In a zoom call earlier this week, the aldermen along with activists from United Working Families, an advocacy group with ties to SEIU and the Chicago Teachers Union expressed their frustration.
“And just as egregious, we learned that $68 million of that funding was never spent at all,” said Ald. Daniel La Spata, 1st Ward. “So we have every right to be angry, because every neighbor you have who was denied housing assistance, we were prepared. We could have offered them that assistance. Every vacant storefront you see is a small business we could have supported with these dollars.”
The city Budget Department went on Twitter to try and explain their actions regarding the funding. “Of the $1.2B in CARES Act funds, the federal govt allows $470M to be used for personnel costs, including public health and public safety depts,” the office stated on Twitter. “Had the City not used this reimbursement, we would have been forced to pass the burden onto our taxpayers.”
However, some people believe that an increase in spending for the cops, doesn’t decrease the violence in the city. “And so this is infuriating, because the policing in our city, in our country acts like a political cartel that extracts power and resources and does not actually keep us safe,” said Damon Williams who was on that Zoom call. “So this investment did not come with increased services from our Police Department. This investment did not come with a decrease in violence.”
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