Bring Chicago Home: Mayor Johnson's plan to fight homelessness appears headed to defeat

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Mayor Brandon Johnson and the progressive movement behind him appeared headed toward a humiliating defeat Tuesday that will force them to search for another source of revenue to combat homelessness.

By a nearly 8-percentage-point margin, Chicago voters were rejecting a binding referendum that would have authorized the City Council to raise the real estate transfer tax on high-end property transactions to generate an estimated $100 million in annual revenue to combat homelessness.

The vote on the Bring Chicago Home referendum was 53.7% to 46.3%, with 98.2% of precincts counted.

Elections

Bring Chicago Home map: View which precincts voted for and against the referendum

With more than 100,000 mail-in ballots outstanding, the fate of Bring Chicago Home is not yet known. See a breakdown of the votes that have been counted.

By Jesse Howe, Matt Kiefer, and 1 more

 

The lowest turnout in at least 80 years for a presidential primary would have appeared to favor the Chicago Teachers Union, the CTU-affiliated United Working Families and progressive unions that had proven their ability to turn out their own voters in a low-turnout election by electing Johnson last year.

But the Building Owners and Managers Association and other real estate and business interests mounted a furious campaign to block the referendum, first in the courts, then through television commercials urging voters to reject a plan they said would raise rents.

The $2 million-plus campaign also questioned Johnson’s handling of crime and the migrant crisis and asked voters whether they were prepared to give the mayor $100 million to spend without specifying exactly how.

The answer voters delivered Tuesday appears certain to weaken the mayor politically and embolden his critics.

“Bad policy should be defeated, and voters saw that it was bad policy,” said veteran political strategist Greg Goldner, who quarterbacked the campaign against the referendum.

“It can’t build affordable housing. It can’t solve homelessness. It can’t provide mental health services. It can’t solve the migrant crisis. It can’t provide affordable housing for teachers and vets. It can’t do all of those things for a revenue stream that has proven to be unpredictable,” he added. In the end, Goldner said, voters agreed the referendum was “poorly constructed, poorly defined” and a “very cynical public policy initiative.”

Francia García Hernández/For the Sun-Times

Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th), the mayor’s former City Council floor leader, made no attempt to hide his disappointment.

“This is not the result we wanted. We’re gonna have to take a real hard look at what happened and figure out how to move forward from here,” said Ramirez-Rosa, who was instrumental in getting the binding referendum through the City Council and on the ballot after years of failure.

The referendum asked voters to triple the transaction tax on the portion of a property sale above $1 million, and quadruple the tax on the portion above $1.5 million, but lower the tax slightly on sales less than $1 million.

Ramirez-Rosa wants to “let the dust clear” before assessing how big a political blow the defeat of Bring Chicago Home would be to Johnson, the most progressive mayor in Chicago history.

“The mayor’s critics were already emboldened,” Ramirez-Rosa said. “At the end of the day, this is a blow to people who wanted to address the crisis of homelessness that’s growing in our communities.”

A source close to the anti-tax campaign known as Keep Chicago Affordable accused Johnson of misreading his own victory.

“Just because he got 52% against Paul Vallas didn’t mean he had a mandate,” the source said. “Before this campaign started — before any ads were ever run — his numbers were in the low 20s. This outcome is a reflection of his performance.”

Referendum supporters gathered in Austin to watch the returns at Intentional Sports, 1841 N. Laramie Ave. — and tried to stay positive as a DJ played a mix of English and Spanish songs and black B-C-H balloons floated against a wall.

Brian O’Mahoney/For the Sun-Times

“We will not give up until every damn ballot is counted,” said Dianne Limas, a Communities United organizer, as the crowd chanted: “We will not give up.”

Besides the political and financial blow, the referendum’s likely defeat is also deeply personal for Johnson, who has talked of his own brother dying “addicted and unhoused.”

Johnson’s First Deputy Chief of Staff Cristina Pacione-Zayas addressed the referendum at the Northwest Side party of newly elected state Rep. Graciela Guzmán.

“We’ll continue to work. The issue is not going away,” Pacione-Zayas said, attributing the results to the court battle over whether referendum votes would be counted, which could have caused potential confusion among mail-in voters.

Last year, 2nd Ward Ald. Brian Hopkins, a foe of Bring Chicago Home, branded the CTU and United Working Families “the new machine.”

But less than a year after electing Johnson, that new machine may have suffered a breakdown that could have long-term implications for the man behind the wheel.

Contributing: Michael Loria, Francia García Hernández

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Bring Chicago Home map: View which precincts voted for and against the referendum

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