The Peoria City Council is considering an amendment to the City’s chronic nuisance property ordinance that threatens landlords with penalties based on police activity at residential properties. The proposed amendments would broaden the scope of the law and allow for additional penalties to be imposed, including massive fines of up to $5,000 per day that will create strong incentives for landlords to find ways to get rid of perceived problem tenants. Research and lawsuits from around the country have shown that chronic nuisance property ordinances, like Peoria’s, are often disproportionately enforced against Black people and other people of color, and harm survivors of domestic violence who seek police protection, individuals with disabilities, and others who are victims of crime or need emergency assistance. Call on Peoria City Council members to vote against the proposed amendments to sections of Chapter 20 of the Peoria City Code.
Steps you can take:
- Send a message to the Peoria City Council. Or talk to your elected officials directly.
- Contact our Peoria Illinois Chapter about ways to get involved.
- Attend an upcoming City Council meeting and ask to speak during the public comment section of the meeting – you can find resources here to prepare your own remarks. You can also stand in solidarity with those who do, make signs, or otherwise show your support in a peaceful and respectful way.
- Write an op-ed or letter to the editor in your local paper urging the Peoria City Council to take a different approach to this issue.
- Activate others to take action along with you.
If you want to contact local elected officials or attend a Peoria City Council meeting to talk with local officials about this proposed ordinance, you may want to use these talking points to assist with that conversation:
- No one should have to choose between calling the police for help and keeping their home. A call to police about a domestic violence incident or someone seeking emergency assistance for a family member living with a disability can result in arrests or criminal charges that don’t clearly reflect the underlying reason that police were called in the first place.
- These ordinances do not enhance public safety or reduce crime; instead, they discourage people – including victims of crime – from seeking help from police and other first responders for fear they will lose their housing.
- Enforcement of chronic nuisance property ordinances can violate a number of constitutional protections and federal and state civil rights laws. Peoria has already been sued once over how its enforcement of this ordinance targeted predominantly Black neighborhoods and buildings.
- The only logical outcome of the massive fines being proposed is that tenants will lose their housing. Peoria already has a housing crisis, and incentivizing landlords to push out tenants or coercing tenants to leave their current homes will only exacerbate this situation.
