{"id":696248,"date":"2026-04-01T02:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T02:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/696248\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T02:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T02:40:13","slug":"mayor-brandon-johnson-unveils-homelessness-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/696248\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Brandon Johnson unveils homelessness plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Brandon Johnson revealed his administration\u2019s five-year plan to tackle homelessness on Tuesday amid another personnel flap that has elicited pushback<\/a> from one of the city\u2019s nonprofit partners on housing.<\/p>\n

The 137-page \u201cBlueprint on Homelessness\u201d report details dozens of actions Johnson and other city officials and advocates want the city to take to prevent and end homelessness but does not include specific ways to pay for his goals beyond exploring \u201ca dedicated revenue stream so programs can launch and remain sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what new taxes he could feasibly get enacted to fund the package, Johnson kept his goals broad, saying, \u201cAll of them have to be on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we should limit ourselves to one form of revenue,\u201d the mayor \u2014 who has struggled with passing major planks of his progressive taxation agenda \u2014 told reporters at a City Hall news conference. \u201cIt\u2019s imperative that we find multiple streams of revenue so that we have more than enough not just to deal with homelessness and housing, but we can deal with the other critical needs that people have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Johnson said his administration \u201cnever made a commitment\u201d that the city\u2019s first chief homelessness officer position, codified under his 2023 executive order, would be permanent. His comments came after the philanthropic group funding the inaugural role helmed by Sendy Soto released a statement calling for the city to find a way to keep her position.<\/p>\n

\u201cCFTEH\u2019s intent was for the Chief Homelessness Officer to become a permanent, city-funded role to ensure ongoing implementation of the city\u2019s new five-year plan,\u201d the coalition\u2019s executive director, Emily Krisciunas, wrote, referring to Chicago Funders Together to End Homelessness. \u201cCFTEH continues to believe that dedicated, senior-level leadership in the Mayor\u2019s Office and sustained city investment are two key components of our collective efforts to end homelessness.\u201d<\/p>\n

In announcing Soto\u2019s exit, Johnson\u2019s team said on Monday that the role Soto first assumed two years ago was always meant to be temporary. But the nonprofit coalition\u2019s statement notes the funding was supposed to stretch through this October, and that a third, final payment \u201cremains pending.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson denied that the city would miss out on remaining funding under the grant, however, and said, \u201cthose resources will go towards implementation\u201d of the five-year blueprint. He said his deputy mayor of health and human services, Jonah Anderson, will fill a \u201cdual appointment\u201d as director of the mayor\u2019s office of homelessness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe title, in and of itself, doesn\u2019t determine whether or not the assignment will continue,\u201d Johnson said when asked about the disconnect with CFTEH\u2019s expectations. \u201cThat\u2019s the goal, and we\u2019ll get it done. And I\u2019m grateful for the partners believing in our administration that we would actually take on this promise.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then pivoted to another pitch for progressive revenue so that the city would not rely on \u201ca confined set of time through grant or through philanthropy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s budget documents say the full grant was $675,000, with $421,000 carrying over into 2026.<\/p>\n

Johnson praised Soto Tuesday and argued her exit after two years showed \u201cimpressive\u201d speed in completing the report. He touted his administration\u2019s work to address homelessness as \u201cthe most comprehensive any administration has been\u201d on the issue, citing shorter waits for shelter beds and new shelters with private spaces.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat work doesn\u2019t get interrupted or slowed or prevented because this particular assignment was completed early,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is not just simply policy points. This is personal for me. I\u2019m never going to give up on this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cblueprint\u201d plan Soto spearheaded includes an array of recommendations. It calls for more affordable housing to be built and places a major emphasis on preventing homelessness with programs like legal aid for eviction defense and rental assistance.<\/p>\n

Some of the report\u2019s recommendations would not cost the city money, such as the creation of new guidance for first responders responding to homeless people and a Homeless Advisory Council.<\/p>\n

But other major goals outlined in the report would likely prove costly if implemented, including the expansion of housing vouchers and subsidies, efforts to preserve and expand \u201cdeeply affordable housing\u201d and robust health care support for homeless people.<\/p>\n

The plan points to Medicaid as a potential federal funding source that could pay for housing, but acknowledges that an \u201cevolving federal landscape\u201d puts at risk many of the federal funding sources the city already uses to house less-wealthy Chicagoans.<\/p>\n

Johnson and his allies were key backers of the Bring Chicago Home referendum that sought to increase taxes on real estate transfers over $1 million to raise $100 million annually earmarked to address homelessness. Voters narrowly rejected the tax.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Brandon Johnson revealed his administration\u2019s five-year plan to tackle homelessness on Tuesday amid another personnel flap that…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":696249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,291347,5386,1818,36234],"class_list":{"0":"post-696248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-chicagos-five-year-homelessness-plan","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-illinois","12":"tag-mayor-brandon-johnson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116327142371798864","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}