Monthly Archives: June 2021

Progress Center mourns Larry Biondi

Progress Center is devastated by the loss of Larry Biondi.  Larry died on the afternoon of June 28.  The organization’s longest serving employee, Larry worked at Progress Center for 28 years. As the Advocacy Manager, Larry led the Progress Center Community Organizers, and he organized and implemented strategies to improve housing, transportation, public access and health care for the disability community.  Larry also was well known for Progress Center’s Legislative Training Course.  Larry and his team offered the course twice a year, once in the Spring and once in the Fall.  The course met once a week over the course of ten weeks, culminating in a trip to Springfield, where students from the course met with Illinois State Politicians and their staff, and applied the skills they learned during the training.

A person with a disability, Larry hired and managed his own personal assistants.  The personal assistants provided support with essential tasks like getting out of bed, bathing, dressing, cleaning, cooking and eating.  At work, Progress Center personal assistants supported Larry so that he Larry could focus on his job.  Perhaps as much as anyone else, Larry knew the essential link between accommodations and independence and inclusion for people with disabilities.  Without personal assistants, Larry would not have been able to live on his own. Understanding that link, Larry never stopped fighting to strengthen and build systems of community services so that all people with disabilities had the opportunity to access services and live independently.   In addition to his nine to five job at Progress Center, Larry put in just as many hours with Chicago ADAPT, a grass roots disability advocacy organization, and with National ADAPT.  Larry went to hundreds of local and national ADAPT demonstrations, participating in civil disobedience when local, regional, and national entities failed to recognize the needs and rights of people with disabilities.

Larry rarely turned down an opportunity to speak to a group of students, join a coalition, or attend a meeting, so long as he had a chance to raise awareness about disability, learn more about issues, and empower other people with disabilities.

At the front end of the Covid-19 Pandemic, Larry actively engaged in two new coalitions, and remained committed to the coalitions throughout the pandemic. As a member of the PPE for People with Disabilities Coalition, Larry joined the effort to ensure that people with disabilities in Chicagoland and their personal assistants had access to personal protective equipment.  With the Institutional Rescue and Recovery Coalition, Larry advocated for residents of long-term facilities, who suffered an alarming mortality rate during the Covid-19 crisis.

Larry will be missed sorely by his family, by his friends, by his peers, by his co-workers, and by thousands of people in the disability community, who, whether they know it or not, were touched by Larry’s work and commitment to disability inclusion.

As details become available, we will share information about funeral services.

New Cook County Renter Rights & Protections Take Effect June 1
Ordinance extends protections to more than 200,000 renters

CHICAGO – On June 1, 2021, all provisions of the Cook County Residential Landlord Tenant Ordinance (RTLO) will go into effect. The ordinance extends housing protections to renters and landlords in more than 245,000 suburban households.

“Substandard housing can cause an array of serious health conditions,” explains Jenna Prochaska, Health Justice Project at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. “This ordinance creates critical safeguards to help curb dangerous conditions–an important step to protect the health of vulnerable tenants in the Cook County suburbs.”

Renters with low income are more likely to fall into or deeper into financial insecurity as a result of unfair late fees, a landlord’s refusal to return a security deposit, a landlord disguising a security deposit as a move-in fee, or taking a landlord to court.

The RTLO creates consistent countywide rules for tenants and landlords, establishes basic expectations for decent behavior and healthy living conditions, and clarifies rules, making it easier for everyone to follow them.

The Cook County Regional Tenant Landlord Ordinance:

• Bans unlawful lockouts
  * Restricts retaliatory conduct and undisclosed landlord entry
• Protects owners against property destruction and abandonment
• Provides consistency on how and when landlords can safely evict renters
• Prohibits lease terms that waive written notices, rights to a trial, and disclosures
• Blocks landlords from charging exorbitant late rent fees
• Improves procedures for completing minor repairs in a timely manner
• Guarantees fair security deposit returns
• Prevents nontransparent move-in charges
• Defends tenants from landlord retaliation
• Allows landlords a two-business day right to cure noncompliance with leases

The Cook County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to pass the ordinance on January 28, 2021. Cook County Commissioners Scott Britton and Kevin Morrison were chief sponsors of the ordinance, which was first introduced in July 2020. The commissioners worked with housing advocates, tenants’ rights and legal aid groups, as well as landlord, realtor and property owners’ groups to build support and consensus for the ordinance, and the final legislation incorporated a series of amendments. Commissioners Brandon Johnson, Larry Suffredin, Bill Lowry, Alma Anaya, Dennis Deer and Deborah Sims co-sponsored the ordinance.

“We applaud the leadership and persistence of Commissioners Scott Britton and Kevin Morrison, who worked long and hard to pass this measure,” said Andrea Juracek of Housing Choice Partners. “We are thankful for the support that the full Cook County Board has shown for the ordinance.”

The Cook County Residential Tenant Landlord Ordinance comes decades after the City of Chicago and suburbs such as Evanston and Mount Prospect adopted similar ordinances. A coalition of legal aid organizations and housing advocates are now working with municipalities that have adopted their own ordinances to ensure the various ordinances are consistent, complementary, and all offer robust protections to renters.

“We look forward to working with Cook County, the City of Chicago, and villages throughout suburban Cook County to ensure that all renters in our communities have common housing rights and the support they need to stay secure in their housing,” said Michael Rabbitt of Neighbors for Affordable Housing.

To view the ordinance itself, visit: https://bit.ly/3iT0VQQ

To learn more about the campaign to pass the ordinance, visit: housingactionil.org/rtlo

To learn more about renter rights in the ordinance, visit: illinoislegalaid.org/ccrtlo

About the Cook County RTLO Coalition:

A coalition of housing advocacy organizations, legal aid organizations, and renter leaders worked to build support for the RTLO and are now working to raise awareness about the ordinance and support implementation of the ordinance. These organizations include: Chicago Area Fair Housing Alliance, Health Justice Project at Loyola University School of Law, Housing Action Illinois, Housing Choice Partners, Illinois Legal Aid, Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing, Metropolitan Tenants Organization, The Moran Center, Neighbors for Affordable Housing, North Suburban Legal Aid, PASO West Suburban Action Project, and Progress Center.

For more information, contact Kristin Ginger, Housing Action Illinois, 312-854-3333, kristin@housingactionil.org

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