Chicago is arguing over what the city calls the first major update to its housing laws since the mid-1980s. Two competing ordinances are on the table, both would create a citywide rental registry, and they differ on a question with real teeth: whether your landlord must give a reason for declining to renew your lease when it expires.
Here’s the comparison, because the acronyms are doing a lot of work to make this sound boring.
Who’s proposing what
The Protecting Renters Ordinance (PRO) came from Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Department of Housing in May — the first major update to Chicago’s housing laws since the mid-1980s.
The Fair and Accountable Illinois Rental Ordinance (FAIR) landed Wednesday from members of the Budget Accountability Coalition — the same bloc that bypassed Johnson’s budget last December and passed their own. Its sponsors include 16 of that coalition’s 31 members. Johnson’s read on it, per Block Club Chicago: they “took 98 percent of essentially what I proposed, copied and pasted, but took out key components of what will protect renters.”
The two ordinances, side by side
Both are proposals, not law. This comparison is built from the city’s own description of the mayor’s ordinance and from Block Club Chicago’s reporting on both bills — not from a line-by-line reading of the filed texts, which can change before any vote.
| Provision | Johnson’s PRO | Coalition’s FAIR |
|---|---|---|
| “Just cause” to evict or refuse renewal | Required | Eliminated |
| Relocation help when you’re displaced through no fault of your own | 5 months’ rent or $5,000, whichever is greater — up to 10 months or $10,000 if a landlord is shown to have raised one unit’s rent far more than another’s | $3,000 or 3 months’ rent, whichever is greater, for nonprofits and owner-occupied buildings of six units or fewer |
| Citywide rental registry | Yes — all units, with registration fees of $20–$60 per unit by building size | Yes — but no mandatory fees, and exemptions for certain owner-occupied, nonprofit, and subsidized properties |
| “Junk” move-in fees | Banned when they lack a documented cost | Allowed if disclosed in writing, itemized, and tied to an actual cost |
| Application fee cap | $20 | $50 |
| Security deposit cap | One month’s rent | Not specified in the reporting we’ve seen |
| Illegal lockout fines | Up to $2,500 per violation, plus $1,000 per day it continues | $2,500–$5,000, plus $1,000 per day |
Read that table twice and the shape emerges. Both build a registry, both penalize illegal lockouts, both address fees — on different terms, but neither side’s public case, as reported, disputes that those things belong in the law. The sharpest split is over two provisions. Just cause changes what a landlord may do — end a tenancy without stating a reason. Relocation assistance changes what it costs them when they do. Chicago landlords already need a legal basis and a court to evict a tenant mid-lease; what’s at stake here is the end of the lease, which today needs no explanation at all.
Notice too that FAIR is tougher than the mayor on lockout fines. This isn’t a protections-versus-no-protections fight, whatever each side’s press conference implies.
The actual argument
The coalition’s case is a supply argument: mandates raise the cost of owning and building rental housing, and those costs come back as rent. Ald. Nicole Lee (11th) made it concrete, per Block Club — she’s worried about “mom-and-pop” landlords who supply much of the city’s naturally affordable housing, and about developers pricing in reserves: “the rents are going to be sky high if they have to plan for [$5,000-$10,000]-plus dollars in reserves for these units.” Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) framed FAIR as striking “an excellent balance between promoting growth without imposing costly mandates.”
Johnson’s case is that the leverage is the point, and he isn’t treating a stripped-down version as half a loaf: “It’s not just about doing something. … We have to prioritize working families in this city, and the best way to do that is to protect the individuals that make up the majority of our city, and those are our renters.”
Both claims are testable in principle and contested in practice: whether just-cause rules push rents up is an empirical question, not a matter of opinion. What we can say is narrower — the coverage of this week’s dueling announcements quotes predictions from both sides and data from neither, and we’re not going to pretend a press conference settles it.
What happens next, and what it means for you
A committee vote is expected soon; a full City Council vote is expected in the fall. Until one passes, the city’s rental rules still rest on the 1986 Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance, alongside state and federal law — which means just-cause protection is not currently required in Chicago. PRO would change that; FAIR would leave it as is, while adding its own registry, fee rules, and stiffer lockout penalties on top of the 1986 baseline.
If you rent: the headline difference is whether a landlord can decline to renew your lease without stating a reason, and what you’re owed if you’re displaced through no fault of your own. If you have an opinion, it belongs with your alderperson — a council vote is expected in the fall, and 50 of them decide it.
If you own a two-flat: the exemption thresholds are where your interest lives — FAIR carves out owner-occupied buildings of six units or fewer from the heavier relocation requirements, PRO doesn’t draw that line the same way.
If you’re moving here: both proposals build a citywide rental registry, so a registry is likely if either passes — though neither is law yet, and the reporting doesn’t establish how much of either registry would be public. They differ mainly on fees and exemptions.
One place this lands hardest is South Shore, next to the Obama Presidential Center that opened in June, where organizers have spent years asking the city for tenant protections and a rental registry — we looked at that separately here.
Sources & data
- Block Club Chicago — Melody Mercado, FAIR Ordinance introduction, provision details, and quotes from Ald. Lee, Ald. Reilly, and Mayor Johnson (July 16, 2026)
- City of Chicago — Protecting Renters Ordinance introduction (May 2026)
Verified against the sources above as of July 16, 2026. Both ordinances were still proposals at publication and can change before any vote; where the reporting didn’t establish a provision, the table says so. We’ll update this page as the votes land. Spot an error? Corrections come first.