The following op-ed, written by Illinois REALTORS® CEO Jeff Baker and Chicago Association of REALTORS® CEO Michelle Mills Clement, was published Wednesday in the digital edition of Crain’s Chicago Business.

Opinion: Bring Chicago Home provides little hope for the homeless and major pain for the rest of the city

During the mayoral campaign, then-candidate Brandon Johnson vowed not to raise property taxes. Now Mayor Brandon Johnson is trying to do just that — under the guise of his Bring Chicago Home plan. His real estate tax proposal threatens to topple the city’s real estate market and fails to address Chicago’s desperate homelessness problems.

Over the last several years, government actions and market conditions have combined to create a housing affordability crisis in Chicago. The city’s unhoused population continues to grow while precious federal resources are left untouched by city officials. Even those residents with housing face growing instability as the city fails to prioritize increasing housing supply.

Bring Chicago Home will raise real estate transfer taxes on certain properties. While not collected each year like property taxes, the plan means another property tax that targets any increase in the value of a property at the time of sale.

The proposal comes at a time when Chicago’s real estate market is currently maintaining a delicate balancing act, fighting to avoid the “urban doom loop” that can already be seen in other major U.S. cities.

There are signs of growing stress on the commercial and residential markets.

Earlier this year, the city broke a record when office vacancies reached an all-time high of 22.6%, and the situation could worsen. Across the country, almost $1.5 trillion in commercial mortgages, underwritten with historically low interest rates, are due to mature in the next few years with rates now two to three times higher.

In Chicago, those economic pressures have already led to building owners simply walking away from landmark buildings, turning the keys over to their lenders for properties such as the Board of Trade Building, the Civic Opera House and the Burnham Center. Homeowners and renters in the city will share the property tax burden resulting from any bankrupted buildings.

Residential sales have slowed, too, down 26 percent this year compared to the same time last year, with housing inventory plummeting over 30 percent in the same period.

Collectively, these factors have led to the city’s worst affordability gap in the last 15 years and record-high residential rent increases.

Johnson administration officials have failed to provide an explanation for why they have not developed a plan to spend all the federal funds allocated to Chicago for fighting homelessness. They also failed to complete a full audit of the existing spending to gauge the effectiveness, before asking for new revenue.

The city’s unhoused residents deserve a detailed plan for how federal, state and local resources will be used to help them. All our city’s residents deserve a comprehensive strategy that will create more housing opportunity and affordability. Realtors want to be part of the solution and hope to be included in future conversations.

Even with its “progressive” structure, the Bring Chicago Home plan will only bring added pressure to what is already a precarious market and, rather than addressing the real needs of the unhoused, will exacerbate the housing instability many in the city are already facing.

Jeff Baker is CEO of Illinois REALTORS®, a voluntary trade association with 50,000 members from around the state. Michelle Mills Clement is CEO of the Chicago Association of REALTORS®, which represents more than 17,000 members.