Cook County’s criminal and courts departments and members of the Board of Review are likely to ask commissioners for more money after testifying at mid-year budget hearings that their operations are overburdened and underfunded.

A neighborhood group fired the opening shots in the battle for the 44th Ward seat on the Chicago City Council, accusing Ald. Tom Tunney of not doing enough to keep property taxes in Lakeview from skyrocketing.

Voters in three North and Northwest Side wards will get a chance to weigh in on whether lawmakers should lift the statewide ban on rent control.

A group of candidates hoping to unseat a number of long-serving aldermen will ask Chicago voters whether the City Council should hold hearings on the discovery that the water they drink and bathe in might be tainted with lead.

Two years of relentless signature gathering by former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn will come to an end Monday, as he faces a 5 p.m. deadline to turn in at least 52,000 signatures from registered Chicago voters in his effort to limit Chicago mayors to no more than two terms in office.

Another candidate filed the paperwork with state officials to run for the open 47th Ward seat, while challengers emerged in the 15th, 16th and 45th wards. In addition, city officials launched another push on Wednesday to grow the ranks of the Chicago Police Department.

Aldermen must be prepared to take “bold action” and spend “millions” more to subsidize and finance affordable housing in Chicago to combat rising inequality and instability, a nonprofit coalition told aldermen Wednesday.

While the city is on track to meet its affordable goals for 2018, Chicago Rehab Network Director of Public Policy Rachel Johnston told a sparsely attended session of the City Council’s Housing and Real Estate Committee that the city should triple the number of affordable rental units subsidized from 2,500 to 7,500.

“We need to start talking about displacement,” Johnston said, urging the aldermen to boost the city’s contribution to the Chicago Low Income Housing Trust Fund.

Attendance: Chairman Joe Moore (49); Walter Burnett (27); Ariel Reboyras (31); Deb Mell (33); James Cappleman (46)

Past coverage:

• With affordable housing in spotlight, city says it has spent $27 million on 3,556 units in 2018


• As mayor focuses on affordable housing, aldermen, housing advocates propose limiting aldermanic prerogative


• Aldercast: The Truth About Chicago Population Loss

In the first three months of 2018, city funds were used to build 71 new rental units, according to the Chicago Rehab Network, a nonprofit coalition of community groups and nonprofit developers. However, just 44 will be reserved for residents earning between 51 and 80 percent of the area median income, or between $42,300 and $67,700.

Of those new apartments, only 29 were built to comply with the Affordable Requirements Ordinance. The ARO applies to any development of 10 or more units that needs special approval by city officials, is on city-owned land or is subsidized by taxpayer funds. Each project must set aside 10 percent of its units for moderate- or low-income residents.

At least 25 percent of those units must be included in the project in most parts of the city. Developers can opt to pay a fee of up to $225,000 per unit instead of building the remaining affordable units on site.

In all, the city expects to build 180 units in 2018 under the affordable housing ordinance.

The city should earmark more of its general fund — which also pays for police and fire protection, tree trimming and public health programs — for affordable housing, Johnston said. Aldermen have almost complete discretion to spend money in the city’s general fund.

Since 2008 — before the passage of the Affordable Requirements Ordinance — general fund dollars spent on affordable housing has fallen from $32 million to $14 million, a drop of more than 56 percent, according to data compiled by the Chicago Rehab Network.

Ald. Deb Mell (33) said she has been “frustrated” to see families who had lived in her ward for many years get pushed out by rent hikes.

Mell said it has been tough to figure out how to keep that from happening, and wished out loud that she had a “magic wand.”

“We can see how it trickles down to everything,” Mell said.

However, Ald. Walter Burnett (27) rejected suggestions that people are being “forced” to move out of the city.

“People are choosing to move out of the city,” Burnett said.

That may be correct, Ald. Joe Moore (49) responded, but Chicagoans who are moving may feel like they have no choice because they can no longer afford their rent or property taxes.

With the city’s five-year housing planset to expire in December, work has already begun on a plan covering 2019-23, said Anthony Simpkins, the managing deputy commissioner of the housing bureau in the Department of Planning and Development.

An advisory committee made up of 150 members, including developers, investors, nonprofit groups and advocates has met three or four times to start crafting the plan, which is set to be approved by the City Council this fall.

While the current housing plan focused on helping Chicago recover from the Great Recession, the next plan will focus on “displacement and gentrification in some neighborhoods” as well as “low property values, depopulation and the legacy of segregation in many other communities,” Simpkins said.

Chicago police told fellow officers helping the state craft the federal order that will determine the scope and speed of efforts to reform the Chicago Police Department they want more training, better equipment, better communication with the communities they police — as well as more support from elected officials and the press.

Businessman, philanthropist, and Chicago mayoral candidate Willie Wilson dug deep into his wallet Wednesday at the Cook County Building, handing out $100,000 to Chicagoans struggling to pay their property tax bills.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and city officials rolled out the latest grant awardees of the city’s Neighborhood Opportunity Fund on Wednesday, the third since the program launched in 2016. More than $12 million has so far been awarded to small businesses, with an estimated $72 million in developer fees up for grabs.

The number of ambulances available to respond to medical emergencies took center stage, as mayoral candidate Paul Vallas slammed Mayor Rahm Emanuel for neglecting the city’s emergency medical services. Vallas also weighed in on the proposed consent decree designed to reform the Police Department.

With the push for more affordable housing in the spotlight at City Hall as candidates gear up for February’s elections, efforts by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration are on track, according to a new city report.

City officials face a budget gap of $98 million as they begin to craft a spending plan for 2019, according to the city's annual budget forecast released Tuesday.

Inspector General Joseph Ferguson retracted a report accusing Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration of failing to enforce the city’s base wage ordinance and shortchanging the employees of city contractors of nearly $292,000 over three years.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan pledged Friday afternoon that the seventh time would be the charm in the decades long effort to reform the Chicago Police Department.