With the city anticipating a budget surplus to close out the year, Mayor Brandon Johnson will shift $95 million in COVID-19 relief funds to cover some of the ever-mounting costs of sheltering thousands of asylum-seekers coming to Chicago by the day.
Johnson’s top aides said they announced the budget maneuver Friday for the sake of transparency over how the city is paying to care for nearly 15,000 migrants living in city shelters — but acknowledged the revised accounting won’t move the needle in a crisis pushing city resources to the limit.
