Each year, Housing Action Illinois works on a broad range of issues aligned with our core mission of creating an Illinois where everyone has a good, affordable place to call home. Below are some of our successes and challenges from the 2025 Illinois General Assembly session, as well as bills advocated for by our partners and allies. These are all measures that we believe will help families and communities across Illinois to thrive.

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Together, we can create an Illinois where everyone has a stable, affordable place to call home.

Fighting for HOME Illinois in a Bad Budget Year
Bills We Helped Pass:
More Good Bills that Passed

Fighting for HOME Illinois in a Bad Budget Year

With stagnant revenue estimates, increased spending pressures, and well-placed anxiety about next year’s federal budget, we knew it would be a challenging year to advocate for the state budget increases needed to realize the goals of the HOME Illinois plan to reach functional zero homelessness, where experiences of homelessness are rare, brief and non-recurring.

However, because we believe housing is a human right, regardless of the fiscal situation of our governments, we began the year advocating for $100 million in increased funding. This was intended to build on the more than $180 million in increased funding for the HOME Illinois plan secured over the past two years.

Despite our efforts and those of our many allies in the General Assembly, the overall HOME Illinois line item—and other line items in the state budget to prevent and end homelessness—contains cuts beyond the Governor’s proposed budget.

In FY26 there will be just over $354 million in funding available, a $14.6 million decrease between various line items. This cut is significantly greater than the $7.6 million reduction proposed by the governor.
As initially proposed, the Court-Based Rent Assistance Program is being cut from $75 million to $50 million—by far the single biggest reduction. We understand that the plan is to try to serve the same number of households with a lower level of assistance.

Despite the overall reduction, there are some bright spots, including;

$9 million in additional funding to support Chicago’s One System Initiative, a unified shelter system for all Chicagoans.
$7 million in increased funding for the Emergency and Transitional Housing Program to increase emergency shelter bed capacity around the state. (Funding will come from the Illinois Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which makes this only a partial victory.)
$5 million in new funding for reentry-related homeless services administered by the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority.

There is also some one-time funding provided:

A $20 million allocation from the Opioid Settlement Fund to help finance supportive housing.
A $10 million increase in reauthorized capital budget funds (bringing the total to more than $27 million) for the Illinois Housing Development Authority to help complete financing for Low Income Housing Tax Credit rental developments, a measure advocated for by the Illinois Housing Council.

The budget may have been far worse without our collective efforts so we want to thank our advocacy partners, including the Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness, Illinois Shelter Alliance, and the Supportive Housing Providers Association, as well as homeless service providers and individuals all around the state.

Bills We Helped Pass

Creating More Affordable Rental Housing with Property Tax Incentives

The Affordable Housing Special Assessment Program (AHSAP) helps make rental housing more affordable by offering a reduction in assessed value for owners who build or substantially rehab properties and agree to keep some of the units affordable.

This year, lawmakers passed a bill extending AHSAP through 2034 and making updates to help both county assessors and property owners use the program more easily. For example, in Cook County, the law now clearly allows scattered-site projects with 7 or more units to participate if they have a regulatory agreement with a public housing agency that imposes affordability restrictions, such as the City of Chicago Department of Housing or the Illinois Housing Development Authority.

In Cook County and at least 5 other counties, more than 1,000 new construction affordable rental homes have been completed or are under development using AHSAP, including 600 in downtown Chicago.

In addition, data from the Cook County Assessor for tax year 2022 shows that more than 750 owners, generally small and mid-sized, made use of AHSAP for rehab projects, especially on the south and west sides of Chicago and in nearby suburbs.

In the coming year, we will focus on helping more property owners and counties take advantage of this program.

Our partners included: Cook County Assessor’s Office, Illinois Housing Council, Metropolitan Planning Council, Related Midwest, and The Preservation Compact.

Key legislative champions: Senator Mattie Hunter and Representative Will Guzzardi. The original legislation, eventually included in the state revenue omnibus, was SB 1911.

Read Chicago Tribune coverage on the Affordable Housing Special Exemption Program »

Reforming the Tax Sale System to Protect Home Equity

To give lawmakers more time to update Illinois law in response to the 2023 U.S Supreme Court decision in Tyler v. Hennepin, the next tax sale in Cook County, tentatively scheduled for August 2025, has been delayed until March 10, 2026. This was included as part of the state revenue omnibus bill. The legislation also pauses delinquency interest accrual on past due property taxes in Cook County, from September 2025 through March 2026. This change will make it more affordable for homeowners to catch up on overdue taxes.

In the unanimous Tyler decision, the U.S. Supreme Court found that it’s unconstitutional for states to have laws that can result in someone losing their home or other property due to unpaid property taxes without giving any opportunity to retain remaining equity after the tax debt is paid.

