Axing guaranteed income program to fill city's deficit will cost Chicago long-term, stipend's advocates say

Calling it “the nightmare before Christmas,” a coalition of residents and advocates decried Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposal to cut Chicago’s guaranteed income program to help fill a budget hole.

As the mayor’s administration works toward a budget deal, about $30 million in COVID-19 relief funds set aside for the Chicago Empowerment Fund is on the chopping block. A coalition of formerly incarcerated residents, immigrants and advocates urged the mayor and City Council members to keep the guaranteed income program in the budget at a City Hall news conference late last week.

“Shame, shame, shame on the City Council; shame on our mayor,” said Richard Wallace, executive director of Equity and Transformation, a group that helps citizens returning from prison on the West Side. “We got commitment from the city that this pilot was going to be in the budget in 2025, and for us to find out that this program is slowly but surely getting pushed out, it was something that we could not sleep with.”

The mayor’s finance team said in a statement that the city is still negotiating the budget and declined to comment. The city is racing to finalize a budget by the end of the year. Faced with a nearly $1 billion deficit, Johnson initially floated a $300 million property tax increase that was summarily rejected by Council members. The latest proposal includes a $68.5 million property tax increase.

Wallace, whose group runs its own, privately funded guaranteed income program, said participants have reported better physical and psychological health and reduced levels of recidivism.

Immigrant rights groups also called for the preservation of the Chicago Empowerment Fund, which was set to kick off next year with a focus on low-income households and returning citizens. The program would give $500 monthly cash payments to 5,000 households, no strings attached, for 12 months.

Maggie Lugo, an undocumented immigrant who lives in Little Village, said the city should “tax the rich and get this program going. Guaranteed income benefits people of all the communities, regardless of where they’re born.”

Others touted the successes of Chicago’s first iteration of guaranteed income payments, under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot. The Chicago Resilient Communities pilot, which ended in 2023, was recently hailed by the University of Chicago’s Inclusive Economy Lab as a model for how cities can better reach communities.

“There is no doubt that this program works, and that is it is successful,” said Sarah Saheb, director of Economic Security Illinois Action. The mayor’s proposed cuts are “yet another broken promise for the people of Chicago who are struggling to make ends meet,” she said.

For Brendan Shiller, one of the founders of the West Side Justice Center, cutting programs like the Chicago Empowerment Fund runs counter to the aims of the Johnson administration.

“We have a mayor who said, next year, we want less than 500 murders,” Shiller said. “We know that the most effective crime prevention, the most effective violence prevention, is stabilizing communities and giving people homes. This type of program is essential to violence prevention.”

He added that giving people cash results in economic development in their communities.

“These monies go to people who spend them on their home, on their food, on their health care, and they create economic development in the community, which creates more income for the city,” Shiller said. “Cutting these funds actually hurts the city budget.”

Esther Yoon-Ji Kang is a reporter on WBEZ’s Race, Class and Communities desk.