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Voting Questions: Ask neighbors on the South and Southwest sides if they want free mental health programs

Voting Questions: Ask neighbors on the South and Southwest sides if they want free mental health programs

CHICAGO — Some voters in the South and Southwest will have the opportunity to tell the city whether they support implementing free, community-funded mental health programs in their neighborhoods.

Some voters have two non-binding referendum questions on their ballot, with the questions slightly tailored to where people live. The first question is whether a taxpayer-funded program should be created to provide free mental health services in the Englewood and Greater Chatham area or on the Near Southwest Side.

The question also asks whether neighbors would help fund the programs by raising property taxes on properties in the area up to 0.025 percent. As part of that, the second question asks voters whether they would like to establish a fund of $700,000 or less for the Englewood and Greater Chatham program as part of next year’s tax levy or a fund of up to $1.2 million US dollars support the Near Southwest Side program.

The Englewood and Greater Chatham region program questions appear for some voters in the 6th, 8th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 20th and 21st districts, while the program questions for the Near Southwest Side shows some voters in the 11th, 12th, 22nd, 24th and 25th districts.

The area includes West Englewood, Englewood, Auburn Gresham, Chatham, Greater Grand Crossing, Avalon Park, Pilsen, Little Village, McKinley Park, Bridgeport and Armor Square, according to organizers from the Chicago Coalition to Save Our Mental Health Centers, a nonprofit organization advocate for community mental health programs.

According to the Chicago Coalition to Save Our Mental Health Centers, the 0.025 percent tax increase amounts to $16 to $24 per year for most households and about $4 for every $1,000 homeowners pay in property taxes.

The results of the referendums will not be binding – but advocates of the proposed mental health programs could use them to gain more support.

For the past two years, the Coalition To Save Our Mental Health Centers has pushed for mental health centers to open in these two areas.

In August, the coalition submitted over 17,000 petition signatures from registered voters to place the non-binding referendum questions on the Nov. 5 ballot. According to the coalition, organizers collected over 10,900 signatures from voters in Englewood and Greater Chatham and over 6,400 from neighbors on the Southwest Side.

Previously, the coalition had won support from North Side and Northwest Side voters to open mental health centers. In 2014, the coalition opened its first clinic, the Kedzie Center.

The proposed centers would provide free mental health and community services that are essential to South Side neighbors, said community organizer Isaac Aleman. Proposed services include student outreach, violence prevention, prevention programs and services for the elderly, veterans, returning citizens and survivors of domestic violence.

“There is always a need for these resources, but there is never enough of them,” Aleman said.

While the proposed mental health programs are not yet finalized, “everyone in the community who needs services would have access,” regardless of insurance, background or immigration status, Aleman said.

In 2012, former Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed half of the city’s 12 psychiatric hospitals — most of them on the South Side — to close a $369 million budget gap.

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