South Suburban Housing Center, the regional fair housing enforcement and housing counseling agency based in Homewood, reached a settlement with the owners and management of Pine Ridge Apartments, a 224-unit apartment complex in Springfield, resolving a complaint of housing discrimination based on source of income.

The complaint was filed with the Illinois Department of Human Rights alleging source of income protected class violations covered by the Illinois Human Rights Act. SSHC’s investigation of Pine Ridge Apartments focused on gathering evidence of its policy of rejecting prospective tenants using Housing Choice Vouchers to help pay their rent.

SSHC’s Fair Housing Enforcement Program conducts monitoring of the housing market through systemic testing, in which volunteers are trained to pose as home seekers and report their experience.

In November 2024, SSHC conducted a series of tests inquiring about available apartments. When testers posing as voucher holders disclosed that they would be using a Housing Choice Voucher to help pay the rent, they were told by Pine Ridge Apartment’s rental agent that the complex doesn’t “take Section 8” and that a tenant with a voucher would not qualify based on the complex’s requirement that applicants make three times the rent amount.

In 2023, source of income was added as a protected class in the Illinois Human Rights Act. Since then, SSHC has made it a priority to investigate housing providers in its primary service area and in southern and central Illinois to ensure that the housing providers are in compliance with the new law. SSHC believes doing so ensures that there is a robust, accessible stock of affordable housing throughout the state.

The private settlement agreement between the parties was approved by the IDHR and was incorporated into an order entered Dec. 9, 2025, by the Illinois Human Rights Commission (agreement and order linked here).  

Major provisions of the agreement include Pine Ridge Apartments conforming its rental management practices to comply with fair housing law and not discriminating on the basis of a tenant or applicant’s lawful source of income, including status as a Housing Choice Voucher holder, and to pay $6,000 in monetary damages and costs to SSHC. 

SSHC Executive Director John Petruszak said, “Actions to enforce source of income protections under the Illinois Human Rights Act, and resolutions such as this, are necessary to make housing providers aware of their legal responsibilities to make units available to voucher families and actively address the affordability and availability crisis that we currently face statewide.” 

During the two-year agreement term, the housing provider’s notices, listings or advertisements for available units must also feature the Fair Housing Logo and the words “Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8) Accepted.” 

Key property management and leasing staff are to undergo fair housing training conducted by IDHR’s Institute for Training and Development and cooperate with SSHC’s monitoring of its rental practices. 

In entering into this agreement, Pine Ridge Apartments denies the allegations contained in the charge and does not admit that they violated the law. The settlement was reached through representation provided to SSHC by Jeffrey Taren with the Seattle and Chicago-based civil rights law firm Taren Law Group.