On Friday, members of E.A.T. (Equity and Transformation) and other local community-based organizations gathered at City Hall to urge Mayor Brandon Johnson not to cut funding for the city’s basic income pilot program in the 2025 budget. The program provides a $500 monthly stipend to Chicagoans in need.
“We’ve got a commitment from the city that this pilot was going to be in the budget in 2025 and for us to find out today and over the last couple of weeks that this program is slowly but surely getting pushed out of the budget..shame on the City Council and our mayor,” Richard Wallace said.
Wallace is the founder and executive director of E.A.T., a West Side-based nonprofit created by and for formerly incarcerated people. The nonprofit aims to build social and economic equity while dismantling anti-Black racism.
In May, Mayor Brandon Johnson announced that he would relaunch the city’s basic income pilot program under a new name—the Chicago Empowerment Fund. The kickoff date for the
Chicago Empowerment Fund was slated for January 2025, according to Wallace.
Wallace and E.A.T. worked alongside the city to design the Chicago Empowerment Fund under the Mayor’s Office of Community Safety. Additionally, the nonprofit launched its own guaranteed income program in 2021, the Chicago Future Fund, which provides $500 monthly stipends to formerly incarcerated people. Since 2021, the Chicago Future Fund has helped 130 residents in in Austin, Garfield Park and Englewood.
He added that guaranteed income programs can increase psychological wellness, challenge income inequities and curb recidivism.
The city is facing a $1 billion deficit for the 2025 budget due in part to rising pension costs and the loss of COVID-19 federal relief dollars set to expire in 2026.
Since presenting his 2025 address in October, Mayor Johnson has proposed several ways to close the budget gap, with the most prominent being property tax increases. Initially, he proposed raising property taxes to $300 million, then reduced the amount to $150 million and most recently, to $68 million.
However, according to Wallace, Johnson’s new proposal could lead to cuts in programs like the guaranteed income initiative, which relies on ARPA funding. Initially, the Chicago Empowerment Fund (CEF) was allocated $64 million, but now $30 million—intended to support about 5,000 participants in the new CEF program—is at risk of being cut.
“They want to sweep the remaining ARPA dollars into the budget to make up for the budget deficit, which means that all of the programs that are in the office of the Mayor’s Office of Community, the majority of them are going to be impacted, including the staff who may be laid off due to this budget deficit,” Wallace explained.
The fund uses federal funds provided to the city of Chicago under the ARPA, which President Joe Biden (D) signed into law in 2021.
He added that if Bring Chicago Home had been approved by voters in the March Illinois Primary election, it could have created an opportunity for additional revenue.
The mayor’s office didn’t respond to The TRiiBE’s questions about the future of the Chicago Empowerment Fund in the 2025 budget. A spokesperson for the city’s Office of Budget and Management also declined to comment on the story due to ongoing budget negotiations.
For Austin resident Deon Hodrick, a 2023 recipient of E.A.T.’s Chicago Future Fund, the news that the city’s basic income program might not continue in 2025 is disheartening. He said the $500 monthly stipend significantly helped him cover his utility bills and care for his children.
“It helped me out in ways I couldn’t imagine,” Hodrick said. I know it’s only $500, but you know them light and gas bills and stuff add up. “I know how life-changing this could be for somebody. I hope they don’t discontinue the program because it’s helping a lot of people from the South and the West Side from disenfranchised neighborhoods, giving them a different light.”
The city’s first basic income pilot plan, the Chicago Resilient Communities Pilot, was launched under Mayor Lori Lightfoot in 2022. More than 170,000 people applied for the program,and the city selected 5,000 Chicagoans to receive the monthly payments. The program lasted through 2023, and it’s unclear why it didn’t continue.
Gregory Chambers, director of the Policy Institute at the Illinois Coalition to End Punishments, spoke at the press conference about the benefits of the basic income program. He highlighted how poverty drives crime and emphasized that programs like this could help reduce it.
“We believe that the public, politicians, and elected officials have a duty to ensure people can eat, have housing, access education, and sustain their lives and livelihoods. We believe we can achieve that by securing guaranteed income in the city of Chicago,” Chambers said.
An October report by the University of Chicago’s Inclusive Economy Lab highlighted the program’s rollout and success under Lightfoot.
“We are urging the city council to fully fund this program as it is a demonstrated success in leaving child poverty, food insecurity and homelessness for thousands of Chicagoans while improving, strengthening our workforce and supporting local economies. It’s time to put the people of Chicago first,” said Sarah Saheb, director of Economic Security Illinois Action.
With budget hearings in City Hall coming to a close on Friday, it’s up to Johnson and the Chicago City Council to agree on and pass a budget by Dec. 31.
Today’s press conference included a multi-racial coalition of residents and community organizations, many of which supported Johnson’s campaign for mayorship in 2023. They packed the Clark Street entrance of City Hall in support of the basic income program.
Wallace said today’s strong show of support reflects both racial solidarity and demonstrates what true democracy looks like.
“People can still show up and voice their opinions and concerns about an administration. Critique isn’t condemnation. Critique is critique—it means I have an assessment about the decision you made,” Wallace said.
“That doesn’t mean I disown you or that we don’t care for you anymore. It’s none of those things. It simply means there’s a decision being made that impacts us and that we disagree with, so we must engage democratically. That includes showing up, direct actions, civil disobedience—all of those things.”
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