Using data from Chicago, a new University of Notre Dame study affirms the impact of homeless prevention grants to families who call for help – those who received a grant were 76% less likely to move into a shelter within six months than those turned away.
“There is evidence that it’s a sustained impact up to two years later,” says the the study’s author, economist James Sullivan.
CCH’s statewide housing campaign successfully advocated to start the state-funded prevention program in 1999. It has helped 109,652 Illinois households through mid-2015. The program did not receive any state funding during last year’s budget impasse.
By David Schultz
If someone is about to become homeless, giving them a single cash infusion, averaging about $1,000, may be enough to keep them off the streets for at least 2 years. That’s the conclusion of a new study, which finds that programs that proactively assist those in need don’t just help the victims—they may benefit society as a whole.
“I think this is a really important study, and it’s really well done,” says Beth Shinn, a community psychologist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville who specializes in homelessness but was not involved in the work.
Homelessness isn’t just bad for its sufferers—it shortens life span and hurts kids in school—it’s a burden on everyone else. Previous studies have concluded that a single period of homelessness can cost taxpayers $20,000 or more, in the form of welfare, policing, health care, maintaining homeless shelters, and other expenses. To combat homelessness, philanthropic organizations have either tried to prevent people from losing their homes in the first place or help them regain housing after they are already destitute. But there aren’t many data on whether giving cash to people on the brink of becoming homeless actually prevents them from living on the street.
So economist James Sullivan of the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, took advantage of a natural experiment. Funding for homelessness prevention programs is highly unpredictable, and thus many programs are often temporarily unable to give money to people about to lose their homes, even if they qualify for the assistance. That allowed him and his colleagues to compare the eventual fate of individuals and families who called into a homelessness prevention call center in Chicago, Illinois, when funds were available versus those who called when funds were not.
The programs work by giving one-time cash quantities to people on the brink of homelessness who can demonstrate that they will be able to pay rent by themselves in the future, but who have been afflicted by some nonrecurring crisis, such as a medical bill. Recipients need to be able to demonstrate consistent future income, and the amount given needs to actually cover their housing expenses for the month. The average amount paid out, according to Sullivan, is about $1000.
The team tracked the two groups for several months. Those who called when funding was available—and received the cash infusion—were 88% less likely to become homeless after 3 months and 76% less likely after 6 months, the researchers report today in Science. “We found no evidence that this effect fades away,” Sullivan says. “There is evidence that it’s a sustained impact up to 2 years later.”
Although it might seem obvious that giving people money would keep them off the street, many antiwelfare critics have argued that such charity only prolongs the decline into homelessness. But that appears not to be the case, Sullivan says.
The researchers also found that targeting only the people who will actually go on to become homeless both increases the program’s impact and reduces its cost. Many people in the study who qualified for the financial assistance but did not receive it because of lack of funds did notgo on to actually become homeless—they found some other solution to pay their bills or were able to move in with friends and family. Determining who will or won’t actually become homeless is a tricky business, but the data suggest that the poorest people—those furthest below the poverty line—are more at risk and thus receive the greatest benefit from the cash.
If programs can find a better way to target the most vulnerable people, Sullivan’s research suggests they could save everyone money in the long run. The study found that, on average, it costs $10,300 overall to prevent a spell of homelessness when the costs of operating the call centers and maintaining the funding networks are included. But that figure can be reduced to $6800 by targeting very low-income families. This may seem high, especially considering only a fraction of that money goes directly to the person in need, but even its current state, that number is roughly only half the $20,000 that a period of homelessness may cost society.
Shinn says the study shows that these types of programs are absolutely effective and worthy of more consistent funding. And economics aside, there’s a definite moral benefit to helping people staring down the real possibility of becoming homeless, says social scientist Dennis Culhane at the University of Pennsylvania. “These are generally very, very poor people for whom our safety net has been dramatically eroded over the last 30 years,” he says.
Culhane says the programs can help prevent people from having to resort to prostitution and other dangerous behaviors to pay off debts from payday loans or other means of making ends meet. “These are not things that are easily quantifiable the way an economist would do it, but I don’t lose sleep at night about the fact that a lot of very poor people are getting emergency cash assistance when facing a financial crisis—even if they wouldn’t have become homeless without it.”
Patricia Scott, laid off Friday from her job as a clerk at Prosser Career Academy after 23 years, earned a reputation as a passionate advocate for the school’s many homeless students. | Mark Brown/Sun-Times
By Mark Brown, Chicago Sun-Times columnist
There were only two students identified as homeless at Prosser Career Academy in 1996 when the principal made Patricia Scott the school’s liaison to a new federal program for Students in Temporary Living Situations.
