Chicago's five-year housing plan is overdue, and West Side flood repairs have reached 70 homes, Housing tells the Council

At Wednesday's budget hearing, alderpersons pressed the Department of Housing on a plan the Municipal Code requires, $40 million in flood repair contracts still being negotiated, and how many single-room-occupancy buildings are left.

By Chicago PoliticsUpdated Nov 5, 2026

Chicago hasn't adopted a new five-year housing plan, and alderpersons told the Department of Housing on Wednesday that it's past due. "Sooner has passed," Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st) told Housing Commissioner Lissette Castañeda at the Council's budget hearing, noting the plan is required by the Municipal Code (watch).

Why it matters: the plan sets the City's goals for building and preserving affordable homes and gives the public a way to measure progress. It arrives as the Council weighs a 2027 budget with a $75 million hole and as renters, homeless service providers and housing groups lined up during the hearing's public comment to ask for more money for housing programs.

What the department said

Castañeda said the department has focused on the production goals tied to its housing bond and on the City's plan to end homelessness, and that a new plan will be "a broad undertaking" done "sooner rather than later," involving the Council and the Chicago Housing Authority. She said the 2025 annual report is getting final touches and will be posted soon. La Spata asked for a timeline through the committee chair.

Other answers from the hearing, according to our meeting notes and the transcript:

Flood repairs. Ald. Emma Mitts (37th) pressed on repairs for homes damaged in the 2023 West Side floods (watch). The department said it and the current administrator, the West Side Health Authority, have completed 70 homes; the authority's contract is $3.6 million, from an original $5 million allocation, and it is expected to finish its remaining 61 jobs by year's end. Five contractors who answered a spring request for proposals are negotiating to handle $40 million in further repairs, with a new contract meant to start Jan. 1. Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38th) reminded the department that Portage Park flooded too (watch).
Single-room occupancy. Ald. Bennett Lawson (44th) asked how many SRO buildings remain citywide and asked for a 10-year tracker, saying SROs in his ward had been converted or closed (watch). Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth (48th) urged the department to prioritize deeply affordable housing and SRO preservation (watch).
Rental subsidies. The department said the Chicago Low-Income Housing Trust Fund, which lets households at the lowest incomes pay 30% of income toward rent, is supporting 2,768 households this year, and the Mayor's budget includes $13 million for it. Lawson questioned how it will be paid for as in-lieu fees from developers fall (watch).
Tenant purchases. Asked by Ald. Felix Cardona Jr. (31st), the department said three properties have been bought by tenants through the right-of-first-refusal program (watch).
Green social housing. Sposato asked when the first residents will move into the City's green social housing program. The department said the nonprofit fund running it has hired its first CEO and expects a fuller update about a year from now (watch).

What our records add

Votes behind the programs. The SRO Preservation Fund was renamed and continued in April 2025 on a 50-0 vote (SO2025-0015982). The Tenant Opportunity to Purchase pilot in the 606 district passed 44 to 3 in September 2024 (SO2024-0011001), and an amendment to it passed 48 to 1 that December (O2024-0014256).

How each ward voted

43 yea, 3 nay, 1 absent, 1 not voting · Sep 18, 2024 · Passed

Yea Nay Absent Not voting

SO2024-0011001: the roll call, the timeline and the documents

How many are left. Lawson's question comes weeks after the nonprofit Mercy Housing Lakefront bought the Leland, one of Uptown's last SROs, out of foreclosure with City and state help, as we reported in October. A University of Illinois Chicago study found the city lost nearly 40% of its SRO stock between 2014 and 2024, Block Club Chicago reported.

What's next

Today through Nov. 10: department hearings continue; Family and Support Services, which runs homeless shelters, testifies Friday.
Jan. 1: the next flood repair contract is supposed to begin.
Dec. 31: deadline for a balanced 2027 budget.

The Committee on Housing and Real Estate next meets Nov. 17.

Sources: Chicago Politics: Budget hearing transcript, Nov. 4, 2026.