Departmental Highlights

Snapshot: Appropriation & Staffing Changes from 2025 Budget

	2025 Budgeted	2026 Proposed	Net Change	Percent Change
Appropriations	$248,512,603	$169,252,026	-$79,260,577	-31.9%
Positions & FTEs	123	122	-1	-0.8%

*Note: DoH’s size and mandate have changed multiple times since 2011, with the Department of Housing at times combined into DPD and at other times a standalone department. Because of the changing size and function of the department, 2011-2025 annual average rates are not provided in this snapshot. 

• Budgeted headcount at DoH declined by a net one position, with one position each removed from the Project Manager and Financial Planning Analyst titles and a new Senior Equity Officer position added to the budget.
• DoH is the city’s most heavily grant-funded department, with local funds making up only 8.1% of budgeted appropriations.
• DoH appropriations are down in nearly all of its grant funds in the 2026 proposal, with the exception of the new Entitlement Fund, a CDBG-funded category created in this year’s budget. The $13.6 million appropriated from that new fund, however, is exceeded by the elimination of appropriations from the Community Development Block Grant fund, from which DoH appropriated $46.6 million in 2025.
• DoH saw substantial reductions in both of its largest appropriations categories, with reserve balance down $60.2 million (-37.4%) and rehabilitation loans and grants reduced $18.3 million (-40.2%).
• The department saw no major appropriations increases, with a roughly $276,000 (2.5%) increase in salaries and wages the largest single-category growth.
• DoH makes an additional $1.2 million in appropriations from the TIF Administration Fund this year, up 103.5% from the previous year. 

Historical Context

Rahm Emanuel replaced the then-Department of Housing with the Department of Planning and Development in the 2014 budget, at a lower rate of funding than its predecessor. (Housing had $191.7 million in appropriations in the 2013 budget; DPD began its existence in the 2014 budget with $153.8 million.)

The Department of Housing returned to city budgets in the 2019 budget and resumed operating as an independent office under Lori Lightfoot’s administration, with $148.4 million in appropriations in 2019 and $198.9 million the following year.

Housing then saw significant budget increases in the pandemic-era budgets, more than doubling its appropriation in 2022, predominantly from Emergency Rental Assistance funding. The department’s total appropriations have declined since, with this year’s -31.9% reduction continuing the trend.

Over the past three complete budget years for which local fund actuals/encumbrances data is available, DoH spent on average 84.4% of its locally funded budget, compared to the citywide average 86.4% local fund spend. (DoH is primarily grant-funded, however, making local fund spending only a small portion of its overall budget position.)

Because the majority of DoH’s pandemic relief funded appropriations were not personnel-related, the department’s overall headcount has not undergone as dramatic an increase and subsequent decline as appropriations, with headcount increasing gradually since the department’s return as a standalone agency in 2019. 

From February through September of 2025, the months for which the city released full-time position vacancy data, DoH averaged a 17.4% vacancy rate, compared to the citywide average of 11.2%. 

Nine of the department’s budgeted full-time positions were persistent vacancies, meaning that the same title/division/section/subsection combination was vacant for all eight months of available data:

Budgeted Position Changes

Budgeted headcount at DoH declined by a net one position in the new budget proposal, with one position each removed from the Project Manager and Financial Planning Analyst titles and a new Senior Equity Officer position added. 

Appropriations

DoH is 8.1% locally-funded in this year’s budget proposal, up from the previous year’s 5.3% but still predominantly reliant on federal grants for the department’s operations. 

DoH appropriations are down in nearly all of its grant funds in the 2026 proposal, with the exception of the new Entitlement Fund, a CDBG-funded category created in this year’s budget. The $13.6 million appropriated from that new fund, however, is exceeded by the elimination of appropriations from the Community Development Block Grant fund, from which DoH appropriated $46.6 million in 2025. (The 2026 proposal eliminates the previously-used Community Development Block Grant fund and CDBG fund type labels from the budget structure).

DoH makes an additional $1.2 million in appropriations from the TIF Administration Fund this year, up 103.5% from the previous year. 

Fund	2025 Budgeted	2026 Proposed	Net Change from 2025	Percent Change from 2025	Percent of 2026 Recommended Funds
Federal Grant Fund	$83,934,000	$73,965,000	-$9,969,000	-11.9%	43.7%
COVID-19 Grant Fund	$34,155,000	$27,171,000	-$6,984,000	-20.4%	16.1%
State Grant Fund	$29,773,000	$18,750,000	-$11,023,000	-37.0%	11.1%
Entitlement Fund	$0	$13,593,000	$13,593,000	New Fund	8.0%
Program Income Fund	$28,593,000	$13,388,000	-$15,205,000	-53.2%	7.9%
Corporate Fund	$10,768,431	$10,316,613	-$451,818	-4.2%	6.1%
Local Public and Private Grant Fund	$10,935,000	$7,216,000	-$3,719,000	-34.0%	4.3%
Tax Increment Financing Administration Fund	$1,178,150	$2,397,334	$1,219,184	103.5%	1.4%
Grants Management Fund	$1,346,000	$1,377,000	$31,000	2.3%	0.8%
Affordable Housing Opportunity Fund	$1,229,022	$1,078,079	-$150,943	-12.3%	0.6%
Community Development Block Grant Year LI	$46,601,000	$0	-$46,601,000	-100.0%	0.0%

Largest Appropriations

Unlike most other departments, DoH’s appropriations are not predominantly personnel-related. Despite being reduced by more than a third from the 2025 budget, this year’s largest appropriation is the Reserve Balance category, a new appropriation created in last year’s budget. According to the budget office, reserve balance funds represent grant funds that are not planned for expenditure in the current budget year. 

Setting aside the reserve funds, rehabilitation loans and grants make up DoH’s largest 2026 appropriations category, followed by pass-through spending to delegate agencies. 

In 2024, the most recent complete budget year for which local fund actuals and encumbrances data is available, DoH spent 97.3% of its locally-funded budget. However, the department was only roughly 8% locally funded in 2024, making local funds a limited portion of its overall budget position. 

Unlike the Department of Planning and Development, which had significant locally-funded rehabilitation loans and grants appropriations that went largely unspent, DoH’s rehab appropriations were grant funded and do not appear in its actuals. 

The department overspent slightly in its affordable housing density program appropriations, balanced by underspending in personnel and contract services to keep the department under budget overall. 

Change from Previous Year

DoH saw substantial reductions in both of its largest appropriations categories, with reserve balance down $60.2 million (-37.4%) and rehabilitation loans and grants reduced $18.3 million (-40.2%).

The department saw no major appropriations increases, with a roughly $276,000 (2.5%) increase in salaries and wages the largest single-category growth.