The number jumped to eight soon after that, and at its high point, ballooned all the way to 81 homeless kids.
At the end of this past school year, Prosser counted 68 homeless students among its 1,400 enrollees, 26 of whom were seniors.
“They all graduated,” Scott told me Wednesday. “I’m very proud of that.”
That group of 26 seniors will be the last class of homeless students Scott shepherds to their high school degree at Prosser.
On Friday, she was among 1,000 Chicago Public Schools employees to learn they were getting laid off.
Scott is not a teacher. She’s a clerk, one of 521 support staff included in the layoff tallies.
When we talk about CPS layoffs, we usually concern ourselves primarily with teachers. But Scott is a good example of why we shouldn’t overlook what’s lost when many of those support jobs are eliminated.
During her 20 years as the Northwest Side school’s homeless liaison, Scott earned a reputation as a fierce advocate for her students, not only helping them receive the free school supplies and bus passes to which they are entitled, but also going the extra mile by supplying the mothering that so many of them desperately need.
“You could see how she cared so deeply for her students and how they respected and trusted her,” said Hannah Willage, an organizer with the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. “It is heartbreaking to know her students will not have her to return to and that she is one of 1,000 staff and teachers impacted by the layoffs. These layoffs hit homeless students hard.”
It was Willage who alerted me to Scott’s layoff, which I mention in case prospective employers get the idea she is the type to run to the press. She’s not.
But she did agree to speak with me. I arrived at her door the same moment as the mailman delivering the registered letter with official notification of her layoff.
“They say they’re putting me in a recall pool,” Scott said after taking a moment to read it. She didn’t sound very optimistic.
At age 57, Scott is concerned about finding another job, but not as concerned as she is about the homeless students under her care, many of whom stay in touch with her long after leaving school.
She knows the time and difficulty involved in building relationships with homeless students, many of whom don’t trust adults because of traumas suffered in their young lives.
“I don’t know where I’d be if it wasn’t for her,” said Liz Rodriguez, 27, who just completed a bachelor’s degree in information technology.
Rodriguez told me she was kicked out of the house at 13 and eventually came to live with an older sister, but was left homeless again when the sister moved out of town.
She credits Scott with guiding her through her senior year and giving her a “base” on which to build a life. The same goes for her husband, Jose, a U.S. Marine who was also in the Prosser homeless program, Rodriguez said.
Jasmine Edwards, 26, was put out of her home at 16, and says Scott not only raised money to help her pay the security deposit on an apartment but also gave her a vision of what she could accomplish with an education.
“She’s been like a mother. She never judges you,” said Edwards, who turned a part-time high school job into being a Wal-Mart store manager in Indiana.
If there are any principals in need of a strong candidate to take over their school’s homeless program, I know where to find one.
As Illinois government has lurched along for nearly a year without a formal budget, women who rely on state services have been among those suffering the most.
Frozen out of the haphazard funding system that’s emerged during the impasse are social service providers, many of them not-for-profit organizations whose largely female workforce deliver state-subsidized help for struggling mothers and their children as well as victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.
“It’s hitting women and children disproportionally hard and in ways that lots of us are still trying to get a grasp on,” said Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, who chairs the human services committee. “It’s across the board. It’s really sad.”
Women make up nearly two-thirds of the recipients of a low-income college tuition grant program that’s been underfunded. Women are also the ones seeking help through programs that have lost state funding entirely, including intervention services for infants and toddlers with disabilities, home visits for teen parents, and prenatal and family care management for at-risk mothers. The funding crunch has gotten so bad that low-income women seeking breast and ovarian cancer screenings are being told to wait in a long line, unless they’re already displaying symptoms.
A bill to spend $715 million to help salvage those programs has been sitting on Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s desk for a month, the result of a rare team-up by Republican and Democratic lawmakers. The state has the money — it’s sitting in special funds that are earmarked for social services and represents about half of what the state spends on human services in a normal budget year.
But Rauner has additional priorities. He’s pushing for a six-month budget that would release the special funds for social services while also covering costs for prisons, veterans homes, road maintenance, public universities and community colleges. Plus, he wants a full-year spending plan for elementary and secondary schools.
Asked recently why he hadn’t approved the bill, Rauner cast the legislation as part of a broader strategy he says Democratic foes in the General Assembly are employing to prevent an end to the budget crisis.
“It does not have essential services in it,” Rauner said. “It is incomplete. And it will still — this is what I need you to understand — it will still create a crisis. That bill is designed to still create a government operations crisis. That’s the key distinction that you’re missing.”
Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan responded by firing off a statement accusing the governor of putting “office supplies over life-saving services.”
