May a landlord refuse to accept Section 8 tenants? Not in Cook County.

Domu reports:

Section 8 takes its name from Section 8 of the Housing Act of 1937, a significant piece of New Deal legislation enacted during the Great Depression. Under Section 8 of the Housing Act (which has been repeatedly amended through the years), the federal government extends both tenant-based and project-based assistance to low-income households. Tenant-based assistance travels with the tenant and enables a family to move from one privately-owned apartment to another without losing the rent subsidy. Project-based assistance is tied to a specific property and benefits only the residents who live at that location.

In 1983, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), acting under Section 8 of the Housing Act (as amended by the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974), implemented the first federal housing choice voucher program to provide tenant-based rent subsidies to families seeking housing in private sector apartments. The housing choice vouchers were to be administered through local public housing agencies, such as the Chicago Housing Authority.

There's more:

May a landlord refuse to accept Section 8 tenants?

Not in Cook County. On May 8, 2013, the Cook County Board approved a resolution that prohibits landlords from rejecting tenants based on their Section 8 status. Formerly, the Illinois Fair Housing Law precluded landlords from denying applications on the basis of such immutable characteristics as race, ethnicity, religion, sex, age, disability, presence of children, or sexual orientation. “Source of income” now joins the list of protected classes in Cook County. The resolution was intended to encourage economically disadvantaged citizens to move into the suburbs and decrease the high concentrations of poverty-stricken areas. The Cook County resolution, which took effect in August 2013, extends to the suburbs a prohibition that has already existed in the City of Chicago for the past twenty years.

Just a reminder for you rookies out there on what Hillary and "progressives" have in mind for your part of the country.