Chicago has bad landlords who lock people out, steal deposits, and let buildings rot. They should face consequences. But as a second-generation landlord, I also have a stake in how the City Council votes on the Protecting Renters Ordinance because it will affect responsible owners trying to maintain good housing for the residents who trust us to provide a home.
My argument is about arithmetic. An owner can run a building efficiently but cannot dictate insurance premiums, utility-rate increases, property-tax bills, or regulatory costs.
Across 65 units held continuously from 2020 through 2025, these three non-controllable costs account for 72% of our operating costs:
| Category | 2020 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Insurance | $469 | $811 | +73% |
| Property taxes | $2,403 | $3,495 | +45% |
| Utilities | $943 | $1,251 | +33% |
| Non-controllable costs | $3,815 | $5,557 | +46% |
Per-unit annual figures from year-end operating statements; same buildings throughout, no renovations that reset rents.
Non-controllable costs rose 46% ($1,742), against cumulative inflation of about 25%. Rents on those units rose 27% ($431) over the same five years.
The same arithmetic appears outside rental housing. A Chicago homeowner’s non-mortgage costs rose 48%, or $7,816, from 2020 to 2025. That homeowner has no landlord to blame.
This is not just my experience. In November 2025, the Cook County Treasurer reported that the median Chicago residential tax bill jumped 16.7% in a single year, the largest increase in three decades. LendingTree found Illinois home insurance rates rose 68% since 2020. Chicago housing did not get more expensive just because landlords decided to charge more. Many landlords were trying to keep up with costs they did not control.
Rising rents created urgency for reform, but the Protecting Renters Ordinance also addresses move-in fees, relocation assistance, lease administration, modern property-management practices, and liability under a law written in 1986. The test for each provision should be whether it modernizes the rules and protects renters at a reasonable cost, or adds expense and liability without a comparable benefit.
When rent is constrained and costs are not, the money comes out of the building. Roofs get patched, boilers get another season, and deferred maintenance leaves Chicago with lower quality housing and fewer desirable rental units.
Chicago should modernize outdated rules, punish genuine misconduct, and reduce the cost and uncertainty of providing housing:
- Avoid compliance rules, fees, and fines that raise operating costs without improving housing quality or tenant safety.
- Standardize and expedite zoning changes that add housing.
- Make city permitting faster, clearer, and more predictable.
- Cap property-tax increases to reduce volatility and risk.
- Expand the Cook County Assessor’s Affordable Housing Special Assessment Program to small buildings.
- Require ComEd to meet clear connection timelines so power delays do not push carrying costs into rent or cancel the next project.
This is not a tenants-versus-landlords debate. It is a question of what kind of city Chicago wants to build. I support modern rules, real accountability, and stronger tenant protections. But every provision should make housing better without making it harder to provide. The cost of a roof went up for all of us. Any policy worth passing must start there.
