Chicago Housing Commissioner Lissette Castañeda and Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th)

Fran Spielman interviews Chicago Housing Commissioner Lissette Castañeda and Alderman Gilbert Villegas (36th) about competing renter-protection proposals as rents rise and landlord ownership becomes less transparent. Castañeda backs Mayor Brandon Johnson’s Protecting Renters Ordinance (PRO), citing skyrocketing rents, corporate consolidation, and the need for a rental registry, expanded inspections and landlord services, just-cause protections to curb 10,000 annual no-fault evictions, and relocation assistance for certain no-fault displacements. Villegas supports an alternative packaged as the FAIR ordinance, agreeing on an annual registry but arguing PRO adds bureaucracy, creates unfunded mandates that will raise rents, and risks litigation; he emphasizes increasing housing supply, cutting red tape, and tiering obligations by landlord size.