We are about halfway through the 2026 Illinois General Assembly session, and Housing Action has made some positive progress in advancing key priorities from our 2026 Policy Agenda. We will keep advocating with our members and allies to move our full legislative agenda forward before the session ends on May 31.

Work on the state budget always increases during the second half of the legislative session. We are focused on reversing proposed cuts to homeless services into budget increases and advocating for progressive revenue increases needed to ensure that Illinois can meet basic human needs, especially as federal funding remains under attack.

At the same time, at the federal level, we are actively engaging with our Illinois Congressional delegation and coordinating with our national partners to protect federal funding, oppose harmful policy proposals, and pursue opportunities for positive policy change.

Thank you to everyone who has supported Housing Action Illinois’ advocacy initiatives so far this year. 

State Advocacy Update

Bills Passed Out of Committee

We’re pleased to share that three bills we are helping lead advocacy on have passed committee: 

Preventing and ending homelessness:

• HB 1429: Stop Criminalizing Homelessness (Chief Sponsor: Representative Kevin Olickal) protects people from being fined or penalized for basic survival activities, such as trying to stay warm, resting, and eating. View our fact sheet.

Protecting Tenants:

• HB 4377: Protect Tenants in Public Housing and Other Federally Subsidized Rental Housing from Time Limits and Work Requirements (Chief Sponsor: Representative Maurice West) preempts a Trump administration proposal to allow Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) and owners of project-based Section 8 housing to establish work requirements and time limits. View our fact sheet.
• HB 5234: “Trailer Bill” Changing the Effective Date of HB 3564 to Ensure Passage of the “End Rental Junk Fees: Rental Affordability and Fee Transparency Act” (Chief Sponsor: Representative Nabeela Syed) addresses the mounting move-in fees and non-optional junk fees that renters are facing. View our HB 3564 fact sheet (HB 3564 awaits a final concurrence vote in the House).

Additional bills we support that have also passed committee:

• HB 3526: Support Manufactured Home Residents by Limiting Rent Increases (Chief Sponsor: Representative Abdelnasser Rashid) – Fact Sheet
• HB 5198: Strengthen the Affordable Housing Planning and Appeal Act (Chief Sponsor: Representative Tracy Katz Muhl) – Fact Sheet
• HB 5424: Renew and Amend Comprehensive Housing Planning Act (Chief Sponsor: Representative Curtis Tarver) – More information
• HB 5394: End Credit Score Discrimination Against Voucher Holders (Chief Sponsor: Representative Kevin Olickal) – Fact Sheet

Bills We Are Working to Advance

Often, bills don’t move until later in the General Assembly session. We are continuing to push for movement on the below.

Preventing homeowner displacement:

• SB 3940: Tyler v. Hennepin Reform that Works for Property Owners, Taxing Districts and Taxpayers (Chief Sponsor: Senator Celina Villanueva). This bill is intended to help homeowners pay delinquent property taxes and maintain equity if they lose their homes due to unpaid property taxes. This would also bring Illinois state law into compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Tyler v. Hennepin. View our fact sheet.

Read recent press coverage from Injustice Watch and the Investigative Project on Race and Equity: Steps Illinois lawmakers could take to reform the state’s tax sale laws

Protecting tenants:

• SB 2264: Regulation of the use of so-called “crime free housing and nuisance ordinances” (Chief Sponsor: Senator Karina Villa). This bill regulates the use of so-called “crime-free housing and nuisance ordinances.” These laws can force landlords to evict tenants because of 911 calls or other alleged “nuisance” activity. This punishes renters for calling for help and puts survivors of domestic violence, as well as people with disabilities, at risk.  View our fact sheet.

We also continue to urge passage of Governor Pritzker’s BUILD package to increase the supply of “missing middle” housing and promote greater affordability and choice in the housing market.

We are also supportive of SB 3169, sponsored by Senator Graciela Guzmán, being advocated for by a coalition of Community Land Trusts to create more resources and tools for CLTs to create permanently affordable homes for owners. (Fact Sheet).