Eleven other states whose state laws were in conflict with this ruling have reformed their tax sale laws. Illinois is the only state that has not yet taken action.

The goal is to pass a reform plan—possibly as soon as the fall Veto Session—that will:

Make paying delinquent property taxes easier and more affordable, so that the number of homeowners and other property owners who are potentially subject to losing their home or property is as low as possible.
Ensure that if someone does lose their property, a competitive auction system will be in place to maximize opportunities to return remaining equity after the tax debt has been paid.

Key partners included: AARP, Center for Community Progress, Chicago Community Trust, Cook County Treasurer’s Office, National Consumer Law Center and Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago.

Our legislative champions included Senator Celina Villanueva, Representative Will Guzzardi and Representative Curtis Tarver.

Read Chicago Sun-Times coverage on the injustices of Illinois’ tax foreclosure process »

Eliminating State Matching Fund Requirements for Shelters and Supportive Housing

This legislation clarifies that there will be no matching funds requirements for the Illinois Department of Human Services’ Emergency and Transitional Housing or Supportive Housing Programs. This has no impact on the state budget—it just eliminates a requirement that funded agencies match state dollars with their own funds or in-kind contributions. This will save providers from spending time calculating in-kind contributions to meet the 25% match requirement and help reduce barriers to nonprofit providers serving their clients, particularly among smaller agencies serving rural, urban and suburban economically distressed communities.

Key partners included: Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness, Illinois Shelter Alliance, and Supportive Housing Providers Association.

Key Legislative champions: Senator Mike Simmons and Representative Michelle Mussman. The original legislation, eventually included in the budget implementation legislation, was HB 1862.

More Good Bills that Passed

Tenant Protections

HB 3566: To prevent the long-term negative impacts that come from being named in an eviction case, this bill requires that a complaint against a family that names a defendant who is a minor at the time of filing shall be dismissed in its entirety against all defendants. The bill allows the case to be refiled and other provisions. (Lead Advocate: Legal Action Chicago; Chief Sponsors: Representative Dee Avelar and Senator Karina Villa)

Homeowner Issues

SB 1261: Codifies that the Illinois Housing Development Authority’s homeownership programs shall be designed in such a way to allow for owners in Community Land Trusts (CLTs) to participate. Also extends the existence of the Community Land Trust Task Force to continue working on strengthening state support for CLTs as a means of creating permanent affordable housing. (Lead Advocates: Here to Stay Community Land Trust and Palenque LSNA; Chief Sponsors: Senator Graciela Guzmán and Representative Lilian Jiménez)
SB 1383: Delays repeal of the Condominium and Common Interest Community Ombudsperson Act, maintaining the position of the Ombudsperson, until the end of 2029. The Ombudsperson provides information to unit owners and board members about their rights and obligations under state law. (Chief Sponsors: Senator Mattie Hunter and Representative Dan Didech)
SB 1563: A responsible way to address concerns about so-called “squatters,” this bill clarifies that nothing in state eviction law prevents police departments from enforcing state criminal trespass law. (Chief Sponsors: Senator Lakesia Collins and Representative Jawaharial Williams)

Preventing and Ending Homelessness

HB 3377: To provide more oversight and accountability, requires school districts to annually report the funding they receive to serve students experiencing homelessness and how they used those funds to the State Board of Education. (Lead Advocate: Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness; Chief Sponsors: Representative Nicole La Ha and Senator John Curran)
HB 3761: Requires a state website to have up-to-date information on how a hospital or healthcare system may connect a patient experiencing homelessness or otherwise in a vulnerable housing situation with shelter and homeless support services. (Chief Sponsors: Representative Lindsey LaPointe and Senator Mary Edly-Allen)

Fair Housing

HB 1575: Provides that a county recorder may not impose a fee for filing a restrictive covenant modification to an unlawful restrictive covenant, such as those restricting the sale of properties to people based on their race, religion, or national origin. (Chief Sponsors: Representative Marcus Evans and Senator Willie Preston)

Understanding the Needs of People and Communities

HB 3616: Expands the data that the Illinois Housing Development Authority already collects to report on the affordability of homes for rent and sale to low-income households in each Illinois municipality to also include additional affordability data for extremely low-income households and moderate-income (aka middle-income) households. (Chief Sponsors: Representative Will Guzzardi and Senator Graciela Guzmán)

Community Reinvestment

HB 1301: Establishes that no State funds may be deposited in a financial institution subject to the Illinois Community Reinvestment Act (IL CRA) unless either the institution has a current rating of satisfactory or outstanding or the initial IL CRA examination has not yet been completed. (Chief Sponsors: Representative Kimberly Du Buclet and Senator Mattie Hunter)

We encourage Governor Pritzker to sign all the state legislation summarized here into state law.

2025 State Legislative Session Wrap-Up