(The Center Square) – The state of Illinois is spending about $700 million in taxpayer funds to address homelessness.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday joined officials from city and county government and the private, non-profit sector to announce $2 million in taxpayer funds for groups to address homelessness in Springfield.
Chief Homelessness Officer Christine Haley said that’s just a fraction of the total being spent statewide.
“We have about $700 million that comes to the state of Illinois,” Haley said. “About 500, a little over $400 million is general revenue, and then about 200 million of federal funding that comes directed to the state.”
Pritzker explained the goal of his Home Illinois program, launched in 2024.
“This year, we’ve tried to make sure that we’re providing stable funding,” Pritzker said. “I think our first year was probably our largest year because we had to get it going.”
The first year of Home Illinois cost state taxpayers $350 million. The program cost $290 million in fiscal 2025. This year, the program costs $263 million, but there are other funds being spent on homelessness. Overall, including about $200 million in federal funds, taxpayers will spend $700 million this year.
“It’s about a $55 billion budget,” Pritzker said of the total state taxpayer liability for fiscal 2026. “So, you know, when you talk about a couple of hundred million dollars that come from the general fund. Yeah, that’s not insubstantial.”
Pritzker said the goal is to get to “functional zero.”
“Get it to a point where there is not any moment when you can, when you will actually be completely unhoused,” Pritzker said.
Since Pritzker took office in 2019, all of state spending has increased $16 billion annually, or more than 40%.
