Billion Dollar Campaign

In March 2021, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan, which set aside $350 billion for local, county and state governments suffering revenue shortfalls due to the pandemic. The Budget for Black Lives Coalition has developed a detailed plan for how the Cook County Board of Commissioners and President Toni Preckwinkle should spend its $998 million in American Rescue Plan funding.

Proposals

Green Jobs and Housing Proposal

Healthcare Proposal

Investment Plan for Cook County’s American Rescue Plan Funds

The Cook County Budget for Black Lives Coalition—SOUL, The People’s Lobby, Chicago Community Bond Fund, National Nurses United, and the Shriver Center on Poverty Law —are calling on the Cook County Board of Commissioners and President Toni Preckwinkle to invest its $998 million in American Rescue Plan funding in housing assistance, physical and mental health care, and jobs in the green economy for formerly incarcerated people and other people in the Black and Brown communities hit hardest by policing, incarceration, and a long history of racist divestment, austerity, and exploitation. 

This will build on the County’s historic investment of $100 million in the Equity Fund that is launching this year. We further call on the County to not spend a single cent of American Rescue Plan money on the racist and failed systems of policing and incarceration that have caused—and continue to cause—immense harm to Black communities in particular while failing to keep people safe.

We propose that these investments be focused on the 15 zip codes in Chicago and the 15 zip codes in suburban Cook County with the highest numbers of people returning from incarceration:

$998 Million in American Rescue Plan Funding for Cook County to be invested in:

Restorative Justice

$14.5 million funds mental health emergency first responders so that trained mental health workers, rather than police, can respond to people in mental health emergencies, together with wrap-around services.

$10 million provides 2 years of seed funding to create a new Office for Community Health, Safety, and Restorative Justice within the Department of Public Health so the County can learn from the restorative and transformative justice practices developed by community-based organizations and scale up those practices in an accountable way using the county resources and public workers.

Physical & mental health care

$8.5 million adds mental health care program staff at all Cook County Health community clinics, especially those in Black communities.

$216 million provides 2 years of seed funding for the creation of 6 new Cook County Health community mental health clinics with 15 full-time staff employed at each. 

$36 million funds the creation of 300 additional positions in the Cook County Health system including salary and benefits. This is the number of additional staff which are required to fulfill Cook County Health’s own staffing plans. Currently, there are nearly 200 vacancies for funded staff nursing positions. These would also need to be filled to fulfill the staffing plan.

Housing

$2.5 million funds enforcement of and compliance with the Just Housing Amendment.

$20 million provides rental/security deposit assistance and outreach counseling to justice-involved individuals.

$47 million provides housing vouchers with fewer restrictions than those issued under federal programs, especially regarding those with a history of justice involvement.

$3.5 million provide emergency reentry vouchers for up to three months for those incarcerated past their release date because they cannot find housing.

$50 million provides rental assistance to prevent the looming eviction crisis that threatens to begin after the state phases out its eviction moratorium in August 2021.

$50 million provides mortgage and tax assistance to prevent a likely foreclosure crisis triggered by the pandemic.

$27 million dedicated to the rehabilitation and development of affordable housing, with particular focus on Cook County’s Southside.

Jobs

$157 million provides 3 years of funding to the Forest Preserve District’s Cook County Conservation Corps to create 800 positions (300 positions in the Green Corps program that recruits formerly incarcerated people and 500 new full-time positions in the Forest Preserve District workforce itself) and fund supplies for those people to plan 80,000 trees in Black and Brown communities with insufficient green space.

$356 million provides 3 years of funding to create a Cook County Climate Jobs Corps that will create public sector county jobs in energy efficiency and/or renewable energy installation. One possible use of this funding would hire 1,200 people and acquire the relevant supplies to weatherize 50,000 homes; the program would convene a community-driven participatory process to assess the best specific use of the County’s resources to decrease carbon use and improve quality of life upon initiation of the program.