The Cook County Homeowner Relief Fund has so far qualified 12,000 residents for this after receiving more than 30,000 online applications, according to numbers from the Cook County Bureau of Economic Development.The county, which is home to Chicago, is offering the grants to homeowners facing 30 percent property tax increases or higher.
This came after the county first offered the grants to homeowners facing rises of 50 percent or more, which yielded a lower-than-expected participation rate. The adjustment was guided by the new tech platform from AidKit, which allowed Cook County to monitor applications as they came in.
“We’re able to see up to the minute, what the application pool looks like,” said Dominic Tocci, Cook County's deputy bureau chief for economic development. "We’re able to make some immediate decisions about whether more outreach is needed in certain areas, or in this case, if we’re not seeing the volume, what do we want to do about that? Do we want to make any changes? Do we want to extend the deadline?”
This is Cook County’s second collaboration with AidKit, a public benefit corporation and National Association of State Procurement Officials-listed vendor.
AidKit CEO Brittany Christenson said that the end-to-end platform automates document checks and eligibility reviews, then routes applications to human caseworkers for verification. The system supports up to 120 languages, integrates with county data through APIs or file uploads, and creates an audit trail to meet public-sector compliance standards — all designed to cut the “time tax” for residents applying for help.
Tocci noted that last summer’s tax bills brought some of the “biggest average increases in about 30 years.”
Property taxes in Cook County operate on a three-year reassessment cycle, he explained, with different geographic areas evaluated in rotation. While bills can fluctuate annually based on taxing districts and levies, homeowners often see the largest changes during a reassessment year. This recent round brought some of the sharpest increases in decades. As a result, county officials examined the issue more closely, considered targeted relief options, and budgeted for the program.
Tocci also said that there are longer-term property tax reform efforts happening in the county because there are systemic issues that need to be addressed. But that's an ongoing effort that will take some time.
"This was more immediate relief that we could try to provide,” Tocci said.
Nationwide, property values rose much faster than inflation over the past five years, according to research from the nonprofit Tax Foundation. And many states are seeking tax reform or ways to otherwise relieve taxpayers. This year, Illinois HB 1495 was introduced to create a one-time $6 billion property tax relief program. The bill stalled in the House, but the state did pass tax freezes for more senior citizens.
“I think there are a lot of ways that you can use cash assistance and build trust and invest in your residents,” Tocci said. “Rather than putting up a lot of barriers and in paperwork and things like that, we now have these tools that make the application process and documentation a little bit simpler for residents and can more quickly get the funds into folks’ hands and allow them to use it for what they need.”