While the war of words rages on, service providers and their advocates say every day that goes by is causing damage to the social service network and the people it serves.
Cancer screenings
Normally, the state sets aside roughly $13 million to provide breast and ovarian cancer screenings for low-income women, a program primarily administered by local health departments or other women’s service agencies. But without a budget, the only money flowing to the program is about $6 million in federal funds.
The state is supposed to match those dollars but has yet to do so. While it’s unlikely the federal government will ask for the money back, the situation remains “a sticky wicket,” said Heather Eagleton, director of public policy and government relations at the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
That means many agencies have been forced to cut the number of hours they offer screenings and move to what’s known as a “priority list.” As a result, women who are displaying symptoms, be it a lump in the breast or abnormal bleeding, are prioritized for testing. That’s created long waiting lists, and some agencies have stopped advertising their services amid concerns they will be flooded with women they can’t help.
“It’s scary. The longer you wait, the cancer can progress to a much later stage, and in turn it becomes more difficult and more expensive to treat,” Eagleton said. “Just because you cut the program, it doesn’t mean you are going to get rid of cancer.”
Those who are diagnosed with cancer are then enrolled for treatment in the state’s Medicaid program, though Rauner has proposed cutting spending there, arguing the Affordable Care Act has expanded health care access.
Advocates argue women are still falling through the cracks.
The Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force, which connects women to health care providers, says it is owed more than $164,000 for data it collects on behalf of the state tracking the quality and effectiveness of mammograms. The program is aimed at ensuring testing and diagnosis is accurate, and without the funds, executive director Anne Marie Murphy said her group may not have the legal authority to collect the data at all.
“Women’s lives are being sacrificed to the budget,” said Murphy, whose agency specializes in finding women the care they need, including working with hospitals and doctors who volunteer their services to make up for the lack of funding.
“Right now, services are choppy. Depending on when and who you call, you might get in, but a lot of the time women are told they have to wait,” Murphy said.
The bill that lawmakers sent to Rauner includes about $5 million for breast and cervical cancer screenings.
Sexual assault counseling
Illinois’ network of 29 rape crisis centers are “operating at bare bones,” said Polly Poskin, executive director of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault. Without money to pay employees, the centers have had to lay off 16 workers while delaying hiring and furloughing some workers at centers across the state. Volunteers are chipping in to keep the 24-hour rape crisis hotlines operating, but the waiting list of people who need counseling services has grown to 175 statewide, Poskin said.
“It’s further traumatizing to victims to call and ask for assistance and to have to be on a wait list,” Poskin said. “When people suffer trauma, a critical piece to trauma is consistency in support. And when you interrupt that … you’re not only hurting the families of the individuals who will be without that income, you are devastating survivors and their need to recover as quickly as they can.”
The social services bill on Rauner’s desk, which includes about $2.76 million for sexual assault programs, “would be a godsend,” Poskin said. With it, “we could limp along until November. And without it, we’re facing the dreadful closure of some centers. It’s needed, and it’s needed now.”
Homeless youth
At The Harbour Inc., based in Park Ridge, officials are bracing for the possible closure of a program that provides housing for young mothers as they receive training on parenting, budgeting and employment. The agency usually receives about $200,000 from the state for a housing transition program, an emergency homeless shelter it operates for teens and another program for young parents.
The agency is one of many that provides housing and services for the homeless that have not been paid since July. Normally, the state sets aside roughly $40 million for such providers. But without state funds, many have dipped into reserves, laid off staff or cut services to make ends meet.
The Harbour has been able to get by because of federal dollars and unexpected donations from a trust, but it’s possible they could lose that federal money if the state doesn’t provide matching funds. Program director Kris Salyards says the housing program cannot operate without state support past the end of July.
“We are faced with making some very tough decisions,” Salyards said. “This isn’t just impacting 12 young moms who are working and paying rent, who are being a family own their own, but it also impacts about 20 little kids who will become homeless.”
Advocates for the homeless point to people like Latoya Lawrence as examples of how the state-sponsored services they provide can help to turn a person’s life around.
Before receiving help from the Harbour, the 22-year-old Lawrence and her now 4-year-old son Cleo were sleeping in her cousin’s living room. She struggled to afford rent while working as an in-home nurse and worried she would never be able to provide her son “a place we could call our own.”
Now nearing the end of her 18 months in the transitional housing program, Lawrence works as a pharmacy tech representative at CVS/Caremark and plans to begin a licensed practical nurse program this fall. The housing assistance initially allowed her to live rent free, giving her flexibility to work and take classes, along with training on budgeting and other life skills. She can now afford housing and will soon strike out on her own.