State Budget Focus During Final Weeks of Session

At the start of 2026, we anticipated advocating for modest budget increases for programs to prevent and end homelessness, given state budget challenges on the horizon such as loss of federal health care and food assistance funding.

However, new federal policy threats—particularly harmful and counterproductive policy proposals regarding the Continuum of Care Program—have made significant increased state investment in Permanent Supportive Housing even more urgent.

This made it all the more dismaying to see the cut the HOME Illinois Program (a $10 million reduction, down to a total of $253.7 million) and a supportive housing line item (a $1.4 million reduction to the Supportive MI Housing line item, down to total of $21,313,800) in Governor Pritzker’s FY 2027 budget proposal.

During the rest of the General Assembly session, we will continue advocating for funding increases instead of cuts. See the fact sheet on on appropriations legislation. Our Chief Sponsors are Seantor Adriane Johnson (SB 2969) and Represenative Lindsey LaPointe (HB 4568).

We will also work with partners such as the Illinois Revenue Alliance to make sure the final budget package includes progressive revenue increases, including a “Billionaire Wealth Tax” on asset appreciation, ensuring extreme wealth growth is taxed just like wages and raising an estimated $916 million in FY27.

The General Assembly will pass a budget by the end of may, and we are still speaking with legislators the critical need to increase overall funding each year, particularly for emergency shelters, which serve people with absolutely no place else to go.

Federal Advocacy Update

We continue to work closely with national partners and Illinois’ Congressional delegation to oppose budget cuts and policies that weaken the federal role in meeting housing needs. 

Federal Budget Rejects Deep Cuts

Our collective advocacy resulted in a final FY26 federal budget that largely rejects the massive budget cuts proposed by the Trump administration. The FY26 budget bill also contained provisions directing HUD to renew FY25 Continuum of Care contracts for homeless service providers, an important outcome, although implementation has been slow. Find out more from the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Looking ahead, President Trump will release a FY27 budget proposal soon, and we are prepared to oppose new threats to critical policies and programs.

Collective Action in Response to Policy Threats

We are actively opposing multiple proposed rules from HUD, including:

• Weakening the disparate impact standard for fair housing, a key issue in our work to continue addressing housing discrimination 
• Threatening the legal rights of mixed immigration status households to federal housing assistance
• Reducing eviction protections for HUD-assisted households
• Allowing counterproductive time limits and work requirements for public housing residents and other tenants in federally subsidized housing 

Housing Action submitted comments on the disparate impact proposal through a letter we drafted that was signed by 53 organizations. We also worked with Representative Nikki Budiuzski who with 12 of her fellow members from Illinois sent a letter to HUD. The  proposed rule would rescind the existing regulation that should be better used to address facially neutral practices—such as redlining, exclusionary zoning, and discriminatory infrastructure and siting decisions—that produce lasting and measurable disparities.

Additional harmful proposals, particularly regarding allowable uses of funding, could affect  nonprofits implementing the Continuum of Care Program, fair housing programs, and the Housing Counseling Program. Some of these policy changes remain the subject of litigation. Other proposed changes could impact the entire nonprofit sector, such as a proposal requiring applicants or recipients of federal grants to sign vague and overly broad certifications under the threat of civil and criminal penalties. 

The requirements are intended to align with an executive order from President Trump and guidance from the U.S. Department of Justice. Together, these policies would ban support for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) programs and could require organizations that receive federal funding to take on roles related to immigration enforcement and anti-terrorism compliance. More than 1,300 organizations, including Housing Action Illinois, have signed a letter from the National Council of Nonprofits opposing this change.

As we finalized this update, we are glad to report that there have been two positive court decisions related to Continuum of Care (CoC) program: 

• On March 31, the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island ruled HUDs implementation of the CoC Builds NOFO was in violation of federal law.
• On April 1, the First Circuit Appeal Court rejected HUD’s request to overturn a lower court’s temporary injunction against HUD’s planned changes to the CoC Program through the FY25 funding competition.

