CHICAGO (AP) — A new court-based program aims to help Cook County residents repay their rent and avoid eviction.
The rental assistance program, scheduled to launch Friday, comes as the statewide eviction moratorium put in place by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker in response to the Covid-19 pandemic is set to expire Oct. 3. Researchers at Loyola University Chicago estimated that as many as 30,000 new eviction cases could be filed in Chicago after the moratorium expires.
The program, funded with federal money from the $21 billion American Rescue Plan that Congress passed in March, is a collaboration between Chicago, Cook County, and state agencies and Cook County Legal Aid for Housing and Debt, a collection of legal aid organizations.
A similar program, run by the Illinois Department of Housing and the Illinois Supreme Court, will be available to renters in other counties across the state.
For more information, go to: www.cookcountyil.gov