“It helped me and a lot of other people that I do know that were in the program, take the chance to actually experience life, and the obstacles that come our way,” said Lawrence, of Evanston. “It gives us a chance to get ahead in life.”
Women workers
For women, the budget impasse hurts two ways. Not only are the services that some women rely on getting cut, but women make up the majority of the home health care and social service agency workforce funded by the state.
The situation has led one major union critical of Rauner to declare he’s instigated “a war on women.”
According to figures from SEIU Healthcare Illinois, there are roughly 20,000 home child-care workers whose clients rely on state subsidies to pay for their day care services. That’s down from 25,000 a year earlier, which the union chalks up to program restrictions Rauner has put in place to control costs. Roughly 95 percent of those child care workers are women, and nearly 64 percent of those workers live on the edge of poverty, earning less than $14,999 a year.
Additionally, SEIU spokeswoman Brynn Seibert estimated that Rauner’s cuts to child care have pushed as many as 55,000 children out of the program, which she said could force thousands of parents to leave the workforce as a result.
That breakdown is similar for home care workers who help the elderly and disabled, with the majority of the workforce being female, poor and non-white.
“The bottom line is that they need to pass a budget that raises taxes because otherwise there is no hope of funding all of these services,” said David Lloyd, director of the fiscal policy center for Voices for Illinois Children, a nonprofit child advocacy group. “Gov. Rauner has said it. The Democratic leaders have said it. Everyone knows what needs to be done, they are just unwilling to do it. That’s the most frustrating part about this.”
Higher education
The uncertainty over higher education funding looms especially large for women. Caught in the middle is a state scholarship grant for low-income students known as the Monetary Award Program. According to the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, which oversees the program, roughly 80,000 of the 128,000 students who received the grants last year were women.
Kayla Gubov is among the students who has found it difficult to plan college because of the budget impasse. She was several months into what was supposed to be four years at Bradley University in Peoria when she decided to take a break and head home, saddened to be so far away from family in Skokie and overwhelmed by mounting costs.
After taking time to regroup, she enrolled at nearby Oakton Community College. This spring, she earned her associate degree, helped along in part by a MAP grant. Most schools had to pick up the cost of the scholarships during much of the budget impasse. While some funding was finally released in April, it was only enough for one semester, and it’s unclear if schools will be able to afford the extra expense if there’s not a full budget come this fall.
Now looking to complete her bachelor’s degree, Gubov said she’s planning to head out of state, where universities can offer more competitive and stable financial aid.
“It’s discouraging. I am lucky that I got into a school outside of Illinois, but that was never in my original plan, especially considering that just a three-hour drive was pretty far for me,” Gubov said. “I realize now how much people’s futures are really in the politicians’ hands, and I just hope they see how incredibly important this is.”
A new study calls for an intense focus on helping homeless students stay in school, noting that new requirements and supports in the Every Student Succeeds Act can aid that effort.
“Hidden in Plain Sight,” released Monday, documents the disconnections that are already familiar to many who work with homeless students. Using surveys and interviews with a small pool of young people who are, or have been, homeless, and with some of the state liaisons who try to help them, Civic Enterprises and Hart Research Associates paint a portrait of a system that too often fails to provide the supports necessary to keep them in school, and even worse, creates barriers to their retention or re-entry.
The new federal education law, ESSA, for the first time requires states to track and report the academic achievement and graduation rates of homeless students, like any other subgroup. That reporting requirement alone could apply pressure to states and districts to do a better job identifying and supporting homeless students, the report suggests. ESSA has a flock of other new provisions that bolster resources and requirements aimed at helping homeless students.
But the problems that lead homeless students to leave school—or have trouble re-enrolling after being gone for a while—are so deep and complex that they demand more than changes to federal law, the report says.
Being aware of, and abiding by, existing law would be a start: School officials are often unaware that the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act already guarantees students the right to re-enroll in school after an extended absence, or change schools, without having to show proof of residency. Students who have experienced homelessness told the researchers that this was one of the biggest hurdles to continuing their schooling as their home situations were in flux.
The students also told the researchers that they need a mix of both physical and emotional supports to enable them to re-enroll or stay in school.
Schools and districts are unable to meet those needs with any consistency, however. Special liaisons hired to identify and help homeless students find themselves spread far too thin: Ninety percent said they have other duties, too, and spend half their time or less on helping students who are homeless, the study says.
The result is an alarming, if familiar, profile: Homeless students find it harder to make good connections with peers and adults, and are more likely to fall behind in school and drop out (42 percent of the students interviewed by the researchers said they had dropped out of school one or more times.). And the reach of these problems is growing: The number of homeless students in the country doubled between 2006-07 and 2013-14,to 1.3 million, the report says.
