Student suggests raising revenue to end homelessness by increasing taxes on gaming

 The honorable J.B. Pritzker 401 S. Spring St.

Springfield, IL 62704

February 29^th, 2024

Dear Governor Pritker,

My name is [_Student_]. I am a senior at the University of Illinois Springfield, in the Bachelor of Social Work program. I am currently taking a social welfare and policies course that is shining some light on the detail of how the legislation effects policies in social work. I want to thank you for signing House Bill 2831 (the HOME IL Bill you signed on July 26th of last year). I appreciate your continued support support in advocating for the unhoused population and our goal to end homelessness in the state of Illinois.

I watched your budget speech, and appreciate many of your ideas, including raising the tax on wagers placed at sports books. I wonder though, why are we not also raising the taxes on all gambling types? Being new to Illinois, the first thing I noticed right away is there are gaming areas in almost all of the gas stations, restaurants, and bars. As an advocate for mental health and addiction prevention I don’t understand the need for these facilities at all. However, if they must exist I do believe they need to be heavily taxed right along with the alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana industries. These taxed sources alone will provide enough funds to increase the budgets necessary to be able to end homelessness in Illinois.

I noticed that a recent (2023 report on 2022 revenue) report from the Illinois Gaming Board reported about $1.8 billion to the state from gambling, and I read that recently (in the past few months) you have suggested raising the taxes on gaming wins from 15% to 35% to raise another $200 million in state revenue. 

By my calculations, providing emergency shelters, permanent supportive housing, rapid rehousing, caseworkers, mental health and addiction counseling workers, and coordinators to work with landlords and nonprofit housing development corporations, the state could functionally end homelessness with an expenditure of less than $500 million, if it was spent on the most effective types of services using efficient housing-first approaches. Not all of that money would need to come from the state, as the federal government and local governments as well as private philanthropy all have roles to play.  Remember also that the $500 million needed to end homelessness is not just money for housing, it’s also money for a system of community mental health care, support, and addiction & recovery counseling. And, we don’t need $500 million in new spending, we just need additional spending to bring total efforts to about $500 million, which is, by my rough approximate estimate, about $200 million.  

Springfield currently has a great model of permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing programs. Helping Hands of Springfield recently expanded and are achieving great things in the area. Springfield is moving toward ending functional homelessness, following a pattern set by Rockford, Illinois. The rest of the state needs this type of program to be able to achieve the goal of ending homelessness all together in the state. In order to tackle homelessness and maintain a proper prevention level, I believe we need to greatly expand in this direction. Adding in a robust team of professionals to follow the individual through their journey and provide guidance. This will not only bring the individuals off the streets, but also help in the prevention of their becoming homeless again. This team should consist of medical professionals, social workers, intensive case managers, legal representatives and a interdisciplinary team that looks at each individual’s specific needs.

One option many people will suggest is to turn an old building into a housing unit to provide housing for those experiencing homelessness and be “done with it”. You can see that sort of thinking with the slogan of the Poor Peoples Campaign (“The USA has 5 vacant houses for every homeless person”). Having one large facility with multiple unhoused individuals being permanently placed together is not a great solution. In fact, the most significant caution about permanent supportive housing is that for the program to work, persons who need permanent support must be distributed around a community, and not concentrated in confined neighborhoods. The main reason is that many of these individuals are suffering from a great level of mental illness, physical disabilities, and substance use disorders. While aiming for recovery, a group setting of individuals without monitoring is a recipe for failure. These individuals need the assistance and guidance to be able to achieve life long stable housing, and they need housing distributed around communities so that they can interact in friendly ways with many persons who are not suffering from addiction, depression, or psychotic illnesses. 

In conclusion, I’m urging you to redouble the efforts you and the General Assembly have already made with the HOME IL bill of 2023, and follow through on your proposal to raise taxes on gambling profits and winnings.  Use the $200 million in additional revenue our state generates from the increased public capture of profits and winnings from gambling to end homelessness, and in so doing, set up Illinois as a model for the nation, where gaps in mental health services, drug addiction treatment, and housing policies have been filled and the citizens of Illinois can live in a state where the 25th Article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is respected and implemented.

Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.