Photo by Susan Madden Lankford
The Alliance to End Homelessness in Suburban Cook County (the Alliance) strives to eliminate homelessness in suburban Cook County, Illinois. An extremely large geography with a complicated web of governments, suburban Cook County is home to over 2.5 million people across 573 square miles and
includes approximately 130 municipalities and 30 township governments. Within this complex context, the Alliance’s role is to articulate the best possible system to address homelessness, address weaknesses in the present system, and marshal the resources necessary to move toward collaborative goals.
The Alliance was created as part of the Obama Administration’s 2010 “Opening Doors: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness.”
In 2013, the homeless system in suburban Cook County served over 3,300 people. On any given night, approximately 1,200 people were either in
transitional housing, in a shelter, or living on the street. While over 70 percent
of people who experience homelessness in suburban Cook County in a year
are single individuals, a growing number are in families—951 people were
homeless with their families in 2013.5 By a broader measure, there were 5,704 school children in suburban Cook County considered homeless or doubled-up in the 2012-2013 school year—a 38 percent increase from the prior school year. If all people in suburban Cook County who are residing in “doubled-up” living situations (e.g., living with relatives or friends typically temporarily) were considered homeless, the number of homeless would be far higher.
Nearly 13% of the known homeless population in suburban Cook County
are considered chronically homeless, i.e. homeless for an extended period of time or has cycled in and out of homelessness repeatedly. Over 11% are veterans, and over 10% are leaving domestic violence situations. A substantial share have a disability, such as substance use (17%) or a mental illness (21%). When the most vulnerable people experiencing homelessness in the county were surveyed, nearly half reported having spent time in a jail or prison in the past.
Certain economic situations represent risk factors for homelessness and
may put additional pressures on the suburban Cook County homeless system
moving forward. For example, being extremely poor—having income below
half the poverty line, which translates to less than $9,000 a year for a family of three—puts people at risk for homelessness since there is so very little money to pay for rent, let alone for other basic needs. There are over 112,000 people in extreme poverty in suburban Cook County, representing 4.5% of the population.
Rents are relatively high in suburban Cook County, with a median rent of
$943. Almost 62,000 renter households are paying over 50% of their
income toward rent.
The Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act of 2009 amends and reauthorizes the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, which provides approximately $11 million to suburban Cook County annually—the single largest source of funding for its homeless system.
Since the Alliance was founded, Suburban Cook County has expanded permanent supportive housing by 400% by creating new programs, converting some existing transitional programs into permanent housing, and through the addition of 350 HUD Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) vouchers. The 979 permanent supportive housing (PSH) beds in January 2014 represent over five times the 190 PSH beds available in January 2005 and they also represent a 78% increase in just the three years since January 2011. From January 2008 to January 2014 the number of chronic homeless persons in the area dropped from 256 to 97.
The Alliance joined the national 100,000 Homes Campaign in July 2012. The campaign focuses on creating a by-name registry of people considered to be the most vulnerable, long-term homeless in the community and then committing to place them into permanent housing. Suburban Cook County’s 150 Homes Team formed as a local chapter of the 100,000 Homes Campaign to engage these individuals and place them into housing. The team set an initial goal of housing 150 individuals in two years and ending chronic homelessness in the area by the end of 2015.
Housing is the cornerstone of the Alliance’s efforts to end homelessness. The Alliance is committed to creating a variety of housing interventions. Rapid re-housing, short to medium term rental assistance with limited services, is the newest player in terms of interventions on the housing continuum targeted at people experiencing homelessness. While it has many features similar to transitional housing, in rapid re-housing the assistance is temporary but the housing is meant to be permanent. The rapid re-housing programs in suburban Cook County are fairly nascent. The Alliance sees rapid re-housing as a key tool to shorten the duration of homelessness, so it will focus on the following goals:
- Increase rapid re-housing capacity to 275 beds to meet the need in suburban Cook County;
- Ensure that rapid re-housing targets populations with low-to- moderate service needs; and
- Develop standards and procedures for rapid re-housing.
Permanent supportive housing is broadly understood to effectively end homelessness for those with disabilities, especially chronically homeless individuals and families. The Alliance plans to a) ensure that permanent supportive housing targets populations with intensive service needs, who experience long-term homelessness, are vulnerable, and are the hardest to house; b) increase the amount of permanent supportive housing available in suburban Cook County to 1,307 beds by January 2018 and c) build on success of 150 Homes Team to continue to quickly house 18 of the most vulnerable homeless per month.
Having an adequate supply of affordable housing is essential for both preventing homelessness and ending homelessness. The Housing Authority of Cook County recently implemented a homeless preference in both public housing and voucher wait lists, and new vouchers are an emerging opportunity to increase access for people in the homeless system to affordable housing in suburban Cook County.
Street outreach is directed toward finding people experiencing homelessness who might not use shelter or services. It includes building relationships, checking on and monitoring clients’ welfare, assessing vulnerability, linking to services and providing follow-up case management to ensure successful linkage to services.
Homelessness prevention activities include short- or medium-term financial assistance and services as well as tenant and legal services. In addition it includes systems prevention efforts with institutions that may discharge people without stable housing lined up. A newly emerging area of prevention work is identifying the situations that make a person most likely to become homeless and intentionally targeting households with those situations.
The Alliance, largely through the work of a new Alliance Employment Committee, will focus on the following employment goals:
- Increase awareness about existing employment-related resources;
- Develop provider knowledge and skills in best practices in employment programs for people experiencing homelessness;
- Make employment an integral part of the suburban Cook homeless system; and
- Promote changes in government policies to support employment programs and policies for people experiencing homelessness
The Affordable Care Act provides for a Medicaid expansion to nearly all individuals with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level and includes new requirements for states to significantly streamline Medicaid enrollment processes. Given their low incomes and high uninsured rate, individuals experiencing homelessness could significantly benefit from this coverage expansion. However, it will be important to address the barriers they face to enrolling in coverage and accessing needed care. In addition, Medicaid funds may be available to support some services for people experiencing homelessness in new ways. The Alliance, largely through the work of providers and the three regional homeless councils, will focus on the following health care goals:
- Enroll all people in the suburban Cook County homeless system into Medicaid or other health insurance;
- Equip people experiencing homelessness in suburban Cook County to effectively use insurance and the health care system; and
- Integrate homeless and health care systems in a systemic way.
