News

By John Byrne, Tribune reporter

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.”

By Mark Brown, Chicago Sun-Times columnist

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.

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.

By Mark Brown

Chicago Sun-Times columnist

Story by Martha Bayne

Photos by John R. Boehm

 

Since the advent of health care reform in 2010, Illinois Medicaid enrollment has grown to over 3 million people. The bill for that care came to $14 billion in 2014 alone. But almost half of that was spent on care for just 100,000 people—many of them emergency room “frequent fliers” who are poor and suffer from high rates of diabetes, kidney disease, congestive heart failure, mental illness and substance abuse. Of those 100,000, an estimated 4 to 5 percent are homeless.

This year, University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System and partners are testing a program to reduce these costs. It is modeled on a strategy known as “Housing First” that is catching on across the country. The idea is: Take people who are chronically abusing drugs and alcohol, resisting help, unable to keep a job and committing petty crimes. Give them an apartment, no strings attached. Even buy them furniture and appliances. And watch their use of emergency rooms drop.

Critics of these efforts say they don’t deal with the fundamental problem of finding jobs for homeless people who may lack even basic skills. Some also say that they amount to giveaways that absolve people of their personal responsibilities.

But advocates such as Arturo Bendixen, executive director of Chicago’s Center for Housing and Health, which is partnering with the hospital on the pilot project, say providing free shelter, even when clients are under no obligation to stay sober or find a job, will improve their health so much that they will be less of a burden on the health care system and society.

“Health care is now getting interested in what we call ‘super-utilizers,’ “ says Stephen Brown, director of preventive emergency medicine at University of Illinois Hospital. “(These patients are) small, but they’re very, very expensive. Their health care costs are five to 15 times what the average patient costs. . . .They’re both sick and they’re also accessing the ER for what we call secondary gain—it’s warm, they can get a sandwich, they’re there to sleep during the night.”

Of the hospital’s recurring visitors, he says, “seven of the top 10 are chronically homeless. They’ll access our ER anywhere between 30 and 120 times during the year.”

When they’re not in Brown’s West Side ER, they might be down the street at Rush University Medical Center or Cook County’s John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital. Factor in the other places super-utilizers might access—psychiatric hospitals, food pantries, shelters, jail—and though the chronically homeless make up less than 20 percent of the general homeless population, the public costs add up to between 80 and 90 percent of the total cost of services to all.

“You talk to anyone who works in health care and housing, they recognize that providing housing to homeless individuals is just common sense,” says Graham Bowman, staff attorney at the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, “but there’s just not been data to prove it.”

The one-year pilot program is supported by $250,000 from University of Illinois Hospital. The funding could house about 20 people for a year at a monthly cost of $1,000 per person.

Combing through records of chronically homeless people who are high users of hospital services, Brown and a panel of doctors, psychiatrists and social workers identified 120 people who might be helped by this program. In five months, they’ve found housing for 14, with two others scheduled to move in by May.

It’s a drop in the bucket, of course. Chicago estimates 6,300 adults are homeless in the city at any given time. Still, supporters think the effort shows what might be done. Brown says one person in the program used to visit the ER two to three times a week. The hospital hasn’t seen him in more than three months now, he says.

 

Brown, 59, is a former Motorola systems engineer turned social worker. When he moved into health care in 2005, he was stunned that the industry was not paying attention to the social factors affecting health, including housing.

Changes under Obamacare are forcing hospitals to look more holistically at emergency medicine. Before the Affordable Care Act, the health care industry operated on a fee-for-service model: The hospital provides a service; the insurance company pays the bill. Since the law kicked in, however, “outcome-based” health care is becoming the preferred model. Now hospitals are getting paid a premium if they reduce expenses by keeping patients out of the hospital.

Bendixen has reams of data on the efficacy of Housing First strategies in keeping people off the street and out of the ER. But until recently, this data failed to move the insurance industry. With outcome-based care, however, Medicaid now offers a fixed amount of money for treatment. If a patient’s care exceeds that, the hospital eats the costs. And if it comes in under budget? It pockets the savings. “Suddenly,” Bendixen says, “we have knocking at our doors Blue Cross Blue Shield and the others saying, ‘Can you please help us house our homeless patients? We have to insure them; we have no choice.’ “

Still, it’s unlikely this program will be widely adopted in the near term. Under federal law, housing is not reimbursable by Medicaid. But there are workarounds. Since 2013, New York State Medicaid has allocated $383 million of state money to fund capital investment, rental subsidies and services for its high-need users—and the initiative has funded 9,013 new units of permanent supportive housing statewide.

