Emergency Rental Assistance Webinar
Webinar Overview
Are you a property owner struggling to pay your mortgage and maintain your building? Are you looking to connect your tenants to available resources? The good news is – help is on the way!
New emergency rental assistance programs for tenants and property owners are open or opening soon in Illinois. The State of Illinois and utility providers also have programs to help tenants get current on their utility bills.
Want to learn more? Visit the Emergency Rental Assistance landing page that The Preservation Compact developed in collaboration with the State of Illinois, Cook County, and the City of Chicago.
Materials
Presentation Slides
- Illinois Housing Development Authority slides
- City of Chicago slides
- Cook County slides
- Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program slides
- Citizens Utility Board slides on other utility assistance programs
Recording
A recording of the webinar can be viewed at this link.
Additional Resources
Learn more about resources available to help tenants and property owners affected by the COVID-19 pandemic by visiting
- The Emergency Rental Assistance landing page that The Preservation Compact developed in collaboration with the State of Illinois, Cook County, and the City of Chicago.
- CIC and The Preservation Compact’s COVID-19 Resources Page.
- Housing Action Illinois‘ overview of additional Emergency Rental Assistance programs outside of the Chicago Metro Area.
Presenters
C. Rodrigo Carrillo serves as Director of Strategic Initiatives and Planning with the Illinois Housing Development Authority. A Chicago native and first generation from immigrant parents, he most recently served as executive director of Lincoln Park Community Services. He also formerly served as a National Partner Relations Manager with the American Red Cross National Headquarters, where he was deployed for five months in the Texas Gulf Coast region, providing recovery and financial assistance to more than 34,000 households in underserved communities in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. Prior to that he was the deputy city clerk for the city of Chicago, and co-led the team that created the Chicago CityKey ID program, an alternative resource for government-issued IDs. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Carrillo also has served on the Equality Illinois community advisory group.
Daniel Kay Hertz serves as Director of Policy, Research and Legislative Affairs for the Chicago Department of Housing. He has been a key driver of many of the department’s most impactful policies and programs including the anti-deconversion ordinances for Pilsen and The 606 designed to reduce displacement of low- to moderate-income residents while also maintaining the existing character and housing stock, the Inclusionary Housing Task Force process leading to the introduction of major revisions to the city’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance, and the execution of two rounds of COVID-19 rental assistance grants, which provided nearly 10,000 households financially impacted by COVID-related shutdowns with much-needed funds. Hertz will lead a third round of assistance beginning Spring 2021.
Prior to joining DOH in 2019, Hertz, a Chicago native, served as Research Director at the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, where he worked on state and local fiscal policy issues, and Senior Fellow at City Observatory, an urban policy think tank. Hertz is the author of The Battle of Lincoln Park: Urban Renewal and Gentrification in Chicago, about gentrification in Lincoln Park during the 1960s.
Karl Bradley is the Deputy Director of Housing for the Cook County Department of Planning and Development.
David Wortman serves as the Deputy Director for the Office of Community Assistance at the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. David manages the administration of Illinois’ Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, Community Services Block Grant Program, and the Illinois Home Weatherization Assistance Program. He previously served for four years as the Deputy Director for the Office of Community Development where he oversaw the administration of the Community Development Block Grant program. Prior to joining the Department, David served for seven years as the Public Works Director for the City of Mattoon, Illinois and for five years as a project manager/project engineer for Patrick Engineering in Springfield, Illinois. He is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer from the Dominican Republic where he worked on a rural water system. David earned an Engineering Degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign and a Master of Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin.
Foluke Akanni is the Sustainable Communities Liaison for the Citizens Utility Board, a nonprofit, nonpartisan consumer watchdog group that advocates for utility customers in the state of Illinois. Prior to CUB, her background is in higher education and experience in the non-profit sector. At CUB she builds relationships with organizations, educates consumers about utility issues and programs, and advocates for consumer rights and clean energy policies. Foulke loves connecting consumers and organizations to programs that can help them and their communities.