In 2013, the Chicago City Council declared war on bed bugs. The diminutive but highly menacing insects have returned from the verge of extinction and our local leaders are now determined to eradicate them by any means necessary. As a result, a 2013 Chicago ordinance enlists everyone to join the fight. Business licensees, landlords, tenants, condominium associations, cooperatives and sellers of “secondhand bedding” all have affirmative obligations under the ordinance.

If you’re a private landlord in Cook County, a prospective tenant may have asked whether you accept “Section 8” for partial rent payments.  Chicago landlords have been prohibited from refusing to lease to tenants based on their “source of income” for more than 20 years in the City of Chicago. More recently, the prohibition extended to all of Cook County. In other words, every Cook County landlord potentially needs to understand how Section 8 operates, specifically that portion of Section 8 relating to housing choice vouchers.

According to a report prepared and issued by the Lawyers’ Committee For Better Housing, nearly 17,000 Chicago apartment buildings containing almost 52,000 units were hit with foreclosure between 2009 and 2011, and well over 90% of the affected buildings contained only five units or less.