Chicago Advances Transit Funding Fix and Tenant Protections as Housing Costs Keep Rising

Two policy tracks are converging on Chicago residents this Fourth of July weekend. The Illinois General Assembly's failure to pass a permanent Regional Transportation Authority funding package before its spring adjournment has left the CTA, Metra and Pace operating under a budget that transit advocates warn is structurally short by roughly $770 million annually, a gap that has already pushed service cuts and fare discussions onto the table. At the same time, Chicago's Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance amendments that took effect June 1 expand relocation assistance requirements for tenants displaced by no-fault evictions, giving renters in buildings of six units or more new financial protections that city housing officials say apply to an estimated 400,000 renter households on the North, South and West sides.

The timing matters. Chicago's rental vacancy rate has hovered below 5 percent for the past two years, according to figures published in the city's 2025 Housing Needs Assessment, and median asking rents in neighborhoods like Pilsen, Avondale and South Shore have climbed between 18 and 24 percent since 2022. Federal pandemic-era rental assistance through the Emergency Rental Assistance Program ended in late 2023, leaving the city's Department of Housing as the primary backstop. The RTA funding question compounds the pressure: when transit service degrades, residents who cannot afford cars face longer commutes to jobs, medical appointments and schools, and low-income households on the South and West sides are disproportionately affected because those corridors have the highest share of transit-dependent riders.

What the Transit Funding Gap Means Day to Day

The RTA has publicly stated that without a new revenue source, the three service boards face a combined operating deficit that could require fare increases of up to 30 percent or service reductions beginning in 2027. For a daily CTA rider paying the current $2.50 base fare, a 30 percent increase would mean roughly $3.25 per trip, or about $195 more per year for a five-day commuter. Metra's board has separately discussed reducing off-peak frequency on lines including the Milwaukee District North and the Rock Island, routes that connect working-class communities in Jefferson Park, Beverly and Blue Island to the Loop. Governor JB Pritzker's administration has indicated it expects the General Assembly to return to the RTA question in a fall veto session, but no date has been set and no specific revenue mechanism has been agreed upon.

State legislators from the Chicago delegation have pointed to a vehicle miles traveled fee and an expansion of the sales tax base as options under discussion, but neither proposal has advanced to a floor vote. The Regional Transportation Authority Act, last substantially amended in 2008, does not automatically index the RTA's share of sales tax revenue to inflation, which transit policy analysts say is the structural reason the funding gap has widened over 15 years.

Tenant Protections: Who Qualifies and What to Expect

Under the amended RLTO, landlords who terminate month-to-month tenancies without cause, or who refuse to renew leases for reasons unrelated to tenant conduct, must now provide written notice 90 days in advance for tenancies of three years or more, up from the previous 60-day standard. They are also required to pay relocation assistance equal to two months' rent for units priced below 120 percent of the area median rent. The Chicago Department of Housing says residents who believe a landlord has violated the ordinance can file a complaint through the department's hotline at 312-744-5000 or through the city's online 311 portal. Tenant legal aid organizations, including the Metropolitan Tenants Organization, are running weekend clinics this month at branch libraries in Humboldt Park, Bronzeville and Rogers Park to walk residents through the new rules.

For residents, the practical next step differs by issue. On transit, riders can submit public comment to the RTA through its website ahead of a board meeting scheduled for July 22 at 175 West Jackson Boulevard, where the 2027 budget framework is expected to be introduced. On housing, tenants who received lease non-renewal notices before June 1 are not covered by the expanded protections, but those receiving notices now are. The city says it will publish plain-language guidance in Spanish, Polish and Mandarin by the end of July.