The Bring Chicago Home referendum has officially failed, according to The Associated Press, which made the call Friday evening after thousands more outstanding mail ballots for the March primary election were added to vote totals.
According to updated totals released by the Chicago Board of Elections, unofficial results show 53% voted against the measure, with supporters trailing six-percentage points behind at 47%. The Associated Press called it for opponents at 6 p.m. shortly after results were released.
The additional mail ballots added to the rolls Friday did little to change the referendum’s standing. Since Tuesday night, the share of ‘no’ votes has hovered at 54%, with supporters at roughly 46%. A majority of votes was needed for the measure to pass.
The results affirm what resigned supporters had acknowledged earlier this week: that the referendum was headed toward defeat.
Michael Glasser, president of the Neighborhood Building Owners Alliance of Chicago, one of the groups that sued in an attempt to block the referendum, said in a statement Friday night that “rather than the end of Bring Chicago Home, we hope this is the beginning of a fresh climate that stimulates investment in and reduces obstacles to the creation and maintenance of affordable housing.”
“There are vacant lots and empty buildings all across Chicago. We can transform them into homes for hard-working Chicago families, if the City works with us instead of against us,” Glasser said.
It was a sentiment echoed by Farzin Parang, the Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago’s executive director, who cited the need to address homelessness and revitalize Chicago’s downtown and neighborhood corridors.
“Now that Mayor Johnson’s real estate tax increase has been rejected by voters, we reissue our repeated calls for the City to convene all stakeholders to develop solutions that move Chicago forward,” Parang said.
Organizers behind the Bring Chicago Home campaign said in a statement Friday night that despite the disappointing outcome, their goal remains “the building of a long-term movement for housing justice, with, for, and by the 68,000 Chicagoans experiencing homelessness in one of the richest cities in the world.”
“These election results did not end the fight. Instead, they amplify our commitment to finding solutions for housing insecurity and addressing homelessness,” the statement read.
Voters were asked whether they wanted to authorize a tax increase on the sale of high-end properties to raise money for homelessness prevention. The proposal would have changed the current, flat real estate transfer tax rate of .75% to a three-tiered, marginal tax, with the portion of property valued over $1 million and $1.5 million seeing tax increases – while the portion of property valued under $1 million would have seen a tax cut. An estimated $100 million was expected to be raised annually from the tax increases.
If passed, Chicago would have been on track to join cities like Los Angeles where voters approved a similar tax increase to address homelessness. But the referendum was stymied by a protracted legal battle, low voter turnout and a complicated structure that opponents framed as a property tax increase.
For more than five years, organizers in support of the referendum have worked to put the question before voters, and they found an ally in Mayor Brandon Johnson who has made the issue one of his top priorities.
A day after the election, Johnson rebuffed assertions that the referendum’s trailing position was a reflection of voters’ sentiments of his tenure so far. The first-term mayor advised opponents to “buckle up” as he vowed to continue to fight for revenue to address homelessness and his progressive agenda more broadly.
While supporters have said their goal doesn’t change, it remains to be seen whether they will embark on another attempt for a public vote or look elsewhere to raise the revenue they sought.
Tessa Weinberg and Mariah Woelfel cover Chicago politics.
