(WBBM NEWSRADIO) – At a hearing advocates have been trying to hold for more than a year, the Chicago City Council took testimony Thursday on a plan to raise the tax on high-end property sales and use the money to fight homelessness.
The Bring Chicago Home proposal – also known as a “mansion tax” -- would increase the real estate transfer tax on home sales valued over $1 million. Proceeds would help fund affordable housing and services for un-housed people.
Outgoing Housing Commissioner Marisa Novara pointed said much of the city’s money used for homeless services comes from federal funds that will soon run out.
“Our current funding is insufficient, period, but it is also insufficiently flexible. We really need more funding sources that are flexible that allow us to reach the very lowest incomes,” Novara said.
She said the Johnson Administration is looking at changes that could lessen the impact on less-affluent properties but still raise the needed funds.
Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot resisted even holding a hearing on the proposal, which is opposed by many building owners.
“While our office buildings don’t contribute to homelessness, our buildings do house over hundreds of thousands of workers and support 64,500 jobs,” said Amy Masters, an official with the Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago (BOMA). “Many of those are union jobs, with good wages and benefits. Yet our office buildings would be hit exceptionally hard if this transfer tax were to pass.”
Carla Johnson, an advocate with the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, said the measure is a long way off from becoming law.
Aldermen would need to pass a resolution that triggers a voter referendum, she said.
Even if enough voters support the plan, aldermen would be the ones to craft a corresponding ordinance with the tax change, she said.
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