Illinois

Illinois bill would limit 'crime-free' laws that evict tenants for too many 911 calls

Published

9 months ago

April 6, 2025

Illinois bill would limit 'crime-free' laws that evict tenants for too many 911 calls

After a suburban woman successfully challenged a Richton Park law that penalized tenants for making calls to 911, housing advocates are pushing for more protections statewide from so-called “crime-free” policies or laws that they say can lead to evictions and other penalties without due process.

More than two years ago, Diamond Jones worried she and her children were on the verge of homelessness after her landlord gave her 10 days to move out, saying she had violated Richton Park’s crime-free ordinance, though she hadn’t been charged with a crime.

Jones sued the Cook County suburb in U.S. District Court, and she was awarded $250,000 late last year in a settlement. Advocates say Jones’ case highlights the challenges other tenants face in places with similar local laws where 911 calls — even when the person is a victim — can trigger an eviction.

The Village of Richton Park amended its crime-free ordinance after the lawsuit was filed, and now housing advocates are pushing for changes to these local laws across the state. The Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, which represented Jones in the federal case, is among those advocating for Senate Bill 2264, which would bar municipalities from penalizing renters for calling 911 for help.

More than 170 municipalities across Illinois — including Chicago — had similar local laws, housing advocates estimated at the time the lawsuit was filed. These ordinances date back to the 1990s as a way to reduce crime in rental properties.

Diamond Jones left this home in Richton Park after being issued a 10-day notice of lease termination based on the community’s crime-free ordinance.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times file

The bill would establish some protections, including:

People wouldn’t be penalized for calling police for assistance in cases of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault or stalking.
A crime-free housing coordinator would have to handle violations of the code.
A 30-day notice would have to be issued for any crime-free violations, and tenants would be able to request a hearing at the county level.
If an eviction was filed, it could only name whoever is convicted of a crime, not the entire household.

State Sen. Karina Villa, D-West Chicago, who reintroduced the bill, said she anticipates municipalities will push back because the current crime-free ordinances allow officials to go around eviction court. That leads to a climate in which people are scared to call police for help, she said.

“They’re fearful if they call 911 due to something that’s happening — a domestic disturbance or as a result of an issue with a mental health problem — they’re fearful that the municipality is going to force their landlord to evict them,” Villa said.

She added the bill comes as people are struggling to find affordable and stable housing. The legislation has passed the Senate Executive Committee and remains in the Senate.

In Chicago, a portion of the municipal code outlines how a property can be deemed a public nuisance, which can lead to eviction proceedings against tenants alleged to be involved in criminal activity.

How Chicago is enforcing its policy isn’t clear. The Community Safety Through Stable Homes Coalition said in a recent report about crime-free policies that it was not able to gather sufficient records to analyze the impact on tenants in Chicago.

Chicago officials did not respond to a request for comment.

In Jones’ case, the 911 calls used to terminate her lease started when the family called police to report someone had been shot in the neighborhood. The next day, the family called police to report social media threats they were receiving after being identified as the home that called police to report the shooting.

Days later, someone shot into Jones’ home while her daughters and mother were inside, the lawsuit stated. Two days later, Richton Park police officers emailed Jones’ landlord to notify them the property was in violation of the ordinance, according to the lawsuit.

“You just don’t know how many nights I didn’t sleep, and I tossed and turned, and I was literally trying to figure out a way so that me and my family wouldn’t be homeless,” Jones said. “I was a good citizen, and then within a flip of the eye, ‘Oh, you got to go, you violated an ordinance. We don’t need that type of stuff in our neighborhood.’”

Jones moved out of Richton Park to avoid having an eviction on her record, though she said she knew she hadn’t done anything wrong. She called many places for help until she reached the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, which took her case.

“I fought for what I wanted,” Jones said. “I wanted this to not happen to anybody else, the ordinance changed, and aside from that, I can replace what was taken from me and put my kids back into that comfortable level.”

Diamond Jones who challenged Richton Park's crime-free housing ordinance, stands in her attorney’s Loop office, Friday, Nov. 17, 2023. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times — Diamond Jones, who challenged Richton Park’s crime-free housing ordinance, stands in her attorney’s Loop office in 2023.

The Village of Richton Park did not respond to requests for comment. It amended its ordinance after the federal lawsuit was filed. Now, calls by a tenant for police or emergency services because of threats do not equate to criminal activity.

Other changes include providing a notice of the ordinance violation by mail, email or personal delivery to the tenant and property owner. The ordinance now allows the tenant or landlord to appeal the village’s determination within 10 days of the notice being issued.

Jones’ case was among those highlighted in a recent report published by the Community Safety Through Stable Homes Coalition about crime-free ordinances in Illinois, which found these types of laws disproportionately affect renters of color in communities undergoing demographic changes.

Emily Coffey, an attorney with the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, said the analysis found in some instances, calls to 911 did lead to enforcement of the crime-free law, and in other instances, it was because of an interaction a minor had with the juvenile justice system.

“We saw that many municipalities are using call logs, not distinguishing between people who are calling for help or otherwise in those call logs as a benchmark for when municipalities are enforcing these ordinances,” Coffey said.

Jones said she is proud she was able to make change in the community where she lived, even though it felt like an enormous battle.

Now that the case is settled, she is considering moving from the south suburbs to Indiana for a fresh start. Her oldest daughter, who is 8, still gets scared when she hears loud noises that sound like gunfire. And Jones still visits relatives in Richton Park.

“I’m happy I’m not there because it’s not even the same anymore,” she said. “It’s not the love and the neighborhood that it used to have when I first moved there.”

