CHICAGO — The city’s social services department is pushing for a budget that would continue a COVID-era program to tackle homelessness and establish a department to oversee support programs for thousands of migrants coming to Chicago.
Brandie V. Knazze, Department of Family and Support Services commissioner, answered questions from alderpeople Thursday about Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed $851.38 million budget for the department.
The department has been on the front lines of the migrant crisis, working to place more than 18,600 asylum seekers in shelters since August 2022. As of Friday, about 11,300 people are being housed in temporary city-run shelters, while more than 3,700 people are sleeping in police stations and city airports.
Johnson’s 2024 budget would set aside $1.2 million to create an Office of New Arrivals within Knazze’s department to deal with the influx of newcomers.
But as neighbors grow increasingly hostile toward the creation of shelters for migrants in their neighborhoods, Knazze suggested alderpeople consider the Bring Chicago Home ordinance, which would help provide housing to 68,000 unhoused or housing unstable Chicagoans.
During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the city used increased federal funding to create a rapid rehousing program and an accelerated moving events program to help unhoused Chicagoans get stable housing and related supportive services.
Those federal funds will soon dry up, which is why Knazze asked City Council members to advocate for Bring Chicago Home during Thursday’s budget hearing.
If passed, Bring Chicago Home would increase the tax rate buyers pay on property sales over $1 million, with the additional funds dedicated to providing permanent affordable housing and wraparound services for unhoused Chicagoans.
“I support Bring Chicago Home because I think we need a steady stream of funding. We can’t rely on funding that expires and then trickles in here and there,” Knazze said. “When an alder calls and says there’s an encampment in my ward and I need something, we’ve been able to go in and use those direct interventions.”
Without a steady stream of funding from that measure, the department will have to scale back the “housing first” programs that the city’s Office of Inspector General called a “success” and a “potential model for other jurisdictions working with their own encampment populations” in its 2023 audit, Knazze said.
“Most of our homeless funding actually comes through grant funding, which is really restricted to services and operations. We don’t have a lot of resources. We haven’t, over the last 10 to 15 years, [received] capital investments or just basic maintenance improvements,” said Maura McCauley, the department’s managing deputy commissioner.
But the influx of funding from the Chicago Recovery Plan has helped shelter providers the department works with move away from large, open communal spaces and instead offer more single units with accessibility for unhoused Chicagoans, McCauley said.
“Where somebody can sleep and rest in peace, and not worry about their belongings,” McCauley said. “And then the last priority is, really, just around general repairs and maintenance that are needed to improve and enhance the shelters.”
Ald. Monique Scott (24th) said some residents think migrants are getting preferential treatment while people on parts of the West and South sides suffer.
One example is park facilities being used to house migrants, Scott said.
“Removing taxpaying residents and their children from park facilities, that has to stop. You can’t get my taxes back, right? So you’re removing us from a program and building we pay taxes for, and I can’t get that back. That brings a lot of distrust, and it brings a lot of hatred that doesn’t necessarily have to be,” Scott said.
Ald. Jeanette B. Taylor (20th) cited Ald. Julia Ramirez (12th) and her staff being attacked Thursday by protesters at the planned site of a tent encampment for migrants on the Southwest Side as an example of the lack of coordination and communication from city officials tasked with helping migrants.
“This has been a mess. And you’ve taken the heat for a lot of things that you ultimately didn’t get to decide, but you were part of that. But ultimately, you didn’t make the decision. And so I just, I want to see you do better,” Taylor said.
While Knazze works with other city departments to asses and recommend potential migrant shelter locations, the decision is ultimately made by Johnson’s office, she said.
Previous groups of refugees from other countries like Afghanistan arrived via the State Department’s Office of Resettlement, which provided resources for their relocation to Chicago, Knazze said.
Refugees from Afghanistan “had organizations that helped them with jobs,” Knazze said. “New arrivals are coming without any resources, which is putting a strain on the city, on the state, and we can’t shoulder that burden.
“To date, the money we’ve received from the state and federal government is more, and that’s where the majority of our money has come from, but it’s still not enough.”
Chicago’s difficulties helping its longstanding unhoused population while also assisting the growing number of newly arrived migrants are rooted in a lack of consistent funding, Knazze said.
The department has used $35 million this year to help more than 520 people find stable housing via its rapid rehousing program. In total, the program has helped 2,400 people find homes since October 2020, Knazze said.
“This year, by the end of the year, we plan to bring on another 500 households,” she said.
But without continued funding, the department will only be able to house 233 people via the program in 2024, Knazze said.
“It’s a program that really shines the light on why you need housing, right?” Knazze said.
Support Local News!
Subscribe to Block Club Chicago, an independent, 501(c)(3), journalist-run newsroom. Every dime we make funds reporting from Chicago’s neighborhoods. Already subscribe? Click here to gift a subscription, or you can support Block Club with a tax-deductible donation.
Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast:
