On April 25, 2019, the Cook County Board of Commissioners passed an amendment (Ord. No. 19-2394) to § 42-38 of the Cook County Human Rights Ordinance (“Ordinance”) to (1) prohibit housing discrimination based on individual’s covered criminal history, and (2) require housing providers to perform an individualized assessment of an otherwise qualified individual’s criminal conviction history prior to denying them housing. 

The Just Housing Ordinance took effect on Dec. 31, 2019 for all rental units in Cook County with a grace period in place through the end of January 2020 that prohibits the Commission on Human Rights from enforcing penalties under the JHO until Feb. 1, 2020.

Additional information on the Just Housing Ordinance is available online from Cook County; online from the Chicago Association of Realtors; online from Domu, a tenant-focused business; and online from a recent story in the Daily Herald.