town (NIOT) and the Bloomington-Normal chapter of the NAACP to formulate a response to the May 31 racial justice rally held at the McLean County Law and Justice Center.
The groups are organizing a town hall meeting with local law enforcement officials that will give community members an opportunity to address issues of policing. Williams said they plan to invite the chiefs of Bloomington, Normal, and ISU police departments as well as McLean County Sheriff Jon Sandage.
The meeting is slated for Sunday, Sept 13. Williams hopes the groups can get “10 to 12 issues nailed down that will then go to the law enforcement heads” prior to the event, allowing them time to process responses.
In further comments, Williams expressed personal frustration at the lack of cohesion between local racial justice groups like Black Lives Matter (BLM) and NIOT.
“I want organizations to be speaking with a collective voice rather than five or six disparate voices,” said Williams, referring to shared organizational goals.
“If one organization has something the others aren’t asking for, they can take it up independently.”
Williams wondered if organizations should be funneling concerns through one body, like the Minority and Police Partnership (MAPP).
“Should MAPP be the umbrella organization?” she asked. “Is MAPP the one who can lead us?”
Commissioner Benjamin Ryburn had concerns, especially when concerns were related to police brutality.
“The police are half of MAPP,” he said. “So I’m not sure, functionally, how that would work.”
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