Mission & History

Mission

The Law Center for Better Housing (LCBH) will provide free legal and supportive services to improve housing stability for lower income renters while advocating for the rights of all renters until everyone in Chicago has a safe, decent, and affordable place to call home.

History 

In 1980, 10 volunteer attorneys rallied together to advocate on behalf of renters living in substandard apartment conditions in Rogers Park, seeking to improve renters’ quality of life and hold negligent landlords accountable. From their friendships, LCBH, then known as the Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing, was born.  

45 years later, our founders’ beliefs still ring true: When renters have access to an attorney, they get better outcomes. That’s why our team continues providing high-quality free legal and supportive services for a myriad of housing situations in and outside of eviction court, including evictions, building conditions issues, and housing discrimination. Last year alone, LCBH assisted more than 19,500 households across Chicago and Suburban Cook County, ensuring more families could remain safely and stably housed.  

Vision

LCBH believes that safe, decent and affordable housing is a basic human right, and we aspire to be the preeminent legal resource on housing justice for renters in our community.

Values

In order to best achieve our mission, LCBH embraces the following values:

• Mission Focus: We are committed to and engaged in the LCBH mission and communicate that with understanding and belief in our work.
• Excellence: We treat all persons we come into contact with compassion and respect. We consistently strive to produce excellent work so that we are known as the “go-to” agency regarding renter advocacy issues.
• Diversity: We embrace diversity as a cultural value engaging a variety of perspectives in order to provide the best advocacy, client services, and work environment.
• Financial Health: We strive to maintain financial stability by creating and adhering to a strategic financial plan, reducing expenses, increasing unrestricted funding, and building reserves.
• Balance: We recognize the need for a healthy balance between the professional and personal in order to retain good-quality staff and maintain a supportive office culture.

Direct Services

LCBH defends Chicago renters facing eviction, foreclosure, illegal lockouts, retaliation, and unsafe building conditions in and outside of eviction court. Our Rentervention program pairs award-winning AI with human support to give renters tailored guidance on their housing issue before an eviction is filed. Inside eviction court, we help renters and landlords settle cases before going to trial by providing brief advice and negotiation services through the Early Resolution Program (ERP). When a settlement can’t be reached, LCBH attorneys provide extended representation for eligible renters through Chicago’s Right to Counsel Pilot Project. In 2024, an independent evaluation of the pilot found more 70% of participants felt empowered to achieve their housing goals thanks to ERP and RTC.  

Community Engagement

LCBH reaches thousands of renters, landlords, and housing advocates each year through collaborative community-based workshops, resource tables, and outreach events. We provide timely and focused messages regarding renters’ rights, eviction prevention, Fair Housing law and practices, and accessing pertinent services and resources. You can schedule a workshop with LCBH by emailing [email protected].  

Education and Advocacy

Using our Chicago Eviction Data Portal, LCBH analyzes the scale and impact of Chicago’s eviction crisis. In data-driven reports, we share what we learn regarding the inequitable impacts of eviction and the importance of legal representation. For more than 45 years, LCBH has leveraged our knowledge to advocate for concrete systemic change. Our founders helped to write and pass Chicago’s Residential Landlord Tenant Ordinance (RLTO). More recently, we helped to protect and improve the Keep Chicago Renting Ordinance (KCRO) and helped to write and pass Cook County’s Residential Tenant Landlord Ordinance (CCRTLO). 

Our grasp of local evictions data and national best practices make LCBH the go-to source for issue leadership. Compiling eviction data from 2010 to 2019, LCBH’s Chicago Evictions Data Portal reveals how evictions are impacting our city by community area, ward, and rates of representation between landlords and tenants.

LCBH is actively working on updating our reports to reflect available eviction court data since 2020 and the significant changes to the court process, including the creation of the Early Resolution Program (ERP) and City of Chicago Right to Counsel Program (RTC) led by LCBH in collaboration with our partners, the City, County, and Chicago Bar Foundation. To see the most up to date information on eviction filings and rates of representation, please see this report.