A person packs up his tent after being told to clear the area for street cleaning and sanitation in the West Loop.
Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
Chicagoans have a historic opportunity to show their support for a simple and powerful idea in this March primary election: Housing is a human right, not a privilege.
We can affirm that everyone deserves a safe and stable place to call home, where they can live with dignity, respect and the opportunity to thrive, with a simple “yes” on the first question, at the end of the March ballot. By restructuring the real estate transfer tax, we can empower our city to create a dedicated funding source to address homelessness.
There are 68,440 Chicagoans experiencing homelessness, more than 80% of those are people of color, and 11,885 of them are youth.
If we vote “yes,” we have the potential to generate $100 million to address homelessness, have more funding to help our youth find stable housing, and extend housing support services to families who are doubling and tripling up and are often excluded from accessing housing support services.
As the CEO of La Casa Norte, an organization that serves youth and families experiencing homelessness, I have seen firsthand the impact of housing instability on the lives of young people.
I also know what it’s like to be homeless because I have experienced it myself.
My mother was a factory worker who sometimes worked two jobs to care for me and my brothers and sisters. Despite her hard work, she barely made ends meet and there were times when we were out on the streets, living out of her car, or staying with family or friends — a situation we now call “doubled-up.”
‘Scraping by to survive’
As a young man, despite how hard I worked, I spent the early part of my 20s bouncing around. While I was never unemployed, I was still barely scraping by to survive. Like my mother, I worked multiple jobs to keep a roof over my head, yet there were periods where I slept out of my car or had to couch surf to have a warm place to sleep.
At the time, I thought what I was experiencing was normal, just another tough time. Without time to reflect, I never even had a chance to acknowledge I was experiencing homelessness.
Because of my unstable housing situation, it took me almost a decade to step out of survival mode, graduate college and finally have the luxury to start thinking seriously about the future.
When a person is worried about having a roof over their head, food in their belly, or their safety, thinking about the future is a luxury — you’re not thinking about education or a career, about generational wealth, about the importance of civic engagement or the systemic issues that got you where you’re at.
When you’re in survival mode, all you can focus on is protecting yourself from immediate threats and dangers, which limits your ability to plan ahead, pursue goals and enjoy life. For too many in our city, this has become a way of life, and it is impacting our city’s physical, mental, and emotional health.
The reality is that our city is in survival mode, and it is breaking us all down, but it doesn’t need to be a permanent state. With the right support and opportunities, anyone can achieve their dreams and goals and contribute to the well-being and prosperity of our city.
My family and I had the good fortune to eventually secure stable housing and had the opportunity to heal, grow and thrive. In this election, we can all help more Chicagoans move from surviving to thriving by supporting the Bring Chicago Home initiative.
Jose Muñoz is executive director of La Casa Norte and co-chair of the Illinois Latino Agenda.
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