Many layers and levels of attention are required to help homeless students stay in school through graduation. The report identifies efforts necessary on the state and federal level, such as enforcing ESSA’s provisions for homeless students and stepping up efforts to provide affordable housing.
Schools can make a difference by connecting homeless students with a web of community services, paying closer attention to early-warning signs of trouble, such as chronic absence or poor grades, and training school staff in better identifying homeless students. Also key: Going the extra mile to provide missed assignments, being flexible with assignment timelines, facilitating transcript and test-score paperwork in a transfer; and helping navigate tricky legal issues such as getting parental consent for school activities or re-enrollment.
The Civic Enterprises/Hart Research Associates study was based on three telephone focus groups with state coordinators or liaisons for homeless youth, an online survey of 504 liaisons, a survey of 158 young people who were homeless at some point in middle or high school, and 44 interviews with young people who are currently
The Cook County Board Finance Committee approved a redevelopment plan for the old Cook County Hospital, over objections from some community advocates.
The Westside Community Benefits Coalition, spearheaded by Action Now, the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless and the Community Renewal Society, wanted the plan tweaked to “include community hiring for people with criminal records, residents of the 29th and 37th wards [on Chicago’s West Side], and that the commitment to local hiring increases significantly.”
The plan was ultimately approved by a 10-1 vote, with Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin, whose district includes Chicago’s West Side, voting “no.” While the commissioner said he does not “have any problems with redevelopment,” he wants to see measures approved to bolster funding for anti-violence and youth employment efforts.
Under a redevelopment agreement proposed last month, the old Cook County Hospital building would be rehabbed into a mixed-use site with a hotel plus retail and residential space. The privately funded project is part of a larger, multi-phase redevelopment plan for the area, including construction of a new research and technology center.
“Given the high unemployment on the West Side, it would be shameful for a development of this size to come into this area and not allow nearby residents the opportunity to be productive citizens where they live and work,” Gale Lewis, a Community Renewal Society leader, said in a statement.
The agreement reportedly requires at least 7.5 percent of construction jobs go to area residents.
After performing work for the State of Illinois for nearly a year without getting paid, a coalition of 64 social service providers filed suit Wednesday against Gov. Bruce Rauner and six of his agency directors.
The group, calling itself Pay Now Illinois, demanded immediate payment in full for more than $100 million owed for services performed under the organizations’ various state contracts.
These are the victims of the state budget impasse that I have been trying to tell you about for the last year: the human services providers that do the heavy lifting of helping people in need.
They are collapsing under the weight of not getting paid. And in a desperate attempt at survival, they’ve gone to Cook County Circuit Court.
What took them so long to file suit, you might well ask?
That’s a legitimate question with court orders having proved the one surefire way for other social service providers to continue to get paid during the budget battle between Rauner and Democratic leaders.
The answer is complicated.
There are a lot of reasons:
• Optimism, or at least hope, that a state budget deal between Rauner and the Democrat-controlled Legislature was just around the corner.
• Fear of biting the hand that feeds them and, in the process, getting crossways with the new governor.
• Pessimism that the courts can help, given language in their state contracts that says they will be paid when there is an appropriation, which there still isn’t.
Finally, though, they are forced to try.
“We had no other recourse. Nobody wanted to do this. We just can’t go on this way,” said Ric Estrada, president of Metropolitan Family Services, a coalition member owed nearly $2 million by the state.
The organization has already informed state officials and its own workers that it will discontinue four state programs serving 900 people if there is no state appropriation to fund them by June 30.
The programs slated for closing include small group homes for people with mental health issues, a counseling program for juveniles at risk of winding up in prison, mental health services for children under age 6 who have been the victims of severe trauma, and home visitation services for teenage mothers and their children.
Metropolitan Family Services operates other programs that have continued to receive state payments during the budget standoff because of federal court orders.
Estrada said state officials were disappointed to learn of his agency’s plan to halt the four programs and urged it to continue to provide the services.
“They said, ‘Couldn’t you pay for this privately?’” Estrada said.
Estrada had to explain that private donations, which the organization already solicits, couldn’t possibly cover the gap.
This is the point where somebody always writes me to say the wealthy Rauner should just pay for it himself.
Sorry, even he doesn’t have enough money to fill all the holes created by his intransigence on the budget.
Rauner spokesman Catherine Kelly naturally pointed in another direction.
“While we understand that frustration is driving many worthwhile organizations to seek solutions anywhere, including the courts, the only solution is for the General Assembly to pass a balanced, reform-oriented budget as soon as possible,” she said in a statement.
