City of Chicago Ticket Forgiveness Program: Eligibility and How to Apply

Chicago’s ticket forgiveness program, officially called Clear Path Relief, can wipe out eligible parking and camera ticket debt older than three years for qualifying residents, and reduce newer tickets to their original base fine.¹ If you qualify, you pay only the base amount on tickets issued in the last three years and nothing on anything older, including the late penalties and collection fees that typically make up the bulk of an old ticket balance.

What Clear Path Relief Actually Forgives

The program uses a three-year look-back measured from the date you enroll.² Any eligible ticket within that window drops back to its base fine, the original amount before penalties. Everything eligible that’s older than three years is waived in full.

That older debt is usually where the money is. A $100 parking ticket from six years ago has often doubled from late penalties, picked up collection fees, and grown into several hundred dollars. Under Clear Path Relief, that entire balance disappears.¹

Under the municipal code, eligible “debt” includes fines and penalties from parking, standing, compliance, speed camera, and red light camera violations, plus fees from vehicle immobilization, towing, and storage. It also covers collection costs and attorney’s fees the city may have added.² Impounded vehicle release fees, meaning the charges to physically get your car back from an impound lot, are not covered.

Who Qualifies

There are three ways to qualify, and you only need one:²

Household income at or below 300% of the federal poverty guidelines.
Current enrollment in Chicago’s Utility Billing Relief program, which helps low-income homeowners with water and sewer bills.
Current enrollment in the city’s Administrative Debt Relief program.

If you’re applying based on income, the thresholds track the federal poverty guidelines published by the Department of Health and Human Services. At 300%, a single person earning up to $47,880 per year qualifies for 2026, and a family of four earning up to $99,000 qualifies.³ The city posts updated numbers on the program’s website, broken down by household size and expressed as monthly gross income.¹

Beyond income, you have to be a natural person rather than a business entity, and you must be the registered owner of the vehicle tied to the debt. You also need at least one outstanding, eligible, non-adjudicated violation.² That last word matters. The program is aimed at the pile of unresolved notices, not tickets you’ve already taken to a hearing and lost.

Which Tickets Are Covered

Clear Path Relief covers parking, standing, and compliance violations along with automated speed camera and red light camera tickets.¹ These are the categories that generate the most crushing debt, because an unpaid ticket doubles if you don’t pay within 25 days of a determination.⁴ A $35 speed camera ticket becomes $70. A $100 red light ticket becomes $200.

Expired meter tickets are not eligible. The municipal code specifically carves out violations of Section 9-64-190.² If you have unpaid meter tickets, you have to pay those in full or set up a separate payment plan for them, and the application makes you acknowledge this before submitting.⁵ People with a mix of meter and non-meter debt sometimes assume everything gets swept in and are surprised to see the meter tickets still on their account after enrollment.

Non-vehicle debt such as water and utility bills isn’t covered either. But enrollment in Utility Billing Relief for those bills can itself get you into Clear Path Relief, even though the two programs address different debts.

How to Apply

The application runs through the city’s online portal. Before you start, gather what you’ll need to look up your debt. You can search using your driver’s license number, license plate number, or a ten-digit notice number from any Department of Finance correspondence; notice numbers begin with the digit 5.⁵

For the income pathway, you’ll need documentation showing your household income falls within the threshold. If you’re enrolled in Utility Billing Relief or Administrative Debt Relief, that enrollment is your proof. Check the portal for the current list of accepted documents when you apply. Make sure anything you upload is legible and that the personal information on your application matches your ID exactly. Mismatches slow things down.

In-person help is available at the Department of Finance’s office at 121 North LaSalle Street in City Hall, and at the city’s regional payment centers.⁶ If you’re not comfortable with the online form or need help pulling documentation together, that’s a reasonable place to start.

What Happens After You’re Approved

Approval isn’t the end. Once enrolled, you enter a 24-month payment period during which you pay the base fines on tickets from the last three years and handle any excluded meter debt.² Standard payment plans spread installments over up to 24 months at no less than $10 per month, and a hardship plan can stretch to 60 months.⁷

Miss a payment or underpay and you go into default. The program lets you re-enroll after a first or second default, but the 24-month clock restarts each time. A third default likely ends your program benefits.² Treat the monthly payment as a bill that can’t slip.

Why It’s Worth Acting

Chicago’s enforcement system is built to escalate. An unpaid ticket doubles after 25 days.⁴ Enough unpaid violations can get your vehicle booted. If the boot isn’t resolved within 24 hours, the car can be towed and impounded, with daily storage fees stacking on top. Accumulated ticket debt can also lead to a driver’s license suspension.

Clear Path Relief exists to break that cycle for people who can’t pay the inflated balances. It doesn’t cover tickets you get after enrollment, so continuing to rack up violations while you’re in the program works against its purpose. If you’re approved, this is the reset.

1
City of Chicago. Clear Path Relief Pilot
2
American Legal Publishing. Municipal Code of Chicago 9-100-170 – Clear Path Relief Program
3
HHS ASPE. 2026 Poverty Guidelines – 48 Contiguous States
4
City of Chicago. Vehicle FAQs
5
City of Chicago. CPR Application
6
City of Chicago. Other Office Locations for the Department of Finance
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City of Chicago. Frequently Asked Questions