In the coming days, we will circulate a sign-on letter to oppose HUD’s proposed rule on barring mixed immigration status households from federally subsidized housing, an unnecessary proposal that is contrary to statutory language and against our values. It will also cost Illinois and the nation millions of dollars in costs due to increased homelessness and administrative burdens.

Building Support in Congress

Whatever good work we have been able to accomplish at the federal level is made possible by strong relationships with members of our Illinois Congressional delegation, including with Senator Dick Durbin and Representative Mike Quigley, both members of the subcommittees that determine and have oversight of the HUD budget.

Recent movement on the “21st Century ROAD to Housing Act” demonstrates bipartisan support and momentum for affordable housing solutions. We urge the House to take up the bill and pass it as soon as possible.

Speak Up With Us

There are many ways to support our work—from contacting your elected officials to filling out a witness slip for a committee hearing at the State Capitol to endorsing one of our campaigns. Visit our recently launched Action Center to get involved.  

If you have any questions or want to join specific campaign efforts, please contact our Housing Policy Organizer Foluke Akanni.

Support our work by donating or becoming a member today »

Deadline: 4:00 pm CT on Friday, February 13, 2026

Housing Action Illinois invites organizations across the state to sign on to a letter opposing HUD’s proposal to eliminate its Fair Housing Act disparate impact regulations.

HUD’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, published January 14, would eliminate critical enforcement regulations that help identify and address housing discrimination that is not be overt, but still causes harm, particularly to communities of color, people with disabilities, and families with children.

The Fair Housing Act (FHA) prohibits housing discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, disability, familial status, and religion.

There are different types of discrimination, including intentional discrimination (e.g., a landlord refuses to rent to a family because the household includes young children) and discrimination that has a disparate impact based on a protected characteristic such as race or sex (e.g., a local ordinance has an unjustified disproportionate effect on Black residents but does not explicitly mention race).

While intentional discrimination is often easier to uncover, disparate impact helps identify discriminatory practices that are facially neutral. Discriminatory housing policies are not always overt; thus, disparate impact is an important tool to enforce fair housing protections.

The U.S. Supreme Court decided in 2015 that the FHA allows for disparate impact claims. HUD rescinding the current disparate impact regulations cannot change the underlying law. However, HUD’s existing regulations promote a consistent understanding of how to analyze disparate impact claims and are worth keeping.

We urge HUD to fully enforce the Fair Housing Act, including through the use of disparate impact.

The deadline to add your organization’s name to our letter is 4:00 pm CT on Friday, February 13, 2026.

Please join us: add your organization to the letter »

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Cairo residents at a community meeting in June 2025.

Earlier this year, Housing Action released the Cairo Housing Needs Action Plan, a report that  assesses  the current housing situation in Cairo and provides a roadmap for the next steps to improve the quality of housing, expanding options, and laying the groundwork for economic revitalization. A core principle of the plan is that meaningful, lasting progress must be shaped in partnership with Cairo residents. 

Building trust has been central to this work. “A lot of promises have been made to residents–about a lot of things that never happened.,” says David Young, Housing Action’s Director of Capacity Building. “There was definitely some wariness and some suspicion when we first got there, and it took time to build up trust and a level of comfort before we could start writing this plan. After the plan was released, we went back to residents to go over the recommendations with them, to see what they thought, find out what they considered most important, and start to move those things forward.” 

“There’s not enough housing for the whole lifecycle. If I’m a teacher, I could afford a certain level of housing, but others might not be able to afford that. We need housing that fits everyone at every level,” says one resident, highlighting the need for more diverse housing stock in the city. “The housing that is available needs a lot of work [such as] maintenance, roofs, updated systems, outdated kitchens and bathrooms, weatherization & energy efficiency,” says another. The existing housing in Cairo is unable to adequately support even the remaining population.

To break the cycle of disinvestment in Cairo and encourage housing development, Housing Action recommends lowering cost and labor barriers. A key strategy for this is  developing pre-approved building plans which the city  can provide to developers, drastically reducing the pre-development costs of building in Cairo. These plans can also be provided to landowners who are interested in constructing their own home. This also gives the citizens of Cairo some say over what development in their city looks like while also incentivizing outside investment. 