A similar waiver allowing Medicaid to reimburse for housing and other nontraditional expenses was proposed in Illinois in 2014, but Gov. Bruce Rauner has put it on hold. A spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Healthcare and Family Services says, “Previous waiver applications and other prior proposals are being examined to make sure they meet the needs of our beneficiaries within the state’s difficult budgetary realities.”

Managed care organizations such as IlliniCare and Blue Cross & Blue Shield also could pay someone’s rent on their own.

As a policy directive, Housing First has been embraced by more than 17 U.S. cities since it was endorsed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2002. Salt Lake City reduced chronic homelessness by 72 percent after adopting a Housing First strategy. Los Angeles has proposed spending $1.85 billion over 10 years to build long-term affordable housing and expand supportive services and outreach for the city’s estimated 26,000 homeless. New York has pledged to add 15,000 units of supportive housing over the next 15 years.

“Housing is a social determinant of health—we all know that,” says Barbara Otto, CEO of Chicago-based Health and Disability Advocates. “What’s interesting about this is that there’s a hospital that is recognizing that, from an operational perspective, they can improve their bottom line.”

The university’s pilot could continue until January, when Brown expects the money will run out. After that, he hopes he’ll find philanthropic support to keep going for one or two more years and state funding after that.

This story was produced as part of a fellowship with the Social Justice News Nexus at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University.

By Mark Brown

Robert Henderson left his sleeping place under the railroad viaduct at Oakley and Kinzie on the morning of Nov. 2 to raise money scavenging pallets and panhandling.

When he returned two hours later, he found all his belongings — including heart medication and identification documents — had been thrown away by a Streets and Sanitation crew.

City workers who were still on the scene instructed him to leave the area as well, at least for a “couple of weeks.”

Homeless people become accustomed to such indignities.

But after more than a decade living on the street, it was one time too many for the 62-year-old Henderson.

“You’re already at your low point anyway. For them to come and do that, that was a slap in the face,” the burly Henderson told me while brushing away tears that surprised even him.

On Tuesday, lawyers for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless brought suit against the city of Chicago on behalf of Henderson in what they believe will be a first test of the state’s Bill of Rights for the Homeless Act.

So can expressing your voice help in life? For members and supporters of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH), it can.

Last year, CCH and its supporters held its “Horizons Creative Writing Outreach” event in which people stood before an audience and gave spoken word performances about life. The articulation of ideas and feelings, organizers said, help reflect hope, dreams and struggles.

In 2013, Marguerite Casey Foundation, which publishes Equal Voice News, produced a video about Shon Robertson, who became a spoken word artist and community leader. Robertson participated in the CCH creative writing program.

Wayne Richard, a CCH community organizer who helps with the creative writing project, also has produced a reflective video about sofas – and their meaning in his life.

OPINION – Guest Column

March 2, 2016

My name is Caprice Williams, and I have been homeless since I was 15.

My mom and I did not get along, and she eventually put me on the street. I stayed with friends and family, moving house to house. Things got so bad, I was sleeping in my car.

When I was 21, I got pregnant. When I was five months pregnant, I was walking with my daughter’s father when he was shot and paralyzed. Seeing him almost killed—almost getting killed myself—became too much. I lost my job, my car, and became depressed.

I heard about Harmony Village, a South Side program run by Unity Parenting and Counseling. They gave me and my daughter clothes and an apartment to help us.

I saw a counselor every week. Mrs. Darrine Smith, my caseworker, saw that I would just sit around. Hearing what I went through, she told me I couldn’t give up, that I had to move forward for my baby and me.

Mrs. Smith set up my job interview at Walgreens. During the interview, they asked what I would do in different situations. I finally told the interviewer to stop: “I may not be what you want, but if you give me a chance, I will work hard to be what you need.” He said he would take a chance on me, but I needed certification to be a pharmacy tech. Mrs. Smith and Harmony Village paid for my training. I have worked full time for two months.

