Chicagoans Ask, “Where Have All the Dollars Gone?”

Late last year, Chicagoans revolted against a proposed $300 million property tax hike that was part of the city’s 2025 budget. They weren’t happy about a lot of things, but they were especially angry about the vast sums of money Chicago has been spending on the estimated 52,000 illegal migrants who have taken up residence in their city over the past two years. The good news is that Mayor Brandon Johnson and the City Council dropped the property tax increase. The bad news is that they raised taxes on just about everything else.

To date, Chicago has spent $612 million to provide shelter and a range of social services to the illegal migrants. Nearly $500 million of that amount was paid to two contractors, Favorite Healthcare Staffing and Equitable Social Solutions. Favorite Healthcare Staffing provides traveling visiting nurses, nutritional services and other social services professionals who are dispatched around the country. Equitable Social Solutions provides “an array of homelessness prevention and housing supports,” with programs around the country. A key part of their business model is contracting with local governments to provide housing for “newcomers, refugees and asylum seekers.”

As late as last September, the city increased the value of Favorite Healthcare Staffing by $100 million, bringing the total value of the contract to $334 million. Two months later, the total payout had reached $342 million. Favorite is a subsidiary of the Acacium Group, a multinational healthcare staffing company based in London.

According to NBC 5 Chicago, the city has done its best to keep taxpayers in the dark about where and how their money is being spent. It seems they had good reason for not wanting the public to know. The local TV news station’s investigation shed some light on the matter, revealing that “Favorite Healthcare Staffing routinely billed the city for 84 hours per week — per staffer, including overtime — rates that city alders called ‘exorbitant.’”

Considering that the company’s health care workers and shelter staff would have had to put in 12 hours a day, seven days a week, to get to 84 hours on duty, it also calls into question the quality of care that Favorite was providing for the $334 million they were billing. Advocates for the migrants have filed numerous complaints against Favorite, alleging a wide range of abuses, including denying migrants in their care adequate (or edible) food, limiting children’s access to water and milk and generally abusive behavior.

Equitable Social Solutions’ record of providing service for the $106.5 million they have received from the City of Chicago is also questionable. According to the NBC 5 investigation, the buildings that they contracted to house migrants were vastly overpriced. “When it came to the buildings-turned-hotels with Equitable Social Solutions, some building owners were guaranteed $150,000 a month if hundreds of migrants remained in their building.”

Last fall, the city announced that it was ending its designated shelter program for migrants and transitioning to a unified shelter system that will serve all homeless residents of Chicago. Under the “one-shelter initiative” illegal migrants and homeless citizens will all compete for the same available spaces – which means, of course, that some homeless citizens will be left out in the cold (literally).

Chicago and the State of Illinois are resolute in their determination to remain a haven for illegal aliens, no matter how much it costs, or how bad the services being provided. There is one glimmer of hope, however, for beleaguered taxpayers. Tom Homan, whom President-elect Trump has tapped to serve as “Border Czar” in his administration, was in town last month and pledged that beginning on Jan. 21, “We’re going to start [the process of deporting illegal aliens] right here in Chicago, Illinois.”

That’s at least $612 million too late for Chicago taxpayers, but for many, that is a welcome relief from even more onerous costs in the future.