This year, Housing Action also secured funding from the Office to Prevent and End Homelessness to bring on the Southern Illinois Community Foundation as a grant writing partner. Their support will help identify funds to implement the plans. 

“We didn’t want to be an organization that is hired to write a plan, then puts the plan up on the shelf, and you never think about it again,” David explains. “We want to say, here are our recommendations, and now that you’ve told us which things are important, we’re going to help you try and implement them. Now is it going to take a year? Could it take two years? It might take five years, but we want to build the infrastructure. We want the tools in place for Cairo so that when someone comes and says, hey, we’d like to develop something,  there’s no friction in the process.” 

We realize these plans will be challenging, but the commitment from the city, its residents, and our partners remains strong. Together, we plan to continue laying the groundwork for new housing, renewed investment, and a more vibrant future for Cairo.

Most people have never heard of the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO) or thought much about data sets—but for the past eight years, David Young, Director of Capacity Building at Housing Action, has been working to show why both matter for housing counseling.

On October 1, MISMO released its new housing counseling dataset, concluding an eight-year effort by David and other housing counseling advocates to align the field’s data with the standards already used throughout the mortgage industry. Having these standards makes communication much easier among housing counseling client management systems, originations, and servicing systems.

In the past, limited availability and lack of standard data added hurdles to collaboration. Recognizing the need to fix this, the NHRC (National Housing Resource Center), a national housing counseling advocacy organization, spearheaded an effort to collect and standardize data. David and his partners undertook the long process of reaching out to over 1,000 housing counseling agencies across the country and combed through over 4,000 existing MISMO data points to find information relevant to housing counseling.

“We did not expect it to be an eight year journey when it first started in 2017,” said David. “But the publication of the data set on October 1 couldn’t have happened at a better time, since right now it’s also critical for us to show how important housing counseling is for our communities and to have specific data on how our programs help households. We will work with our client management system developers, HUD’s office of housing counseling, and financial institutions and servicers to socialize and implement this data set to benefit consumers.”

David Young (far left) facilitates a panel discussion on housing counseling data at the 2025 MISMO Spring Summit

David gave an example of how the data set could help in an individual situation. “If a mortgage holder were late on their mortgage, the servicer should be able to see which housing counseling agency they went to and refer them back so they get the assistance they need before their company goes into foreclosure.

”The faster, simplified data sharing will also allow housing counseling agencies to get ahead of problems more quickly and better serve their clients. It will also make it easier to quantify and demonstrate the effectiveness of housing counseling, which can help to raise awareness of housing counseling services. 

“Consumers that go through pre-purchase education and counseling are more likely to be approved and less likely to default on their mortgage, but because we weren’t capturing the right data, we weren’t able to show that,” David explained. “Now, with consistent data, we will be able to.”

While a lot of work lies ahead to ensure the data set  is used widely and efficiently, its release is a large step forward for growing the field of housing counseling and ensuring that programs can help as many people as possible.

Better Than the Alternatives, Still Not Good Enough: What’s in the Senate HUD Budget

On July 24, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its FY2026 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) budget proposal—offering a much better alternative to proposals from the House and the Trump administration. The bill passed by a vote of 27-1, demonstrating that Republicans and Democrats worked together to negotiate the package–an unfortunately rare example of bipartisanship in the current environment. Illinois Senator Richard Durbin, a member of the committee, voted in support.

The Good News

Overall, the Senate bill provides $73.3 billion for HUD, a modest increase compared to the current total funding. It’s also far better than the House’s $67.8 billion or the Trump administration’s proposal to slash HUD funding by 44%. The Senate bill also:

• Rejects harmful proposals to combine and block grant certain programs and does not give HUD the power to waive or create alternatives to key statutory requirements, such as income definitions, rent calculation formulas, or eligibility requirements and definitions.
• Largely preserves funding for programs at risk in other proposals, such as HOPWA, fair housing, housing counseling, and others.

