Mayor Brandon Johnson’s first chief homelessness officer appears to be his last, with his inaugural appointee departing the position that the mayor’s team said was always meant to be a temporary one.
Sendy Soto will be exiting the administration after two years in the role, with no replacement planned because the position was funded via a philanthropic grant, Johnson’s spokesperson Griffin Krueger said in a Monday statement.
The city’s five-year blueprint on addressing homelessness, which Krueger said was the main priority of Soto’s job, will be publicly released on Tuesday.
“It was always the intention for this to be a temporary position,” Krueger wrote, adding that Soto did not resign. “Her position as Chief Homelessness Officer was philanthropically funded and has now come to an end.”
Johnson unveiled Soto’s position in April 2024 after signing an executive order the previous year establishing the first-of-its-kind position to be “responsible for addressing the complexities of homelessness and housing insecurity in Chicago,” including coordinating across city departments. A news release stated that her salary came from a multiyear grant by the Chicago Funders Together to End Homelessness coalition, which includes the Michael Reese Health Trust and other local charities.
However, a previous LinkedIn post from the group says the grant was meant to last three years, not two.
“We are making history in Chicago!” the coalition posted a year ago. “CFTEH is honored to be funding this position for three years, empowering Sendy and our community and government partners to create a citywide plan to prevent and end homelessness.”
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Asked why the job apparently sunsetted a year early, Krueger reiterated that Soto’s “work has now concluded,” with the five-year plan on homelessness set to debut. Her last day will be Thursday.
In a statement late Monday afternoon, Soto thanked Johnson as well as the city departments and community parters who weighed in on the five-year blueprint.
“As I transition out of the Mayor’s Office, I am grateful for the opportunity and trust Mayor Johnson vested in me to advance the critical work to address and end homelessness in Chicago,” Soto wrote.
Emily Krisciunas, the executive director of CFTEH, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Before joining the Johnson administration, Soto had been senior director at the Chicago Community Trust and managing deputy commissioner at the city’s Department of Housing.
Over the last two years, she often served as the go-to Johnson official for aldermen who wanted to address tent encampments and find resources for homeless people in their wards. Under Soto, the Johnson administration sought to employ a “housing-first” approach to encampments.
Johnson first introduced Soto at the 2024 grand opening of the Lawson House’s newly renovated affordable housing units in the Near North Side, fresh off the loss of his Bring Chicago Home referendum. “She’s smiling now but I’m about to read her job description. See how she feels after,” the mayor quipped.
Soto’s exit comes after a string of other departures hitting the Johnson administration as he approaches his three-year mark in office. Earlier this month, the mayor fired his deputy mayor of community safety, Garien Gatewood, and his director of violence prevention and community safety, Manny Whitfield.
Days later, Human Relations Commissioner Nancy Andrade stepped down and released a statement saying she “took an oath to uphold these values” of fighting discrimination, and that her resignation was “in service of that oath.”
Johnson downplayed the departures last week and said “the noise” speaks to how “those who have bossed this city for far too long are now screaming and yelling.”
The Tribune’s Jake Sheridan contributed.