JOLIET (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Members of the Joliet City Council are considering relief for landlords stuck with water bills that have not been paid by tenants.
Joliet has had a moratorium on water-shutoffs since the start of the pandemic, but the bills still have to be paid.
Currently, according to the Joliet Herald News, the city has more than $2.6 million in unpaid water bills that are at least 120 days old owed by tenants, landlords, homeowners, business owners and anyone else who pays a water bill in Joliet.
The issue came up during a finance committee meeting. Finance Director James Ghedotte said he heards from landlords at least twice a week about water bills going unpaid; and a lot of times, those tenants are also not paying rent due to the state moratorium on evictions.
"The landlords are really in a bad situation, now, where they almost can't win," Ghedotte said.
Chairman Michael Turk also said he recently heard from a landlord unable to evict a tenant who’s not paying rent or the water bill.
"It's kind of in between a rock and a hard place, because you can't evict the tenants who are not paying him any rent; at the same time running up high water bills that he's responsible for and he can't get them out," he said.
Turk suggested that the city use some of the $26 million it is receiving in federal COVID-19 relief funding to help landlords.
It was also noted that there are charitable organizations that might step in and help the tenants.
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