The Bad News

Despite being better than the other proposals, the Senate bill still falls short, meaning that fewer individuals and families will receive assistance and some people will lose their home. The Senate bill:

• Fails to fully fund all existing Housing Choice Vouchers.
• Does not provide enough funding to renew all existing Continuum of Care projects to end homelessness with necessary funding increases to maintain existing services.
• Cuts funding for public housing, both operating and capital budgets.
• Provides no funding to maintain the Emergency Housing Voucher Program, which is currently keeping more than 59,000 households across the country housed, including 1,800+ in Illinois.

Congress has until October 1 to finalize the FY2026 budget—or risk a shutdown or continuing resolution. Passage of the budget will require 60 votes in the Senate and bipartisan co-operation.

More Information & Action Steps

• See the press release from Senators Durbin and Duckworth, which provides a detailed summary of the provisions of the THUD bill. It includes Congressionally Directed Spending initiatives, of which there are numerous projects to create affordable housing and end homelessness.
• Read the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s analysis of the Senate budget proposal.
• Contact your members of Congress. Organizations can also sign a national letter urging Congress to reject cuts to HUD programs and instead provide the highest level of funding possible.

Other Critical Federal Housing News

Trump Administration’s Executive Order on Homelessness is Unjust and Counterproductive

Housing Action Illinois joins all our allies in condemning the Trump administration’s July 24 Executive Order on homelessness, which criminalizes poverty and ignores proven solutions. We oppose this order because it will unfairly penalize people, including families with children, for our nation’s failure to treat housing as a basic human right and to provide the resources necessary to ensure that everyone has a safe, decent and affordable place to call home.

We also oppose the order because it is counter to evidence-based Housing First strategies and promotes criminalization and institutionalization that supports treating people experiencing homelessness in unjust, harmful, and counterproductive ways.

As our allies and partners have said: 

Read a brief but useful analysis of some of the Executive Order’s provisions by Ann Oliva, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, in her July 28 weekly update. 

Progress in the Senate: Bipartisan ROAD to Housing Act of 2025 Advances

Also on July 24, the Senate Banking and Urban Affairs Committee unanimously passed the ROAD to Housing Act of 2025, a bipartisan legislative package to increase housing supply and housing affordability with more than 40 different provisions. Here are highlights that complement Housing Action’s current work:

• Housing Counseling: New funding pathway via the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund (MMIF), a federal fund that acts as the insurer of mortgages that are guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). These funds would to cover the cost of mortgage delinquency and default counseling by HUD approved housing counseling agencies for government insured mortgages, i.e., FHA, VA, and USDA loans.
• Whole-Home Repairs Act: Grants and forgivable loans for health/safety repairs for low- and moderate-income homeowners and small landlords (5-year pilot program at HUD, subject to appropriation).
• Affordable Housing Investments: Raises the Public Welfare Investment cap for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Reserve from 15% to 20%, which will enhance banks’ capacity to make investments in affordable housing.
• Transit & Housing: Incentivizes housing near transit through Federal Transit Authority project scoring.
• Shelter Flexibility: Allows states and localities that receive Emergency Solutions Grant funding apply to exceed the 60% spending cap on emergency shelter beds and street outreach.

Read the Committee’s bill summary. We hope the bill will receive a vote from the full Senate soon.  

Trump Administration Proposes Reintroduction of Unjust Mixed-Status Family Rule

On July 16, HUD advanced a proposed rule that could bar mixed immigration status families from certain assisted housing—a harmful move earlier proposed by first Trump Administration (but blocked) in 2019.

Currently, mixed-status families are able to live in assisted housing but have their subsidy prorated to reflect the proportion of household members that is eligible.

We’ll be joining national partners through the Keep Families Together campaign again to oppose these policy changes. 

Stay Tuned

Keep watch for future advocacy alerts and updates from us in the coming weeks, so that you can support our efforts to oppose cuts and harmful policies.

Sign up for our Policy Advocacy alerts »

Support our work by donating or becoming a member today »

In the aftermath of the reconciliation bill, which was signed into law on July 4—and which includes deep, harmful cuts to health care, food assistance, and more to pay for tax cuts for the most affluent in our society—Congress has turned its attention to creating next year’s federal budget.

