News

By Anna Savchenko, Amy Qin, June 1, 2023

“The demand for resources, be it through 311 to get people into a shelter or any other piece of the shelter system, is so much greater than what the system can handle,” said Douglas Schenkelberg, the director of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.

Schenkelberg thinks Chicago should develop a long-term strategy to help both asylum-seekers arriving on the city’s doorstep and residents already on the streets. Otherwise, he said, the city “pits these two populations against each other.”

“We should focus on a single system,” Schenkelberg said, “that serves anyone who’s unhoused in the city of Chicago.”

In his mid-May inauguration speech, the former organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union promised to “Bring Chicago Home,” alluding to his support for an increased real estate transfer tax that would be used to fund homelessness prevention.

Continue reading WBEZ Chicago-There’s a surge in calls for shelter. Chicago’s 311 help line can’t keep up.

By Mina Bloom, May 12, 2023

Guzzardi joined forces with officials and groups — including alds. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) and Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez (33rd), Rep. Cristina Pacione-Zayas and the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless — to help residents find stable housing.

Some residents were sent to a hotel in the West Loop or shelters as a stopgap measure, while others were connected with apartments, Guzzardi and Ramirez-Rosa said. Case managers are helping those in temporary accommodations find permanent housing, they said.

Continue reading Block Club Chicago-Northwest Side Tent City Residents Get Housing After Kennedy Expressway Construction Forces Them Out

By  La Raza, May 20, 2023

Según la Coalición para los Desamparados de Chicago, más de 65,000 habitantes de la ciudad no tienen hogar.

Durante su discurso inaugural el lunes, el alcalde Brandon Johnson prometió impulsar la propuesta conocida como “Bring Chicago Home”, que aumentaría los impuestos sobre las ventas de propiedades por valor de $1 millón o más en un esfuerzo por combatir la falta de vivienda en Chicago.

Continue reading La Raza-Chicago obtendrá ayuda federal para combatir la falta de vivienda

By Kasey Chronis, May 18, 2023

“It speaks to the fact that we have a really significant problem with homelessness in Chicago. We have over 65,000 people that experience homelessness over the course of a year,” said Julie Dworkin, policy director, Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.

Through the initiative, the government will help selected cities navigate what they call a ‘maze’ of federal funding streams, but it’s unclear if any additional dollars will be provided.

Continue reading Fox 32-White House selects Chicago as partner city for initiative to combat homelessness

By Heather Cherone, May 18, 2023

Mayor Brandon Johnson took office Monday, after campaigning on a platform that called homelessness in Chicago a “moral crisis” exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 65,000 Chicagoans are unhoused, according to the Chicago Coalition of the Homeless.

In a statement, Johnson welcomed the assistance of the Biden administration in helping “our unsheltered neighbors find safe places to live.”

Continue reading WTTW-Chicago to Get Federal Help Fighting Homelessness, Officials Announce

By Alex V. Hernandez, May 16, 2023

Chicago’s homeless population was already on the rise even before the pandemic. An estimated 65,611 people were experiencing homelessness in the city in 2020, according to a 2022 report from Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.  

Most unhoused people in Chicago stay with others temporarily at some point throughout the year, research shows. Homelessness disproportionately impacts minorities, with Black people comprising more than half of unhoused Chicagoans, research shows.

Continue reading Block Club Chicago-Lincoln Square’s Diplomat Hotel Could Become Transitional Housing For People Experiencing Homelessness

By Erica Gunderson, May 6, 2023

Chicago Coalition for the Homeless street outreach organizer Ali Simmons said that’s when his organization and other advocacy groups became involved.

“IDOT reached out to us via email and wanted to have a large meeting with us and other individuals from DFSS, and they were informing us about the construction work that’s ready to take place and they wanted us to do outreach to individuals living in the construction zone and notify them of the construction and the fact that they were going to have to move from that area,” Simmons said.

Continue reading WTTW-How Kennedy Expressway Construction Helped Get Unhoused Residents Into Housing

By Katie Prout, April 20, 2023

There’s an irony in the public discourse around public safety,” Doug Schenkelberg, executive director of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, said to me over the phone. It was March 28, one week before a mayoral election largely defined, in both local and national media, as a referendum on whether or not Chicagoans felt safe. 

Continue reading Reader-‘Why you talking to a bum?’