Since coming to Harmony Village, my mindset is better. I’m more confident in my ability to provide for my 7-month-old daughter. I was traveling in darkness, but they showed me I have a bright future ahead of me.

Two weeks ago, I was one of the homeless youth who met with Gov. Bruce Rauner. I told him my story and what would happen if homeless youth programs like mine close down because of the budget crisis. Chicago Coalition for the Homeless told him that money was already collected and sitting in Springfield that could ensure these programs didn’t have to close. We needed his help.

I thought he was going to say no to our face, but the governor made me feel like he cared about homeless youth. He even gave me a hug and said he would look into it, not seeing why he “couldn’t get creative like they have in the past.”

But the next Tuesday, his staff called to say there was nothing they could do. We asked why not, and his staff just said no. I felt betrayed by Gov. Rauner because he told us what we wanted to hear to keep us calm and so he would not look like the bad guy.

Harmony Village is more than just a program. It’s family to the girls who live there, and Mrs. Smith treats me like a daughter.

We’re there because we don’t have anyone else. I wish the governor would tell us why he really doesn’t care what happens to us.

Caprice Williams lives in Chicago.

Julie Dworkin, Director of Policy at the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, discusses the dire need for funding in the midst of Illinois’ budget impasse. Dworkin and other advocates met with Gov. Bruce Rauner last Friday about their proposal to release more than $300 million for programs across the Illinois, but Rauner only agreed to support federal funds not tied to the larger state budget.

Jeremy Colon, a resident at La Casa Norte, shares his story and urges action from the Governor and the legislature.

LINK to VIDEOS

By Paris Schutz

Hundreds of thousands of Illinois’ homeless and low-income residents are caught up in the eight month state budget impasse. A coalition of homeless service providers who pleaded with the governor on Friday to unlock $310 million worth of state funding say they will likely only get a small part of their wish.

The governor’s office says he would support releasing $40 million in federal pass-through money that was already slated for these programs. That money would fund development of affordable housing units. But the General Assembly has to craft a bill, pass it and send it to the governor for that to happen.

The governor’s office would not support the release of the remaining $270 million that many providers say they need before they start laying off workers and closing doors. It could literally leave the most vulnerable residents without any help.

“What won’t be funded is any of the state’s homeless programs for adults, homeless prevention programs, supportive housing programs, housing for youth, funding for rental subsidies, foreclosure prevention,” said Julie Dworkin, director of policy for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.

Dworkin notes that the money the organizations are requesting exists outside of the state’s main budget and lies in special funds that are for the sole purpose of funding these programs.

“We can’t understand why the governor would choose to let these funds sit there while homeless youth are going to end up back on the streets,” she said.

Wednesday’s news comes after the homeless providers and a group of homeless youth that have gone through rehabilitative programs met with the governor. One was 22-year-old Caprice Williams.

She says she told the governor she was, until recently, pregnant and living out of her car, and says he hugged her after telling him her story. Williams lived at a nonprofit called Harmony Village, which helped treat her for depression and then placed her in a job that she says she currently holds at Walgreens.

Harmony Village could be forced to close its doors by April without state funding.

“I hope this doesn’t have to close because other girls like me need to be taken care of,” Williams said.

“There will be a great reduction in services now for homeless and a massive erosion of social services in our state,” Dworkin said. “I don’t know that the governor and lawmakers understand this. You can’t just instantly put it back together when the situation gets resolved. These things can’t be undone.”

The bills in the General Assembly that would unlock the total $310 million in homeless funding are HB4955 and SB2603.

The bill’s house sponsor, State Rep. Emanuel Chris Welch, says he hasn’t yet spoken to the governor about this bill. Last year, the governor and the General Assembly agreed to close a $3 billion budget partially by sweeping money out of special funds, like the one tabbed for homeless programs. The current year’s budget deficit could wind up at more than $6 billion.

“These special funds should not be [swept] and used for any other purpose than to help the most vulnerable, which is what they were intended to do,” he said.

The legislature would have to pass the bill with a supermajority in both the House and the Senate. That is something that is highly unlikely to happen, despite Democrats holding a supermajority of members in both chambers.