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Illinois

Shooting investigation shuts down I-270 in Illinois Thursday

Published

12 hours ago

December 19, 2025

Press Room

Shooting investigation shuts down I-270 in Illinois Thursday

MADISON COUNTY, Ill. — A shooting investigation shut down a stretch of Interstate 270 in Madison County during the evening rush-hour Thursday. No one was injured, Illinois State Police said.

Troopers from ISP Troop 8 responded around 5:23 p.m. to I-270 eastbound at milepost 8 near Edwardsville after a call of shots fired on the expressway.

The eastbound lanes of I-270 were closed at mile marker 8. Police said the investigation is in its early stages. More details will be posted here as they come into the FOX 2 newsroom.

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Illinois

A power shortage could be in Northern Illinois’ near future, new report warns

Published

24 hours ago

December 19, 2025

Press Room

A power shortage could be in Northern Illinois’ near future, new report warns

Illinois energy providers are projected to face power shortfalls within the next decade as demand increases amid a transition away from fossil fuel power plants, a new report found.

The report anticipates accelerating energy demand, largely from data centers coming online. That demand, along with retirement of many coal, gas and oil units, and increasing development constraints could strain the state’s utilities and regional transmission organizations, PJM Interconnection and the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, according to the report.

Plus, consumers are likely to see prices continue to rise as demand does.

The report, compiled by Illinois Power Agency, Illinois Commerce Commission and Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, is required by the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) that Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law in September 2021.

Per CEJA, the state is required to undergo a Resource Adequacy Study that assesses its progress toward renewable energy, green hydrogen technologies, emissions reduction goals, and its current and project status of electric resource adequacy and reliability throughout the state, with proposed solutions for any shortfalls the study finds.

The different mechanisms and entities that supply energy across Illinois after the state’s deregulation and restructuring of the electricity industry in the late 1990’s and early 2000s contribute to challenges in managing resource adequacy in the future.

With different entities focusing on serving the needs of its immediate customers, the development of a plan for long-term resource adequacy needs is more difficult than if entities were working in concert with each other, according to the report.

Though Illinois zones are considered “resource adequate” today, sources of energy across Illinois are becoming increasingly constrained. Unless new capacity resources are developed, energy capacity shortfalls could be seen in Illinois as early as 2029, the report found.

Data centers are the primary driver of growth in the latest forecasts, the report states, with growth projections at levels “well above those observed in either market over the past twenty years.”

Combined with an “aging fleet of coal and gas generators,” the growth from data centers is “likely to pose significant challenges for the reliability of both systems,” the report stated.

Rapid, concentrated growth from data center development, in addition to growth from residential and commercial customers, is projected to drive growth in resource adequacy targets for both PJM and MISO between 2025 and 2030.

PJM is expected to experience a capacity shortfall beginning in 2029, with the deficit projected to widen in subsequent years if left unabated. MISO is resource adequate through 2030, though a shortfall is projected to emerge in 2031 and grow from there.

Though Illinois has long been known as an exporter of electricity, Northern Illinois will begin to import power in 2030 as the area served by Commonwealth Edison is projected to see a 24% increase in demand for power, according to the report.

MISO, which services downstate Illinois, will meet its zonal requirements through 2035 as a more modest increase of only 11% is expected between 2025 and 2030, though reliance on imports after that is possible.

In addition to the credible risks to reliability, rising demand means already rising consumer cost will continue to trend upward over the next decade.

Utility customers in Illinois reported increasing costs on their electricity bills earlier this year, with some saying their payments have doubled.

When ComEd bills increased an average of 10% in June after a capacity charge increase, PJM told NBC Chicago “higher prices reflect the fact that electricity supply is decreasing while demand is increasing.”

The latest PJM and MISO auctions each set record high capacity prices, which will incentivize new resource development and retention of existing generation. However, the price signal is also going to increase costs for consumers, the report states.

Sarah Moskowitz, Executive Director of Citizens Utility Board — a nonprofit that advocates for utility consumers in Illinois — said the report “makes clear the need to confront these challenges head-on and remain firmly committed to keeping the lights on at prices we can all afford.”

The report also “underscores the urgency” for the implementation of the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act (CRGA), that was passed earlier this year to address the imbalance of supply and demand for energy in Illinois and to pass additional reforms on data centers.

“Across the country, our energy systems are facing new pressures, but for years, consumer advocates have sounded the alarm about policy shortcomings from the regional power grid operators, including unacceptable delays in connecting clean and affordable resources to the power grid,” Moskowtiz said. “Illinois’ strong energy policy gives the state a blueprint to tackle our resource adequacy challenges.”

The Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition also pointed to the CRGA as an important step to addressing the projected shortfalls, however, passing “commonsense guardrails for data centers” is “the next critical step” to protecting Illinois’ ability to meet energy demands in the future.

“ICJC looks forward to working with legislative leaders and stakeholders in the spring legislative session to ensure data center developers, not Illinois consumers, pay for the disproportionate energy burden big tech is bringing to our power grid and keep in line with Illinois’ national leadership on climate by powering these facilities with clean energy,” the organization said in a statement.

Clean Energy Choice Coalition Executive Director Tom Cullerton said while the organization is in support of decarbonization and the state’s climate ambitions, “the Resource Adequacy Study makes clear that policy-driven shutdowns of reliable energy generation, before replacement resources are ready, will drive higher costs within this decade and push Illinois toward a less reliable system while putting skilled energy jobs at risk.”

As mandated by the CRGA, Illinois will begin an Integrated Resource Plan next year, an energy planning tool that will help the state account for the challenges outlined in the report and develop a strategy for moving forward. The IRP process is projected to take place throughout 2026 and 2027, according to the report.

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