Chicago Grants At Mid-2026: $205.3M Available On Grants Ending This Year

At the end of May 2026, Chicago’s books carried 509 active grant awards with budgets totaling $4.08 billion, and 75.2 percent of that money had been spent. The rest is where the calendar comes in: 215 of those grants have end dates between June 1 and December 31, 2026 and still showed money available — $205.3 million of it, and $73.4 million of that sits on the city’s ARP Local Fiscal Recovery Fund grants, every one of which the file dates to end on December 31.

Grants 925 (iyu8-jkf8), published by the Office of Budget and Management with its Mid-Year Budget Report under MCC 2-4-055, retrieved September 16, 2026; the file was last updated July 8, 2026 · the file stacks two snapshots, June 1, 2025 and May 31, 2026, and every figure here comes from one snapshot at a time, the latest unless stated · budget, expended, encumbered and available are the file’s own columns, and on every latest-snapshot row they reconcile · an available balance is money not yet spent or committed on an active grant, not money lost · agency names are shown as filed · no department or grant is judged

Two snapshots in one file, and why they are never added

A 925 grant, in the file’s own description, is an award a department receives that is new or larger than the annual budget provided for, which the City Council must approve before it is spent. The file holds 789 rows, but they are two pictures taken a year apart: 280 rows as of June 1, 2025 and 509 as of May 31, 2026. The same grant can appear in both, so adding every row together — $5.87 billion of budget — counts some awards twice. In practice the overlap is small: 288 grant codes appear in the 2026 snapshot and 192 in 2025, and only 26 appear in both, because the file tracks active awards and grants roll on and off as their periods start and end. The 2025 snapshot also carries 13 placeholder rows described only as “NEW HEADER,” with no budget; the 2026 snapshot has none.

Where the $4.08 billion sits

The file’s four money columns for all 509 grants in the latest snapshot. On every row, budget equals expended plus encumbered plus available.
Column in the file, May 31, 2026	Amount	Share of budget
Budget	$4,083,893,246	100%
Expended to date	$3,072,176,156	75.2%
Encumbered, committed but not yet spent	$418,811,396	10.3%
Available	$592,905,694	14.5%

The eight departments with the largest grant budgets in the May 31, 2026 snapshot.
Department, as filed	Grants	Budget	Available
Office of Budget and Management	5	$1,217,826,459	$26,335,256
Transportation	196	$1,003,872,864	$128,374,658
Family and Support Services	68	$730,028,779	$69,132,115
Public Health	83	$308,773,653	$89,388,553
Fire	17	$186,642,876	$19,512,187
Housing	17	$168,547,828	$79,583,712
Police	29	$129,238,304	$50,561,641
Planning and Development	13	$76,424,627	$2,497,164

The Office of Budget and Management holds the largest grant budget on only five rows: four ARP Local Fiscal Recovery Fund awards worth $1.20 billion together — one of them, at $1.17 billion, the largest single row in the file — and a $20.5 million disaster-recovery block grant. Transportation carries the most grants, 196, and Family and Support Services and Public Health follow. The file’s own ledger reconciles row by row — no grant’s budget differs from its expended, encumbered and available amounts added together — though five rows show a negative amount available.

$205.3 million available on grants that end this year

Of the 294 grants in the latest snapshot with end dates in the rest of 2026, 215 still showed money available on May 31.
Grants ending June 1 to December 31, 2026, with money available	Grants	Available
ARP Local Fiscal Recovery Fund	27	$73,399,218
Every other grant	188	$131,881,574
Total	215	$205,280,792

294 grants in the May 31 snapshot have end dates in the last seven months of 2026, and 215 of them still showed money available: $205,280,792 in all. The file does not say what happens to a balance at an end date — whether a grant is extended, the money is spent in the final months, or it goes back — and it records no extension or close-out, so the figure is a measure of how much remained seven months out, not a count of money lost. ARP Local Fiscal Recovery Fund grants account for 35.8 percent of it.

The ARPA rows, against the file’s own description

The file’s description says that “expenditure data for programs funded through the American Rescue Plan Act’s State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund is not within this dataset.” The May 31, 2026 snapshot nonetheless carries 65 rows described as the ARP Local Fiscal Recovery Fund, all under the U.S. Department of the Treasury, spread across 14 departments, with budgets totaling $1,938,497,975 and $1,858,459,021 expended — 95.9 percent. What remains is $80,038,953: $6,639,878 encumbered and $73,399,076 available on net. The available money sits on 27 of the 65 rows, which together show $73,399,218; one more row shows a negative balance of $142.24, which is the difference between the two figures. Every one of those rows carries a December 31, 2026 end date. The two statements may describe different levels of detail — the city’s ARPA transaction file records program spending separately — but the file does not say which.

Ten different labels naming the federal housing department

The grant-agency column in the latest snapshot spells the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ten different ways, from “HUD” and “US HUD” to “US DEPT OF HOUSING & DEVELOPME,” cut off mid-word. Ten rows name their agency as simply “0,” carrying $72.0 million of budget between them. Totals by agency in this file therefore depend on how a reader folds the names, and this page does not fold them.

What the file confirms, and what it cannot tell you

Confirmed, as filed on May 31, 2026: each active grant’s budget, amount expended, amount encumbered and amount available, its department, agency label and start and end dates. The columns read here do not show: what becomes of a balance when a grant ends; whether any grant has been or will be extended; how any grant’s money was spent; the City Council approvals behind the 925 amendments the description mentions; or anything after May 31, 2026. The 2025 snapshot is largely a different set of grants — only 26 grant codes appear in both — so the two are not compared as a trend.

Where the record lives

The Grants 925 file sits on the city’s data portal and is issued with the Mid-Year Budget Report that MCC 2-4-055 requires. It was last updated July 8, 2026, and every figure here was computed from it as retrieved on September 16, 2026.

The bottom line

Chicago’s grant books at the end of May 2026: $4.08 billion across 509 active awards, three-quarters of it spent, and $205.3 million still available on 215 grants whose end dates fall before the year is out. More than a third of that balance is ARP Local Fiscal Recovery Fund money dated to end December 31, on rows the file’s description says would not be there. What happens to any balance at an end date, the file does not record.

Two more questions the file can answer

Did any grant in the latest snapshot end before May 31? None did; the file carries active awards only. And how large was the June 2025 picture? $1,760,650,271 across 267 grants, 65.3 percent spent — a different set of awards, reported here for scale rather than as a trend.

Source: the Office of Budget and Management’s Grants 925 file (iyu8-jkf8): 789 rows in two extract snapshots, June 1, 2025 and May 31, 2026, retrieved September 16, 2026 and read whole.
One snapshot at a time: rows carry an extract date, and a grant can appear in both snapshots, so all totals are computed within a single extract date. Grants are matched across snapshots by grant project code.
The ledger check: on every row of the May 31, 2026 snapshot, budget equals expended plus encumbered plus available, to within a dollar.
Ending this year: grants whose end date falls between June 1 and December 31, 2026, with an available amount above zero on May 31.
ARPA rows: rows whose project description reads ARP Local Fiscal Recovery Fund. The file’s description about ARPA expenditure data is quoted as written.
Not here: no claim that any balance is lost or wasted, no judgment of any department, no folding of agency names, and no trend across the two snapshots.

Computed by KCM Desk from the Office of Budget and Management’s Grants 925 file, retrieved September 16, 2026. Human-guided and edited — about this desk. If you spot an error, corrections come first.