Just over two months after taking office, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is facing pressure to follow through on a major campaign promise.
Chanting “65K need a place to stay,” housing advocates gathered in the City Hall lobby Thursday afternoon, calling on Johnson to follow through on instituting a real estate transfer tax to improve city services by creating new streams of revenue.
The measure, called “Bring Chicago Home,” plans to pay for new, permanent housing for the the city's homeless population by almost tripling the city’s real estate transfer tax on homes valued at $1 million or more.
The so-called “mansion tax” is expected to generate $163 million a year.
“We need a dedicated stream of revenue to address the need of those who, for whatever reason, are without shelter,” Bishop David Todd Whittley told members of the Council’s Housing and Real Estate Committee.
A similar measure stalled last year under then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot after more than two dozen City Council members failed to show up for a meeting about the ordinance. Bring Chicago Home was included in the new mayor’s transition report, and he has expressed support for the measure.
Commercial properties would be included in the plan, with some in Chicago’s multi-billion-dollar real estate industry saying that would be bad for business.
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According to a coalition that includes the Chicago Association of Realtors and the building owners and managers association, the proposal would almost triple the transfer tax on a $1 million home to nearly $30,000.
Amy Masters of BOMA Chicago told the committee that member buildings are still seeing soaring vacancy rates in the wake of the pandemic. “Market studies suggest that Chicago’s office buildings have lost 50% of their value, and we estimate that almost half of Chicago’s office buildings are in some state of financial distress,” she said.
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