Housing Action is alarmed by harsh cuts to critical housing programs in both proposed budgets from the White House and the House Republicans.

Appropriations vs. reconciliation—what’s the difference?

House Republicans Propose Harmful Cuts to HUD in FY26 Budget

On July 13, the House Committee on Appropriations released their draft FY26 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) spending bill. The proposal from House Republicans would fund HUD at $67.8 billion—$939 million less than the $74.6 billion allocated in FY25.

While the cuts are not are not as severe as those proposed by the Trump administration, they still include deeply unjust spending reductions:

• A $773 million decrease for the Housing Choice Voucher program overall and level funding—$32.14 billion—for voucher renewals. Because the cost of rent increases each year, flat funding acts as a cut to rental assistance programs.
• Inadequate funding to ensure the continuation of Emergency Housing Vouchers (EHVs) for all those currently using them. Created in 2021, nearly 60,000 households nationwide currently rely on an EHV to keep a roof over their heads, including more than 1,800 in Illinois.
• $5 billion for public housing operating costs, a decrease of $501 million, making it harder for Public Housing Authorities around the country to serve the nation’s 807,000 households living in public housing, which include 1.6 million people.
• $2.28 billion to public housing capital needs, a decrease of $1.12 billion, despite that the backlog of neeed maintainence and and repair projects is several multitiudes larger than current funding.
• A 66% decrease for fair housing programs, including enforcement. This is in line with other actions by the Trump adminstration to make housing discrimination easier and weaken the federal government’s affirmative duty to help ensure everyone has equal housing opportunities.
• Totally eliminating funding for HUD-Approved housing counseling agencies, which assist people with a wide range of housing needs, including becoming a first-time homeowner, avoiding foreclosure, improving credit scores and financial wellness and how to identify a rental property owner who will lease a home to you.
• Totally eliminating funding for the HOME Program, a key funding source for Low Income Housing Tax Credit developments, but also to create and preserve a variety of other affordable housing to rent or to own.
• Reducing HUD staff by 26%, consistent with reductions already implemented by HUD Secretary Scott Turner.
  

The House budget does include some budget increases and rejects some of the most troubling White House policy proposals. For example, the House bill does not include the Trump administration’s proposal to consolidate Homeless Assistance Grants and the HOPWA (Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS program) into the Emergency Solutions Grant program while also zeroing-out HOPWA funding.

Instead, the House bill would provide $4.158 billion in funding for Homeless Assistance Grants, a $107 million increase from the $4.05 billion provided in the final FY25 bill, and will continue funding HOPWA as a separate program at $505 million.

However, this level of funding for Homeless Assistance Grants is not enough funding to renew all existing projects, and the proposed budget does nothing to create the new resources needed to address increasing homelessness.

At the July 14 hearing on the THUD budget, House Democrats, including Representative Mike Quigley (IL-5th), strongly opposed the proposal. Representative Quigley expressed support for continued funding of HOPWA and opposed proposed cuts, including a 7% overall reduction for rental and homelessness assistance.

Even more troubling, the bill includes language that would give the Trump administration broad authority to waive or create alternatives to key requirements for rental assistance and public housing. This could pave the way to changing income definitions, rent calculation formulas, and eligibility rules—opening the door to time limits, work requirements, and higher rent burdens for low-income families.

The Senate is expected to release its own HUD funding proposal soon, and negotiations over the federal budget will continue through September or possibly beyond.

Find out more from the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s full analysis of the House budget proposal and their budget chart.

Housing Action Illinois is in close contact with staff for Senator Richard Durbin, who is a member of the THUD Appropriations Subcommittee in the Senate. We are communicating regularly about how we can work together to oppose harmful cuts to programs that create affordable housing and end homelessness.

Stay Tuned

Keep watch for future advocacy alerts and updates from us in the coming weeks, so that you can support our efforts to oppose cuts and harmful policies.

