Renters seeking relief as rent spikes across Chicago adds to rising costs

The price of gas isn't the only expense spiking in the Chicago area. Renters are saying their payments are also going up significantly.

Whether it's paying a mortgage or paying a landlord, the price to keep a roof over your head keeps climbing. Renters say they want relief, while landlords say their hands are tied.

With gas nearing $7 a gallon in some spots and grocery bills steadily increasing, people are closely watching how they spend every dollar.

"The rent keeps increasing year to year. It just keeps going up and up and up, and it's not like you're getting anything more from it," said Dustin C. 

Renters are feeling the pinch and looking for relief.

"There's annual increases of $200 to $300, different spots, you just have to move and find something affordable," he said.

Many groups are calling for Illinois to change a law that's nearly 30 years old. They want rent control, so people don't get forced out of their apartments and neighborhoods

"It's kind of a thing you deal with it or, you know, move somewhere else," Dustin said.

"People think if you own properties, that must mean you can pay the bills for it," said landlord Ebony Lucas.

Lucas is a landlord who owns a three-flat apartment in Bronzeville—her tenants received notice for payment changes.

"We're increasing our rents for the first time since 2021, and we didn't want to," she said.

Lucas points to a property tax bill where taxes on the building jumped 76%. She once paid about $7,400, but a surprise bill in December, right around the holidays, jumped to $21,000.

She insists that most independent landlords are not trying to push their tenants out or increase the rent for greed. She believes most owners are in her shoes, forced to pass the extra cost on to tenants.

States including Oregon, California, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Maine, and Minnesota allow rent control, but Lucas says that's not an easy fix.

"If we have rent control, we have to have expense control, because otherwise, you're going to force the small people who live in the community and love the community and do this because we enjoy it, you're going to force us out, and then you'll have big major companies that won't treat tenants the same," she said.

And it's not just residential. Commercial businesses are seeing rent jumps, too.

The push to change the rent control law in Illinois has come up before, yet now more and more tenant groups are pushing lawmakers to reconsider the law passed in 1997.