By: Mona Noriega, Chair and Commissioner of the Chicago Commission on Human Relations

Good afternoon, Chairman Moreno and members of the committee. My name is Mona Noriega, and I serve as the Chair and Commissioner of the Chicago Commission on Human Relations. Thank you for this opportunity to speak on this very important topic.

As you are aware, the Chicago Commission on Human Relations serves as the city's civil rights agency. We enforce the Chicago Human Rights and Fair Housing Ordinances which empower us to investigate and adjudicate complaints of discrimination based on 16 protected classes such as race, religion, and sexual orientation. We handle complaints alleging discrimination within the City of Chicago in employment, housing, public accommodations, credit and bonding.

On behalf of the Commission, I am here to support two changes to the Chicago Human Rights and Fair Housing Ordinances. The first change is to add a new protected class for military status. The second change would add retaliation as a prohibited act in the Fair Housing Ordinance.

Military Status

First, I would like to address the addition of military status to the ordinances. This amendment would make it illegal to discriminate against veterans, active duty military personnel, reservists and members of the National Guard. Currently, the only protection under the ordinances for veterans is the prohibition of discrimination based on military discharge status, which honestly is not something we see at the Commission. In fact, we have not had a complaint filed based on military discharge status since the Human Rights Ordinance was amended in 1990. However, we are not proposing eliminating this protection. Rather, we are including it within the scope of the new protection for military status. What we are hearing more about is more cases of veterans, active duty military personnel, and reservists being discriminated against in employment and housing.

Employment

In employment, some veterans have been denied jobs by employers who are afraid that the applicant may have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and fear that they may react violently in the workplace. Also, some employers are reluctant to hire reservists and members of the National Guard for fear that the employee may be deployed at any given time. Veterans may also face harassment on the job in the form of derogatory remarks from other employees whose job duties may change to accommodate the reemployment of a returning service member or who may have to assume additional job duties when an active duty military employee is on deployment.

Housing

In housing, veterans also face discrimination based on the perception that they may have PTSD and are therefore viewed as potentially troublesome tenants. Another issue faced by veterans, particularly reservists and members of the National Guard involves landlords who are reluctant to rent to them out of concern that the tenant may be deployed, thereby leaving the apartment vacant for an unknown period of time. Similarly in the housing arena, we are learning more about discrimination against veterans who attempt to lease apartments with their GI Bill benefits as a source of income. This type of discrimination impacts returning veterans who use these funds to pay for school and housing. The GI Bill provides veterans with financial assistance for their housing while they are attending school. Since the veteran may not be employed or employed part-time, some landlords reject their applications without considering whether their GI Bill funds will cover the cost of the apartment. And, lastly and unfortunately, veterans and members of the military are sometimes rejected for apartments simply because of the landlord's political beliefs and objection to US military involvement.

For these reasons we are in support of the Mayor's recommendation to add military status as a protected class under the Chicago Human Rights and Fair Housing Ordinance.

Retaliation in Housing

The second and less complicated, but no less important change we are here to speak on today is the addition of retaliation as a prohibited act under the Fair Housing Ordinance. What this amendment will do is make it illegal for a landlord, realtor, or other party currently covered by the ordinance to take an adverse action against someone for filing a housing discrimination complaint against them with the Commission. While this protection is currently available for employment discrimination under the Chicago Human Rights Ordinance, there is no retaliation protection under the Fair Housing Ordinance.

Without this protection, if a tenant files a complaint against their landlord and the landlord retaliates by evicting the tenant, this would not be covered by the ordinance. As a result, tenants may be reluctant to file complaints with the Commission against landlords who discriminate against them. This discrimination may take the form of charging more rent, subjection to harassment including sexual harassment, or imposing other unfair terms and conditions on the tenant. Fair housing laws on the federal, state, and county levels already include protection against retaliation, so this change would help strengthen our ordinance and make it consistent with similar fair housing laws.

I thank you for the opportunity to share our concerns and thoughts with you on these very important changes. We urge your support of these much needed amendments to make the Chicago Human Rights and Fair Housing Ordinances even stronger, and provide more legal protection for the people of Chicago against discrimination. Thank you.