Sign up for our Policy Advocacy alerts »

Support our work by donating or becoming a member today »

This year’s state legislative session has been moving at its usual hectic pace. Our team continues to spend plenty of time in Springfield to meet with representatives and their staff, attend hearings, and do everything we can to move our 2025 Policy Agenda forward.

Now that we’re about halfway through the Illinois General Assembly session, we wanted to give a quick update on some of our advocacy work.

Thanks to everyone who has supported one of Housing Action Illinois’ advocacy initiatives during the first quarter of 2025.

State Advocacy Update

State Budget

Governor Pritzker’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposal, announced in February, included $282.7 million for the HOME Illinois line item, a 2.6% percent reduction compared to the current year ($290.3 million). We understand the State of Illinois’ budget challenges and we appreciate efforts by the governor’s office and state agencies to use existing resources as effectively as possible.

The General Assembly will pass a budget by the end of may, and we are still speaking with legislators the critical need to increase overall funding each year, particularly for emergency shelters, which serve people with absolutely no place else to go.

Read our full budget response, issued jointly with the Illinois Shelter Alliance »

Bills Passed Out of Committee

We’re pleased to share that two of bills we are working on at the State Capitol have passed committee:

• Stopping the Criminalization of Homelessness: HB 1429, sponsored by Representative Kevin Oilckal, protects people from being fined or penalized for basic survival activities, such as trying to stay warm, resting, and eating. This is a response to the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson, which sanctioned local government ordinances criminalizing homelessness. View WAND TV’s press coverage of the committee hearing and endorse the campaign »
• Advancing Fair Housing: The Community Safety Through Stable Homes Act, SB 2264, sponsored by Senator Karina Villa, regulates the use of so-called “crime-free housing and nuisance ordinances.” These local Illinois laws can force landlords to evict tenants because of 911 calls or other alleged “nuisance” activity. This punishes renters for calling for help and puts survivors of domestic violence, as well as people with disabilities, at risk. Read Senator Villa’s press release and view WAND TV’s coverage of the committee hearing, including some of Senate President Harmon’s comments in support of the bill. Learn more and endorse the campaign »

Bills We Are Working to Move

We expect other bills we are working on to pass towards the end of the General Assembly session as part of various omnibus legislative packages, including:

• Incentivize Rental Housing Production: SB 1911 and HB 3466 extend and clarify the Affordable Housing Special Assessment Program, which incentivizes the preservation and creation of affordable rental housing in newly constructed and substantially rehabbed rental properties.
• Property Tax Reform: We are also part of a coalition advocating to change state law, through SB 2029 and HB 3146, to help homeowners pay delinquent property taxes and maintain equity if they lose their homes due to unpaid property taxes. This would also bring Illinois state law into compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Tyler v. Hennepin.
• Eliminate Matching Fund Requirements for Shelters and Supportive Housing: We also continue to advocate for legislation, HB 1862, that will eliminate matching fund requirements for the Emergency and Transitional Housing Program, as well as the Supportive Housing Services Program. These match requirements create needless barriers to nonprofits making use of state funding. We are working to have this included in the budget implementation legislation at the General Assembly session.

Federal Advocacy Update

At the federal level, we continue to work with partners around the country and members of our Illinois Congressional delegation to oppose budget cuts and policies that weaken the federal role in supporting the housing needs of people not served adequately or fairly in the private market.

Speaking Up for Vital HUD Programs

A year-long stopgap funding bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), was recently passed to extend funding for the federal government through the remainder of federal FY 25. Unfortunately, the budget does not provide enough funding to support all existing Housing Choice Vouchers and underfunds other federal programs that end homelessness and create affordable housing,

Turning our attention to the future, we have been speaking up with the media about the harm that further cuts to HUD programs and staff will have on Illinois communities. Last week, Policy Director Bob Palmer appeared on WGN News to talk about how federal funding to help people afford a home is much more important than creating tax cuts for wealthy households and corporations

Our Housing Policy Organizer, Foluke Akanni, was just in Washington DC to meet with the housing staffers of many of our federal elected officials to let them know how the full-year CR and subsequent cuts would negatively impact efforts to end homelessness.

