Housing Victory

Illinois Housing Abundance Bills Successfully Pass Out of Committee One Day Before the Deadline

In a surprise last-minute meeting of the Illinois House Housing Committee (posted at 4:36 PM and started at 5:04 PM today), HB1813 and HB1814 were passed and will be reported to the House floor with a favorable recommendation by the Friday, March 21, deadline!

HB1813 and HB1814 are the ADU and Missing Middle Housing bills, respectively, introduced by Rep. Bob Rita (Blue Island, Illinois). Our close partner Abundant Housing Illinois endorsed these bills and put in an enormous amount of advocacy work to make this happen.

We know that the emails and calls you all made yesterday made a difference! Let’s keep showing up for abundant housing in IL!

Lets say thanks and let these reps know we are paying attention and appreciate their votes! Find your IL House Representative here. If your Representative is listed in the attachment to this post, they voted to pass both the ADU and Missing Middle Housing bill out of committee!

Call or email your representative to thank them for hearing these crucial housing bills in committee! Here is a quick script:

“Hello, my name is [NAME] and I live at <ADDRESS>. I’m calling to thank Representative <YOUR AWESOME REP’S NAME> for voting yes on the ADU and Missing Middle Housing bills, HB1813 and HB1814, today in the housing committee. I hope that Representative <REP’S NAME> continues to support these bills, which will make it easier for regular people to build more homes in Illinois.”

As always, be sure to join us on our email list, Slack, Instagram, and BlueSky if you’re not already!

-Chloe Groome, Strong Towns Chicago Treasurer