From Chicago Tribune (4/25/19)

Cook County (IL) commissioners approved an ordinance aimed at ending housing discrimination against people with arrest records. The measure makes it illegal to refuse to show property or rent housing to people with certain criminal records. It doesn't apply to with sex offense convictions or people who have a criminal conviction that, after an "individualized assessment," shows that denial based on the conviction "is necessary to protect against a demonstrable risk to personal safety and/or property of others affected by the transaction." The rules around the individualized assessment will be made by the Cook County Commission on Human Rights, which will then bring them to the board for approval, commissioners said. Commissioner Brandon Johnson, the ordinance's chief sponsor, said the bill had "the sole purpose of ending discrimination against families and returning citizens who have been plagued and haunted by the vestiges of Jim Crow." Housing is one of the "greatest challenges" people returning from prison or jail face," he said.

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