I’ve tried to explain all along that the groups going unpaid weren’t somehow singled out as being less worthy than the ones who were paid. They just fell victim to the vagaries of the situation, in which the state is required to continue providing some services under prior federal court orders but not others.
These services are important, too, and the money is owed.
Unfortunately, as much as I think the organizations are only requesting what is fair, their court argument strikes me as legally dubious.
If nothing else, maybe their long-shot effort will force more people to pay attention.
For Mayor Rahm Emanuel, tackling the tricky politics of Chicago’s homeless problem amounts to a no-win situation.
Tagged with the “Mayor 1 Percent” nickname by his harshest critics, the millionaire mayor tends not to get the benefit of the doubt on the issue, even when he came out in favor Monday of a new tax on Airbnb rentals to fund programs aimed at getting people off the streets and into permanent housing.
And when Emanuel rolled out a new trial program to help the “chronically homeless,” he made the focus moving people out of encampments under Lake Shore Drive viaducts on the North Side. The tent cities in and around Uptown have long been a particular source of tension, given the neighborhood’s history as an area with large populations of poor and working-class people and the fact it perennially seems on the verge of gentrification by those drawn to its nearby beaches and abundant public transportation.
That thicket of historical and class issues opened Emanuel up to criticism that he’s more worried about sanitizing the lakefront for warm-weather crowds than he is about seriously addressing the problem.
“Don’t pretend you’re doing anything about homelessness,” said Andy Thayer, of the Uptown Tent City Organizers. “You’re cleaning up the lakefront for yuppie tourists.”
Emanuel’s top social services aide said that’s not the case. Those residing under four viaducts were chosen for the next phase of the city’s homelessness efforts because the roughly 75 people living there make the size of the population appropriate for the program, and the diversity of the group in terms of age and the issues they face means they could qualify for a variety of housing programs, said Lisa Morrison Butler, commissioner of the Department of Family and Social Services.
She said there was no pressure from the city to get the homeless population out of the viaducts close to the concert venue at Montrose Beach and other lakefront attractions.
“I can honestly say the mayor never said to me: ‘Clean out the lakeshore encampments so people don’t see them during Mumford & Sons,’ ” Morrison Butler said. The folk pop group played before tens of thousands of fans near the beach in June.
Emanuel defended himself Monday, arguing he already has spent money trying to end homelessness for veterans and young people in Chicago, and saying the Lake Shore Drive program is his latest move to cope with the problem.
“We’re using resources out of our affordable housing to provide for people coming out of viaducts. But the effort here is to give homeless people a home,” he said. “Now, there were other people complaining that say those people needed to have a home. I would like to do more.”
The viaduct program comes as Emanuel is supporting a City Council push to add a 4 percent tax to vacation rentals of apartments and homes in the city through online company Airbnb, with money collected going to homeless services.
Emanuel called the plan, which is likely to get a council vote this month, an innovative way for the cash-strapped city to raise money to combat homelessness at a time state and federal support for such programs is dwindling.
“I believe you have a new industry emerging called Airbnb,” the mayor said at a groundbreaking ceremony for the luxury Wanda Vista Tower project downtown. “It will compete with the hotels, but people will choose if that’s how they want to stay. But that should become a resource for permanent funding to address the concerns of homelessness so people who are living under bridges, living under Lower Wacker, we can provide them a shelter and all the social services, whether that’s mental health or other type of efforts to literally get a home.”
The ordinance to tack on the 4 percent tax to Airbnb rentals includes a clause stating that “the purpose of this surcharge is to fund supportive services attached to permanent housing for homeless families.” The mayor said he initially expects it to bring in roughly $2 million a year.
North Side Ald. Amaya Pawer, 47th, a sponsor of the proposal, said he believes the language in the ordinance is strong enough to ensure the money doesn’t get diverted by the city into more pressing or politically rewarding programs than homeless services.
“I wouldn’t have introduced it if that was the case,” Pawar said. “I think the only way for future councils or mayors to do that would be to amend the ordinance.”
In addition to setting aside money for fighting homelessness, Pawar said the measure brings the burgeoning vacation rental industry into the city’s regulatory fold.
“In many instances, the sharing economy exists because of technology, but also because it’s able to slide under the existing regulatory framework,” he said.
And the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless supports the endeavor.
“It’s great that the city will have a dedicated funding source for homeless services,” said Julie Dworkin, the group’s policy director. “We think it’s an appropriate place to put the fee, because Airbnb is taking rental units off the market and thereby increasing rents.”
Airbnb spokesman Christopher Nulty said the company is “committed” to working with the city on regulations for the industry, but questioned the specifics of the surcharge plan.
