6.2 Cook County Just Housing Amendment

6.2 Cook County Just Housing Amendment

Quick Answer: In Cook County residential rentals, you generally cannot use a blanket criminal-history ban. Follow a two-step process: decide whether the applicant qualifies on non-criminal criteria first; only after that conditional/prequalification step may you run a criminal check. Convictions older than three years generally cannot be considered. For convictions within three years, you must complete an individualized assessment before denial—except for narrow sex-offender residency exceptions.

The Just Housing Amendment (JHA) amended the Cook County Human Rights Ordinance to curb housing discrimination based on covered criminal history. It applies to real estate transactions involving residential property in Cook County—including rental, lease, sale, and sublease renewal contexts described in county guidance. If you lease apartments in Cook County (including much of the Chicago metro market), JHA compliance is a core screening duty for leasing agents acting for owners.

Why the Exam Emphasizes Process, Not Gut Feelings

Traditional “crime-free” marketing and automatic denial policies collide with JHA. County materials stress that a criminal background cannot produce an automatic denial in ordinary cases. Instead, providers must separate financial/rental qualification from criminal-history review, then use a structured individualized assessment when a recent conviction appears.

The Mandated Two-Step Screening Flow

Cook County Commission on Human Rights guidance describes a clear sequence:

Think of Step 1 as a conditional offer / prequalification gate: the applicant is otherwise acceptable before criminal history is reviewed. Popular explanations of JHA describe this as preventing landlords from filtering people out based on criminal history before evaluating them as renters. County FAQs confirm providers are not required to run criminal checks at all—but if they do, JHA rules apply.

The Three-Year Lookback Rule (State Accurately)

Official Cook County landlord FAQs state that a landlord cannot consider criminal history that is more than three (3) years old, and that convictions more than three years old cannot be considered. If a background check shows a conviction from the last three years, the landlord must complete an individualized assessment before denying housing.

Nuance for exam wording: the rule is not “after three years the person is automatically approved.” The accurate statement is that older convictions are generally outside the pool of information you may use. Denial, if any, must rest on a qualifying recent conviction after individualized assessment (or on a listed sex-offender exception), not on a stale record.

Individualized Assessment Factors

An individualized assessment means considering relevant factors about the conviction history from the previous three years rather than applying a flat ban. County materials list factors such as:

1. Nature and severity of the offense and how recently it occurred
2. Nature of the sentencing
3. Number of convictions
4. Time since the most recent conviction
5. Age at the time of the offense
6. Evidence of rehabilitation (for example, education programs, employment, returning-citizen programs, personal recommendations, correctional reports)

Denial based on a recent conviction should be tied to a demonstrable risk to personal safety and/or property—not discomfort, stereotypes, or marketing preferences. County guidance also states landlords cannot require a higher security deposit or rental amount based on arrest or conviction history.

Narrow Exceptions

Cook County materials allow denial for a new lease or renewal when:

• The applicant or a household member is a current sex offender required to register under the Sex Offender Registration Act (or similar law elsewhere); or
• The applicant or a household member is a current child sex offender under residency restriction; or
• There is a criminal conviction from the past three years and an individualized assessment shows denial is necessary to protect against a demonstrable risk to personal safety and/or property.

An individualized assessment is not required in the registered sex-offender / child sex-offender residency-restriction situations described in county FAQs. Outside those exceptions, automatic bans fail.

Notice, Copy of Report, and Dispute Rights

Process timing matters. County evaluation materials describe that within five (5) business days of receiving a background check, the housing provider must deliver a copy to the applicant (in person, certified mail, text, or email). The applicant then has five (5) business days to dispute inaccuracies or provide mitigating information. County FAQs also clarify the landlord does not have to hold the unit off the market while an applicant disputes.

For leasing agents, the compliance trap is skipping paperwork: running the check too early, denying without assessment, failing to share the report, or advertising “no felons / no criminal history.” Those fact patterns are classic exam wrongdoing scenarios.

Geographic and Layered-Law Awareness

JHA is a Cook County rule. Properties outside Cook County are not governed by JHA, but they remain subject to IHRA (including source of income and arrest-record themes) and federal fair housing. Inside Cook County, apply JHA and Illinois/federal rules. Do not assume a federal assisted-housing “one-strike” lease clause erases JHA screening limits for ordinary private-market admissions decisions—program rules and local human-rights screening rules can both matter, and exam questions usually test whether you followed the county’s two-step/three-year/individualized-assessment framework for Cook County rentals.

Agent Action Checklist

Use written prequalification criteria; delay criminal inquiries until after conditional approval; limit consideration to convictions within three years; document individualized assessments; deliver background-check copies on time; avoid arrest-based denials; and train staff not to use “crime-free” slogans that imply unlawful blanket exclusions.