Chicago City Council committee gives initial approval to $70 million more for migrants
Some alderpersons objected to spending the money when their communities also need funding. The proposal goes before the full council Wednesday
By Tessa Weinberg
Chicago City Council committee gives initial approval to $70 million more for migrants
Some alderpersons objected to spending the money when their communities also need funding. The proposal goes before the full council Wednesday
By Tessa WeinbergThe Chicago City Council’s Budget Committee approved spending $70 million from city reserves Monday that Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration anticipates will carry the city through the end of the year to support migrants.
The 20 to 8 vote came after alderpersons pressed budget officials for clarity on the city’s finances for more than two hours and questioned why the funding hadn’t been allocated in Johnson’s budget passed last year. Despite assurances that pulling from the city’s reserves would not impact the city’s bond ratings or advanced pension payments, some alderpersons still expressed heartburn over the decision.
“There’s no found money. There’s no free money. The decisions we make in the next couple of days about these large buckets of monies that exist are going to have a profound impact on our ability to balance our budget in 2026 and subsequently 2027,” said. Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd Ward. “This is real money we’re not going to have for future budgets. By no projection are we going to have a surplus in the next three or four years. It’s just how far in the hole will the city be?”
The funding still requires approval by the full City Council. Monday’s vote also renewed a long-simmering debate over funding for long-disinvested communities versus newcomers, as several alderpersons questioned where the funding was in-turn for projects and residents in need in their communities.
“When we have forgotten about the family that lives here, it becomes very difficult for me to support another $70 million going somewhere else,” said Ald. Chris Taliaferro, 29th Ward. “I’m talking residents that are in their 80s, in their 90s that have spent a lifetime giving to this city.”
Johnson’s Budget Director Annette Guzman said the administration doesn’t expect to ask the City Council to allocate additional money to go toward the city’s costs this year. If the funding wasn’t approved, Guzman warned of a return of migrants staying in park district facilities and the lobbies of police stations and a rise in the city’s homeless population writ large. And she predicted that if Chicago didn’t contribute more funding to migrant care, it could damage the city’s relationships with the county, state and federal administrations, which it has called on to help share the costs of caring for thousands of asylum-seekers.
“I think the relationships could be strained,” Guzman said, later adding: “It’s not just financial asks that we’re making, it’s coordination.”
The about-face funding request comes two months after Johnson was notably absent from a joint funding plan announced by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. In February, the state and county announced plans to contribute $182 million and $70 million, respectively — with an additional $70 million forecasted for the rest of the year.
Guzman said since then, the city received commitments that a portion of the state’s anticipated funding will come directly to the city, with an additional South Side shelter open by May and up to 2,000 more beds by the end of spring.
The $70 million given initial approval Monday is in addition to $95 million in federal COVID relief funds the city shifted to cover migrant housing costs, $150 million included in Johnson’s inaugural budget for migrant services and $51 million approved by the City Council last summer.
On Monday, the Budget Committee also gave initial approval to accepting $48 million in state and federal grant funding for the Department of Family and Support services to support the shelter and care of asylum-seekers.
Last week, an additional $19.3 million in federal funding was announced — an amount 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn called “wholly inadequate” — that will be allocated to the city and Illinois to cover costs.
The request for the City Council to approve more funding comes in anticipation of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ramping up bussing operations ahead of the Democratic National Convention this August.
“I think looking at the reality that this is still going to be an issue because the DNC is coming, that we need to make sure that things couldn’t potentially be worse, I think it’s irresponsible to not vote for the $70 million,” Ald. Andre Vasquez, 40th Ward said.
In recent weeks, the city has consolidated some migrant shelters and resumed its policy to evict migrants after they have stayed in a shelter for 60 days.
By the end of April, the city will have reduced its shelters from 27 to 16, which is anticipated to save over $211 million over the course of the year, according to a news release from Johnson’s office. Guzman said the city anticipates saving additional costs through requests for proposals for local firms to staff shelters and operate meal services.
Overall, more than $310 million has been spent to house, support and care for asylum-seekers arriving in the city, according to city data as of April 10.
Ald. Nicole Lee, whose ward neighbors a crowded Pilsen shelter that has seen a recent measles outbreak and was where a five-year-old boy living died of sepsis last year, stressed alderpersons need to know the funds they greenlight are being used responsibly.
“Money that we’re being asked to allocate, we’ve got to trust that it’s being used in the right way,” Lee said. “If we’re going to be asked to approve this kind of supplemental funding, we absolutely on behalf of our constituents have to have transparency around how these funds are being spent and the difference that it’s making, because it doesn’t necessarily seem to be moving the needle.”
While alderpersons advanced spending $70 million to support migrants, they did not take a vote Monday on Johnson’s $1.25 billion borrowing plan to fund affordable housing and economic development.
After members of the Finance Committee defeated Ald. Bill Conway’s attempt to drastically reduce the bond issuance to $325 million and lower the threshold for projects that require City Council approval from $5 million to $1 million, Finance Committee Chair Ald. Pat Dowell held the plan in committee — with the plan now expected to be heard ahead of Wednesday’s full council meeting.
Tessa Weinberg covers Chicago government and politics for WBEZ.