Chicago ARO apartments: how to apply (it is not a lottery)

To rent one of Chicago's ARO apartments, the lower-rent apartments set aside under the city's Affordable Requirements Ordinance (ARO), start with the city's ARO map. Pick a building, call its leasing office and ask whether an ARO apartment is free. If one is, apply at the building, with three recent pay stubs and three bank statements ready.

What is an ARO apartment?

An ARO apartment is a lower-rent apartment in a privately run building that rents its other apartments at regular prices. The Affordable Requirements Ordinance is Chicago's inclusionary zoning law, a rule that makes builders set aside some lower-rent apartments.

Since October 1, 2021, it has applied to new apartment buildings that need City Council approval, such as for a zoning change. It also applies to buildings that buy city land or get city money. A builder can pay toward lower-rent housing elsewhere instead of setting aside some apartments. Our guide to inclusionary housing covers how these laws work in other cities.

The building sets your rent, up to a maximum the city publishes each year. The rent doesn't go up or down with your pay. Most buildings have only a few ARO apartments, so call several.

How do I find buildings with ARO apartments?

Start with the city's ARO map. Each dot is a building, and clicking one shows its address, contact details, the apartment sizes and their income levels. The same page links the city's Affordable Housing Resource List, which you can filter by neighborhood.

For a call list, use the city's open-data table "ARO Rentals." It gives each building's management company, its phone number and how many ARO apartments it has, most often 5 or fewer. Call each one and ask whether an ARO apartment is free now.

How do I apply: the building first, the city second?

The building's property manager takes your application, and the city's Department of Housing checks it afterwards. The city's steps go like this:

1. Find a building on the ARO map.
2. Call the leasing office. Ask for an ARO apartment by name, whether one is available and how to apply.
3. Apply to the building. Bring three pay stubs in a row and three bank statements in a row. You sign a form that lets the building confirm your job with your employer. If you're self-employed, you fill in an affidavit, a sworn statement, and bring the papers it lists. If you get Social Security, a pension or veterans benefits, bring your current award letter.
4. Sign the Tenant Income Certification if the building finds that you qualify. The leasing staff fill it in, and you only sign and date it.
5. Wait for the city's review. The building sends your file to the Department of Housing, which gives the building its answer within 10 business days.
6. Move in, or appeal. If the city approves you, the building gives you an approval letter and a lease. If the city turns you down, the building gives you papers explaining how to appeal, and you must appeal in writing within 10 business days of the notice.

The property manager is your only contact the whole way through. The city's applicant FAQ says the city sends callers back to the building and won't speed up any file. If you think you are protected by the Violence Against Women Act, a federal law that protects survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking, tell the property manager, who will tell you the next steps. If you're a full-time student, you must show that you fit one of the exceptions on the building's Student Status Affidavit.

Some households get a first chance at certain apartments. Under the city's marketing and tenant screening plan, apartments with two or more bedrooms go first to households of two or more people for six weeks after the building starts advertising or an apartment comes free. At least 10% of the accessible ARO apartments go first to people with disabilities who need their features, during a separate six-week period. The city's marketing rules also list veterans among the groups buildings must give preference to.

What are the income limits and the rent rule?

An ARO apartment has two tests, and you must pass both. Your household's yearly income before taxes must be at or under the apartment's income limit, the most a household can earn and still rent it. And the rent, plus any charge every tenant must pay, such as a building's utility package, must be no more than 40% of that income. Optional charges, such as parking or a pet fee, don't count (city rules).

Each ARO apartment is set at one income level, written as a share of the area median income (AMI), the middle income in the Chicago area. The city says the levels run from 30% to 100% of AMI, and most apartments are at 60% or below. Ask the leasing office which level the apartment is set at, then find that row and your household size in the city's 2026 limits:

A worked example. Two people earn $55,000 a year, and they ask about a one-bedroom set at 60% of AMI. The limit for two people at that level is $58,320, so they pass the income test. For the rent test, 40% of $55,000 is $22,000 a year, or about $1,833 a month. The city's 2026 maximum rent for a one-bedroom at 60% of AMI is $1,367 a month when the landlord pays all utilities, so they pass that test too.

Now say the same two people earn $28,000. They pass the 60% income test easily, but 40% of $28,000 is about $933 a month, so a $1,367 rent fails the rent test. A one-bedroom set at 30% of AMI would fit: $28,000 is under that level's $29,160 limit for two people, and the city's maximum rent there is $684. A low income doesn't rule you out; it narrows which apartments fit.

A Section 8 voucher, which pays part of your rent to the landlord, can close that gap. The city's applicant FAQ says every source of income is welcome at ARO buildings, including vouchers. If you have a voucher, bring your voucher paperwork from your housing office, which the city calls moving papers, to your first meeting with the property manager.

Why is there no ARO lottery, and where are Chicago's lotteries?

ARO rentals are filled by each building's property manager from the people who apply and qualify, so there is no drawing to enter. Chicago's housing lotteries, where names are drawn at random, are for ARO homes for sale. The Chicago Housing Trust sells them. The city says they are priced for households earning about 80% to 100% of AMI, and buyers can earn up to 120%.

When more than one buyer who qualifies wants the same home, the Trust ranks them. Lower incomes and larger households rank higher, and so do buyers who already live in that community area. Then it holds a lottery among the top scorers or assigns the homes to them in order, depending on how many homes and buyers there are.

To buy, you need a homebuyer orientation certificate, a mortgage pre-approval and notarized income forms. You also need a certificate from a housing counseling agency approved by HUD, the federal housing department; HUD's counselor search lists them. You must live in the home and may not rent it out, except the second apartment in a two-apartment building. For homes in a lottery now, see open housing lotteries.

Where do I apply for rent that follows my income?

For rent that changes with your income, apply to the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), the city's housing authority (the local housing office). In public housing, CHA is your landlord, and your rent is usually about 30% of your income. CHA also runs project-based vouchers, which lower the rent on one apartment in a building while you live there.

Both mean joining a waitlist, a line you join now for an apartment that comes free later. CHA's own figures put hundreds of thousands of names on these lists, so apply to CHA and to ARO buildings at the same time. Our guide to low-income apartments in Chicago explains how to apply to CHA.

What mistakes slow down an ARO application?

• Waiting for a lottery. ARO rentals have none. Call the building.
• Applying to the city. The Department of Housing reviews your file only after a building sends it.
• Not saying "ARO." Ask for the ARO apartment by name, so the leasing office knows which apartments you mean.
• Missing papers. The city's FAQ says papers you don't hand in by the building's deadline lead to a denial. Gather your pay stubs and bank statements before you call.
• Stopping at ARO. Illinois Housing Search, a free state site for affordable, accessible and regular rentals, also takes calls at 1-877-428-8844.

To see lower-rent homes in Chicago today, browse our Chicago listings or all open listings, and use the qualify check to see which income limits you fit. Our guides to income-restricted apartments and to how lotteries, waitlists and first come, first served work explain the other ways in.