The City of Chicago has released its budget for Fiscal Year 2025, led by Mayor Brandon Johnson. As a leader of the Flexible Housing Pool program (FHP), the City of Chicago was the first and has been the program’s largest funder. Since 2020, the City has funded FHP at $6 million annually. Despite our best efforts to increase the City’s contribution to the FHP to $11.2 million, including tremendous advocacy from staff, FHP program participants, and advocates citywide, the City has chosen to continue flat funding FHP at $6 million for FY25 – essentially a cut due to inflation and rising housing costs.
FHP is a project that serves Chicagoans experiencing homelessness with a focus on those who cycle through public crisis systems such as emergency rooms, jails, gun violence programs, and hospitals. FHP currently serves over 1,400 participants, 500 of whom are children. We are grateful for the expressed support our aldermanic allies and Mayor’s office have shown for Chicagoans experiencing homelessness, but we are disappointed to have not received the necessary increase to sustainably fund the project at $11.2 million.
While we understand the City faced a budget deficit of $1 billion, the City also faced a sharp increase in people experiencing homelessness due to rising housing costs, COVID funding and supports coming to an end, and an influx of new arrivals who need and deserve housing supports. The $11.2 million in funding we have advocated for would have sustained current program participants and ensured that they remain stably housed while receiving essential wraparound services. The flat funding of $6 million has now put our program participants at risk of returning to homelessness.
We are prepared to continue our advocacy, in partnership with our aldermanic allies and the Johnson administration, to bring an end to homelessness in the City of Chicago and to ensure that our program participants will remain safely and stably housed. Join us in our continued funding advocacy for the FHP project by joining our Mobile Action Network, https://p2a.co/kpckivz.