This builds on other recent work, such as participating in a February press conference with Senator Durbin, Representative Quigley, and more of our Congress members to oppose budget and tax policies that would essentially force cuts to Medicaid, food assistance and other critical safety net programs.

Earlier in March, letters to the editor from our Executive Director Sharon Legenza opposing cuts to HUD staff and programs were published by the Chicago Sun-Times and Crain’s Chicago Business. And Bob Palmer joined Heartland Housed in sharing concerns with WCIA for a story picked up by Our Quad Cities News.

Please reach out if you would like to collaborate on media outreach to help people understand how HUD programs support your community.

Speak Up With Us

There are multiple ways to support our work—from contacting your elected officials to filling out a witness slip for a committee hearing at the State Capitol to endorsing one of our campaigns. If you have any questions about getting involved, please contact Policy Director Bob Palmer.

Support our work by donating or becoming a member today »

For Immediate Release: March 10, 2025
Housing Action Illinois Contact: Kristin Ginger, Director of Communications and Development, 312-854-3333
Midland States Bank Contact: Anna Strong, Marketing Manager, 217-540-2838

CHICAGO, IL – Housing Action Illinois is pleased to announce a $12,000 contribution by Midland States Bank. The grant, provided by the Midland States Bank Foundation, will support Housing Action’s Housing Counseling Career Path training.

“HUD-certified housing counselors are unbiased experts who educate and empower individuals and families. The Housing Counseling Career Path creates a new generation of housing counselors who are in step with the concerns of our communities and equipped to help clients reach their home goals, whether through purchasing a first home or learning how to manage finances. With the support of Midland States Bank, we can create opportunities for more participants to join our training and get the skills and knowledge they need to support communities that need it most. This is particularly important for communities like Joliet, which have a shortage of housing counselors,” says Wanda Collins, Capacity Building Specialist at Housing Action Illinois. Housing Action is hosting a series of the training in partnership with Joliet Junior College and Moraine Valley Community College this March.

Left to right: Sharon Legenza and Wanda Collins of Housing Action Illinois, Cornell Lurry of Midland States Bank, David Young of Housing Action Illinios, Michael O’Brien of Midland States Bank

For more than 35 years, Housing Action Illinois has brought together organizations from across the state to work together to expand affordable housing and end homelessness. Through its Capacity Building program, the statewide coalition provides training, consulting, and resources to help housing organizations—especially housing counseling agencies–better serve communities. Housing Action Illinois’ Housing Counseling Career Path is a comprehensive program designed to help participants understand the six core principles of housing counseling and prepare to pass the HUD Individual Certification Exam.

“Together with our Community Impact Investment Statement, the Midland States Bank Foundation is a powerful way for us to give back to our communities,” commented Jeffrey G. Ludwig, President and CEO of Midland States Bancorp, Inc. “The funds we set aside from the Bank’s profits help us put our company’s culture in action to benefit the communities we serve.”

The Midland States Bank Foundation supports the general welfare, education and health of the communities where the Bank operates. Since its creation in 2011, the Foundation has contributed more than $1,900,000 to non-profit organizations throughout Midland’s footprint.

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About Housing Action Illinois

Housing Action is a statewide coalition that has been leading the movement to end homelessness, address the shortage of affordable rental housing, and expand homeownership opportunities in Illinois for more than 35 years. Our 190+ member organizations include housing counseling agencies, homeless service providers, developers of affordable housing, and policymakers. We bring everyone together to work toward our vision of an Illinois where everyone has a stable, good home.

About Midland States Bancorp, Inc.

Midland States Bancorp, Inc. is a community-based financial holding company headquartered in Effingham, Illinois, and is the sole shareholder of Midland States Bank. As of March 31, 2024, the Company had total assets of approximately $7.83 billion, and its Wealth Management Group had assets under administration of approximately $3.89 billion. The Company provides a full range of commercial and consumer banking products and services and business equipment financing, merchant credit card services, trust and investment management, insurance and financial planning services. For additional information, visit https://www.midlandsb.com or https://www.linkedin.com/company/midland-states-bank.