“While we think supporting homelessness programs in Chicago is important — and we are open to discussing what this means in practical terms — we also believe that good and fair regulation does not tax a room in someone’s home on the South or West Side more than a room in a hotel downtown,” Nulty said in a statement.
For now, the effort to find housing for the people camping under four North Side viaducts will be paid for out of the existing family and social services budget, Morrison Butler said. While the city’s prior work on veteran homelessness qualified for federal funding, this will need to be paid for in-house, she said.
Thayer said the tax on Airbnb overlooks the fact the city already has ample money on hand, but Emanuel is choosing to use those funds on other projects.
“A new Riverwalk is nice, and separate lakefront paths for bikers and runners is great. It’s all very pretty, and in a world with unlimited funds these would be nice things to have,” he said. “But we don’t live in that world, and Chicago has a huge homelessness problem that the mayor isn’t addressing.”
Another week, another homeless initiative from Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
Last week, it was a pilot program to find housing for 75 people camped under Lake Shore Drive viaducts.
This week, he’s signing on to a proposal by Chicago aldermen to double his proposed surcharge on house-sharing businesses like Airbnb, with the proceeds to be used to provide services for the homeless.
The resulting 4 percent surcharge on the bills of house-sharing guests would initially bring in more than $2 million annually for homeless programs, with an expectation of added revenue in the future as the emerging industry grows, administration officials say.
The dedicated local revenue stream, long sought by advocates for the homeless, will be “groundbreaking,” the mayor promised in an interview.
So what gives? Has Emanuel grown a heart, or is he just trying to prove there was one there all along?
I’m not sure. Politics most likely, though, to be fair, he’s been pretty good on many housing issues.
The explanation might be this simple: Finding more money to help the homeless will likely help the mayor gain whatever additional aldermanic support he needs for his underlying proposal to regulate the house-sharing industry.
Emanuel said he plans to move forward in May with the ordinance, though he still faces opposition from multiple parties.
In a replay of the “new economy” battle playing out between taxi companies and ride-sharing services like Uber, hotel interests object on grounds that Emanuel’s regulations are too easygoing on the tech-based lodging services. They contend that some of the house-sharing companies operate what in effect are unregulated hotels that unfairly compete with them.
The real estate industry also has concerns. The Chicago Association of Realtors says tenants and condo owners should be required to submit affidavits attesting they have permission from their landlords or condo associations to rent their units. The underlying point: Many apartment and condo dwellers who already house-share don’t have such permission.
Airbnb is also displeased. The company argued the proposed 2 percent surcharge Emanuel unveiled in January was unfair to middle-class people renting out their homes on weekends. Doubling it to 4 percent doubles that unhappiness.
Despite those hurdles, Emanuel said: “I have no doubt we’re going to pass the ordinance.”
I have no position on the underlying Airbnb ordinance without more study.
But I think it’s a great idea to direct revenue from this new industry to homeless people, given the roundabout probability the Airbnbs of the world are going to further contribute to housing displacement.
There’s definitely a need for revenue. Even if the city can cobble together funding to provide housing for homeless people, federal and state budget cuts have decimated the services needed to help them stay there.
Those can include mental health treatment , substance abuse counseling and job-readiness training.
Emanuel’s original proposal directed the money to homeless families. With the need to address growing homeless encampments, some funds will be switched there, he said.
Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th), who teamed with Ald. James Cappleman (46th) on the idea of doubling the surcharge for homeless services, said doing so was enough to secure his support for the Airbnb ordinance.
“I think this is a good balance,” Pawar said.
Chicago Coalition for the Homeless also supports the surcharge plan.
Administration officials said the mayor remains open to considering further changes based on other concerns raised by aldermen but rejects Ald. Brendan Reilly’s position that the administration should scrap its proposal and instead enforce the stricter vacation rental ordinance that took effect in 2011.
After two weeks of our making nice, the mayor assures me he will do something in the coming week for which I can criticize him. I told him I look forward to it.
Homeless youth set up 25 backpacks outside a luxury condo building where Gov. Bruce Rauner has one of his nine homes, to compare the only storage the homeless have to what the governor has. (Credit: Mike Krauser)
By Mike Krauser
Homeless youth and advocates gathered outside one of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s homes on Thursday, to call attention to the state budget impasse and its impact on programs for the homeless.
The group lined up backpacks outside 340 on the Park, a high-rise condo building across the street from Maggie Daley Park. Rauner owns a condo there, and organizers of the demonstration said the governor uses that condo only for storage.
“We are out here in front of one of Governor Rauner’s nine homes. He owns nine luxury homes, and yet there are thousands of homeless people around the state that have no homes, and the only places that they have to stay are in jeopardy,” said Julie Dworkin, policy director for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.
