It is with great honor that we announce Henry (Hank) Rose, professor emeritus at Loyola University Chicago (LUC) School of Law and co-author of the Chicago Residential Landlord Tenant Ordinance (RLTO), will take home the 2026 Barbara Grau Outstanding Housing Advocate Award at LCBH’s Fall Benefit on October 15th at Buddy Guy’s Legends. Purchase your tickets to the celebration here.
Hank began his career as a legal aid attorney in Evanston in 1975, assisting low-income people with civil legal problems. He joined the faculty at LUC School of Law in 1982 as a professor, where he directed the law school’s first legal clinic.
“I’ve always favored the underdog. I even grew up supporting the ultimate underdogs: the Chicago Cubs,” Hank joked. “I never desired to get a job and make as much money as possible; that just wasn’t my orientation. Becoming an attorney struck me as a way to do work that would be consistent with my overall goals to serve disadvantaged people and to try and make the world a better place.”
In the mid 80s, after working on similar legislation in Evanston, Hank was tapped by then 49th Ward Alderman, David Orr, to help draft the Chicago RLTO. Hank, and Bill Wieland from the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago (now Legal Aid Chicago), saw through the laws that heavily favored landlords, and brought balance by establishing protections for tenants.
“We took the best things from the Evanston ordinance, and we added some additional protections for tenants, like the requirement to include a summary of the RLTO in every lease,” Hank said. “I was happy to do it. Working with Bill, working with David, working with lots of tenants’ groups, including the Law Center for Better Housing, was one of the best experiences of my legal career.”
In 1986, after years of what Hank described as a “political battle, Mayor Harold Washington helped get the ordinance past the finish line. 40 years later, it remains a vital tool for protecting Chicago renters.
“It’s something that I’m proud of and enjoyed doing very much, and to have it actually pass was wonderful. It was a reminder that change can occur, but it requires people with vision and people willing to do the work to persuade the powers that be that change is necessary,” Hank said.
At a time when the RLTO is being threatened by new legislation that would remove tenant protections that were hard fought for by Hank, Bill, Mayor Washington, Barbara Grau, LCBH’s first full-time staff attorney for whom this award is named, and others, we can think of no better recipient for this award. Learn more and purchase your tickets to the celebration here.