For the last 50 years, Franciscan Outreach has been running a west-side shelter that offers homeless men and women showers, food, and a place to rest. The shelter’s 260 beds are filled pretty much every night.
“We’re looking at a $150,000 bill,” says Diana Faust, executive director of Franciscan Outreach. “That will kill us. We don’t have that kind of money.”
As a candidate, Emanuel—looking for ways to distinguish himself from Daley—pledged to get rid of the exemption on the grounds that the city couldn’t afford it. He made good on that promise in his first budget, which was unanimously adopted by aldermen in November 2011.
Good question. As Ford points out, it’s one thing to eliminate the exemption for the “big boys”—major institutions like Northwestern University or the University of Chicago. It’s something else to go after the Outreach. So we don’t know how much of that $20 million—if that number is even accurate—comes from whom.
In any event, you’d think these are precisely the kinds of questions an enlightened City Council would want answered before doing something rash, like voting unanimously in favor of whatever half-baked idea pops out of the mayor’s mind.
In addition, the proposed amendment “shall not apply to any nonprofit organization that had net assets or fund balances of $250 million.”