The 25 backpacks they laid out on the sidewalk represent the 25,000 homeless children in Illinois. For homeless youth, backpacks often carry everything they own.
“We’re comparing the only storage they have to the storage in this luxury high-rise,” Dworkin said.
Kayla Evans said she was homeless for two years before getting into a shelter, and getting help.
“Our backpack is our sense of survival. I carried a pocketknife, just in case somebody tried to attack us,” she said.
Evans said she knows a homeless person who intentionally committed a crime just to go to jail, “because they knew they’d have housing and food.”
“I thought that was pretty said,” she said.
Advocates said programs that help the homeless in Illinois are in danger of having to shut down, because the state budget stalemate has left them without vital funding.
Linda, who crochets hats and other items from her tent beneath the Wilson Avenue viaduct on Lake Shore Drive, is skeptical about the cityÕs promise to find her housing. “I aint gonna hold my breath,” she said. | Mark Brown/Sun-Times
By Mark Brown
Chicago Sun-Times columnist
The city of Chicago has picked 75 chronically homeless people living in tent encampments along North Lake Shore Drive for an experiment of sorts.
For the first time, the city is proposing to rapidly find them housing, an idea that may seem elementary but is actually almost revolutionary here.
Patterned after a “housing first” model that has shown promise in other cities, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration is aiming to find the 75 homeless people a place to live within 60 to 90 days.
Instead of the customary approach of requiring them to first sort out some of the personal problems that might have contributed to their homelessness, the new plan is to get them a place to call home and then provide the services necessary to help them repair their lives and stay there.
Nobody can say for certain whether this pilot program will work. But it sure beats the heck out of past efforts to harass the homeless to get them out of sight and out of mind.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel after the Chicago City Council meeting. Wednesday, March 16, 2016. Brian Jackson/ For the Sun-Times
Emanuel, who told me he’s “trying to do right” by the homeless, said he often drives by the encampments on his way home.
“You can look away, or you can see an entire community underneath the viaduct of Lake Shore Drive,” Emanuel said Friday. “I need to make sure they have a roof over their heads.”
The new city effort follows increased complaints from neighbors along the north lakefront, where longstanding homeless sleeping spots burgeoned during the relatively mild winter.
But Department of Family and Support Services Commissioner Lisa Morrison Butler, who chairs a new Mayor’s Homeless Task Force, has convinced me her primary motivation is to help.
“Being homeless in Chicago is not illegal,” Butler said she reminds those who complain.
She said specific housing units haven’t been identified, but the city has committed that none of the 75 individuals will be placed in a shelter or forced to leave the area.
Homeless people and the groups that work with them are taking a wait-and-see approach until they see how the good intentions are put into practice.
“I ain’t gonna hold my breath,” said Linda B., who didn’t want me to use her full name because “my ex-old man has a private detective looking for me.”
Linda, 61, was wearing a “Jail Rahm” button on her “Chicago Blows” T-shirt. As we talked, she donned a cap she’d crocheted with the words “Buzz Off.”
“I don’t believe nothing they say,” Linda told me Friday as a bracing northwest wind whipped under the Wilson Avenue viaduct where she has spent the last year. “I’m not from Missouri, but they gotta show me.”
Tonya Moore, 43, who has lived under the Wilson Avenue viaduct for seven months, said she thinks the city is serious about its promise to find housing for 75 people in tent encampments along Lake Shore Drive. “We’re crossing our fingers,” she said. | Mark Brown/Sun-Times
On the other side of the street, Tonya Moore took a more hopeful attitude, even as she sorted through belongings ruined by the previous night’s rain.
“We’re keeping our fingers crossed,” said Moore, 43.
I told her I thought the city was serious this time.
“I think they’re serious, too,” Moore said.
The new effort is patterned in part on the city’s well-regarded effort to end veterans’ homelessness, which involved compiling a list of homeless veterans and systematically working to get them housing.
But that initiative worked in large part because of new federal money behind it, which isn’t the case here, giving rise to some of the skepticism.
The Emanuel Administration is pledging to find housing for 75 homeless people currently living in tent encampments beneath Lake Shore Drive overpasses between Irving Park and Foster. | Mark Brown/Sun-Times
Without added resources, finding housing for the 75 people on the street could mean fewer opportunities for somebody else now staying in a homeless shelter.
City officials admit they can’t be sure that when these 75 people are housed, another 75 won’t take their place under the viaducts. I doubt it will take that long.
“The goal is not to end homelessness,” Butler said. “The goal is to house these 75 people.”
