Mail-in ballots are being sent to voters and early voting sites are opening. The March 19 primary election is happening right now.
There is one key vote at the bottom of the ballot that too many voters will overlook or not understand. At the very bottom is a critical “Bring Chicago Home” referendum with hard-to-understand wording.
Yet, it is literally a life-and-death matter for many homeless individuals. These are someone’s son or daughter, father or mother. They are family members.
The referendum begins “Shall the City of Chicago impose: 1. A real estate transfer tax decrease of 20% to establish a new transfer tax rate of $3 for every $500 of the transfer price, or fraction thereof, for that part of the transfer price under $1,000,000 to be paid by the buyer of the real estate transferred unless the buyer is exempt from the tax solely by operation of state law, in which case the tax is to be paid by the seller.” It continues for three more paragraphs while most voters’ eyes will glaze over.
The actual issue is very simple. Shall Chicago increase the real estate tax on sales of property worth over $1 million to fund a $100 million dedicated fund to reduce homelessness and increase affordable housing.
The first question should be, is there a need to raise this revenue? My answer is, absolutely. The numbers of homeless tell the story. Even before the asylum-seeker immigration crisis brought in 35,000 new people to house, Chicago officially had more than 5,000 homeless people in shelters and 1,000 un-sheltered on the streets.”
Undoubtedly, you have seen the tent cities and the people reduced to begging on street corners and at grocery stores in our hometown, one of the wealthiest cities in one of the wealthiest nations in the world.
Over the past 40 years, I have become more and more aware of the impact of homelessness. Since 1980, I have sometimes worked as a volunteer at a local shelter. And I am a former board member with Northside Housing Services, which provides a shelter for 50 homeless men, drop-in services for other homeless people, and 194 apartments to move these individuals out of homelessness and back into more productive and comfortable living.
The need is real. There are too few beds, too little health care, and few counseling services. Even before the migrant crisis, there were only 3,000 shelter beds of overnight and interim housing in Chicago. We now need more. This new money will let us open a state-of-the-art 70-bed men’s shelter in Rogers Park. Each new shelter costs about $5 million.
City of big shoulders and big hearts
There are concerns about voting for the referendum. As Crain’s Chicago Business has reported, commercial real estate property sales were down 44% in 2023, even without a new transfer tax. We all know that there are too many empty stores on Michigan Avenue, and too many vacant offices in the Loop. Some fear that passing this new tax will kill the goose that lays the golden egg for the rest of us. But I don’t think that is true. We are undergoing a transition throughout the country as we repurpose old buildings and change the way we shop and work. But the Loop is being revitalized, and there are new neighborhoods coming, like the 78 and the area around the planned new casino on the north riverfront.
Chicago is not only the city of big shoulders. Despite our gruff exterior, we are the city with a big heart as well. We just don’t wear it on our sleeves.
We can also walk and chew gum at the same time. We can build back the Loop grander than ever. We can be a city where everyone who wants one can get a job. We can meet the asylum-seeker crisis with humanity and compassion. We can agree to a new tax on property sales of over $1 million to help save the lives and the futures of those who struggle in Chicago winters to survive.
I know from personal experience that many of them can be saved, and I, at least, will vote to do so as soon as my mail-in ballot arrives. This is good for Chicago.
Dick Simpson is a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois Chicago and a former alderman. His latest book is “Chicago’s Modern Mayors: From Harold Washington to Lori Lightfoot.”
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