A key Chicago City Council committee moved Monday to settle a nearly eight-year legal fight over accessible housing, advancing a $2.25 million agreement that obligates the city to ensure the availability of 2,800 affordable housing units accessible to people with disabilities over the next 12 years.
The Finance Committee’s approval of the settlement with Access Living — the Chicago-based disability rights advocacy organization that brought the suit — marks a significant step toward closing one of the longer-running housing rights cases in the city’s recent history. The full City Council is expected to vote on the agreement Wednesday.
Eight Years in the Making
Access Living first filed suit against the city in 2018, alleging Chicago failed to inspect affordable housing units funded through federal dollars for compliance with disability accessibility requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and the Fair Housing Act. The organization argued that thousands of city-sponsored affordable housing units were being built or maintained without proper accessibility features — leaving people with disabilities unable to independently enter or exit their own homes, and in some cases, forcing young disabled Chicagoans into nursing facilities for lack of accessible alternatives.
For years the city resisted, arguing it was essentially a conduit of federal funds to private developers rather than the party responsible for ensuring accessibility compliance. U.S. District Court Judge Edmond Chang rejected that argument outright in 2024, ruling that Chicago “may not avoid liability by framing its role in affordable housing as merely providing funding and tax credits to developers in a way that blanketly absolves the City from its own duty of complying with the federal accessibility laws.” Chang ordered both sides into settlement negotiations. The U.S. Department of Justice had previously sided with Access Living, stating that Chicago has “the authority, obligation, and ability” to ensure its contracted developers meet federal accessibility standards.
What the Settlement Requires
Under the terms advanced Monday, the city must ensure 2,000 affordable units are fully accessible to people with mobility impairments and an additional 800 units fully accessible to Chicagoans with hearing and vision impairments — all within 12 years.
Managing Deputy Corporation Counsel John Hendricks told the Finance Committee the city must “identify, build or rehabilitate” the required units within its existing affordable housing stock. Because the city will not own the units directly, the settlement requires Chicago to adopt new policies compelling affordable housing developers it funds to build, market, and maintain those units for people with disabilities. Developers will also be required to establish grievance programs that the city will monitor, providing a forum for disabled residents whose accessibility needs are not being met.
The city additionally agreed to inspect newly built accessible units during construction, maintain accessibility standards, and build a comprehensive and publicly maintained registry of accessible affordable housing units. Hendricks described the settlement as reasonable, noting it would end a legal dispute that lasted nearly eight years without imposing what he called “draconian” requirements on the city.
A spokesperson for Access Living declined to comment ahead of the full council vote.
Aldermanic Frustration on Display
The committee vote did not come without dissent. Ald. Ray Lopez, one of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s most persistent critics on the council, voted against advancing the settlement and raised pointed objections about the relationship between the city and Access Living.
“Access Living has been a partner to helping us ensure that we are doing exactly what we thought we were doing,” Lopez said during Monday’s Finance Committee meeting. “To turn around and sue us because we didn’t do it with their help is mind-blowing to me. We’re just cutting and running as opposed to fighting.”
Ald. Brian Hopkins did not vote against the settlement but used the proceedings to raise his own concern, questioning whether the city should begin including no-litigation clauses in its contracts with organizations that receive city grants. Hendricks acknowledged the question, telling Hopkins he made “a good point” and committing to look into whether grants could be made contingent on the recipient forgoing additional litigation.
The $2.25 million cash settlement does not cover attorney’s fees, which remain unresolved. Access Living’s legal team initially sought $19 million in fees; Hendricks told the committee the final figure will almost certainly land between $9 million and $10 million.
The settlement arrives as the Johnson administration has been navigating competing pressures on Chicago’s housing landscape. A comparable case in Los Angeles, settled in 2016 under similar federal disability laws, resulted in an agreement to build 4,000 accessible affordable units; Access Living’s attorney Michael Allen had cited the Los Angeles settlement as a model throughout the Chicago litigation.
Chicago’s Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities already operates a housing locator linking residents to accessible rental units and a Home Modification Program that funds accessibility upgrades in existing homes. The settlement will expand and formalize those efforts considerably, creating new obligations for private developers who receive city support and establishing infrastructure to track whether the city is meeting its commitments over the 12-year compliance window.
