CHICAGO'S PLAN

The formation of the Alliance and the creation of Chicago's Plan to End Homelessness represent a paradigm shift in the provision of homeless services-from managing the problem of homelessness with emergency shelters, soup kitchens and other temporary assistance, to ending homelessness through the provision of permanent housing for those experiencing homelessness.

Radical Restructuring

This radical restructuring is the result of Chicago's Plan to End Homelessness-Getting Housed, Staying Housed: a Collaborative Plan to End Homelessness in Chicago-developed and endorsed by agencies in Chicago that work on the frontlines of homelessness and by people who have themselves been homeless. Mayor Daley endorsed the Plan in January 2003 and has made it a priority of his administration.

The Plan creates a blueprint for:

• Preventing individuals and families from becoming homeless in the first place
• Placing individuals and families in permanent housing as quickly as possible when they do become homeless, called "Housing First", and
• Providing wraparound services when appropriate to promote housing stability and self-sufficiency.

A set of homeless programs that are considered to be in alignment with the Chicago Plan has been developed by collaborative partners. Agencies with programming that is aligned with the Plan have been prioritized for funding from a number of funding sources. The list of approved models is found in the Program Models Chart.

In order to implement the Plan, a schedule of goals and priorities was developed and adopted by all partners working on the Plan. This Implementation Schedule [link to doc] sets out tasks, accountable entities and completion dates for key activities around the major tenets of the Plan.

For the first time, all the links in the system of homeless services are connected and in serious dialogue with each other. This collaboration, led by the Alliance, is creating a framework for a coordinated system of homeless services that is based on best practices, accountability, and evaluation.

There are now over 300 plans to end homelessness in the U.S., but Chicago is the first major city in the country with a plan endorsed by its mayor.

The Alliance is uniquely positioned to foster the success of Chicago's ambitious Plan to End Homelessness, which is being watched with great interest by stakeholders in municipalities across the country.

What has the Chicago Plan Accomplished So Far?

Chicago's homeless service delivery system, which largely consists of approximately 90 nonprofit agencies, is in the midst of completely reorganizing itself in order to implement the new strategies embodied in the Chicago Plan. The first step has been to restructure the service provision by homeless agencies, and to put in place a coordinated system for getting people into permanent housing and keeping them there.

System Reorganization

Some of the key changes which have occurred over the last five years include:

• Citywide Coordination. With the creation of the Chicago Plan, consumers, service providers, government partners and private philanthropy work collaboratively-for the first time-to make system improvements, establish best practices and hold each other accountable for progress in implementing the Plan
• Unified Approach to Services. In order to be funded, all homeless services must conform to a set of program models consistent with the Plan's goals.
• System-Wide Data Collection. All provider programs must participate in system-wide data collection methodologies.
• Agreed Upon Priorities. Though the Chicago Plan is a blueprint for ending all homelessness, housing the chronically homeless was one of the first priorities to be implemented.

New Programs

In addition to changes in the overall homeless services provision system, a number of significant new programs and initiatives have been launched. Some of these include:

1) Housing First

• The Chronic Homeless Initiative. This is specialized housing for people who have been in the homeless system the longest. Begun in 2005 and coordinated by the Chicago Low-Income Housing Trust Fund with numerous housing agencies, this initiative has created 204 units of permanent housing for chronically homeless individuals.
• The Housing Locator program. This is an "apartment finder" for homeless individuals who have some income, and so could move into existing rental housing. A study of this program showed that, with the program's assistance, even people with significant barriers to housing, including those with challenged rental histories, can find housing.
• 778 new units of supportive housing for singles and families are currently under development. "Supportive housing"provides permanent housing with supportive services, which has been shown to be an extremely successful model for permanently ending homelessness. Funding for these units comes from a mix of city, state, federal and private dollars. Major funders include the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development and the Chicago Department of Housing.
• The Illinois Rental Housing Support Program. This major new state-funded initiative provides rental support to house over 4,000 "rent burdened" households across the state. It is the nation's largest state rental assistance program. Chicago's portion of the funds will provide housing for approximately 885 households and will be administered by the Chicago Low-Income Housing Trust Fund.
• The Street-To-Home Initiative provides intensive services and supportive housing for people living on the streets. Based on a national model with proven success, the Street-To-Home Initiative has moved 124 people directly from the street into permanent supportive housing.
• St. Leo's Residence for Veterans. The first of five national pilot programs to address veterans' homelessness, St. Leo's provides 141 permanent housing apartments for formerly homeless veterans. Situated on a campus built by Catholic Charities, the project also includes an outpatient clinic and resource center operated by the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs, and a commemorative garden.
• Chicago Housing for Health Partnership (CHHP). This 3-year demonstration project, administered by the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, uses the Housing First approach with chronically ill homeless individuals coming from area hospitals. The project provides housing and services for people with HIV, cancer, diabetes, and other chronic health conditions and evaluates the cost-benefits of this approach. The CHHP research study is the first in the nation to evaluate whether providing stable housing and intensive case management services to chronically medically ill homeless individuals improves their health and health service utilization.
• Permanent Housing with Short-Term Support. This new model of housing provides two years of rental support and supportive services to households that need a boost to self-sufficiency. After the two-year period, the household permanently assumes the lease. 700 households consisting of women and children were housed utilizing this model in 2006.
• Housing for Homeless Youth. Open Door Shelter-West Town provides a) a 16-bed, 120-day interim housing and supportive services program serving 200 homeless youth annually, ages 14-20, and their children, and b) an 8-bed residential facility for homeless youth, ages 16-21 and their children where youth can stay up to two years.

2) Homeless Prevention

It is estimated that 10 to 15 percent of the people who enter Chicago's homeless system could have maintained their housing with targeted financial assistance. A major tenet of the Chicago Plan is to increase homelessness prevention and thereby decrease the need for shelter.

• Major New Funding for Homeless Prevention. Combining state and private funding, the Emergency Fund is now administering a total of $4.5 million annually for homelessness prevention, including rent and utility assistance to help households through a crisis. In 2006, 7,100 households received homelessness prevention funding, which represents a 140 percent increase from 2002 to 2006 in the number of households assisted.
• The Homelessness Prevention Call Center. Accessed through the city's 311 call number, the Homelessness Prevention Call Center connects people at risk of becoming homeless with specially-trained prevention staff. Callers are referred to community-based services and to homeless assistance agencies for supportive services and financial assistance.

Still to be Accomplished

While much progress has been made over the last five years in restructuring Chicago's approach to homeless services, continuous refinement and improvement are needed to ensure that the goal of ending homelessness is met. Some of the key areas that still must be addressed include:

Reaching all Homeless Populations

• Going Beyond Chronic Homelessness. The Chicago Plan was envisioned as a blueprint for ending all homelessness. One of the first priorities to be implemented has been in creating multiple programs to address chronic homelessness-those individuals who have been homeless for more than a year or multiple times in the past year. In large part, this is because federal funding has prioritized this population. It is also because research showed that this population utilizes a disproportionate amount of homeless services.
  
  Yet there are a number of other homeless populations. These include families; youth (those not living with parents, ages 18-25); victims of domestic violence; seniors; people who have been convicted of a crime; people with mental or physical health challenges; immigrants, and veterans.
  
  Innovative programming, new sources of funding, and, in some cases, additional systems change will be required to remove the barriers that keep these groups from obtaining housing. And it may take more than ten years to be successful with all homeless populations.
• Discharge Planning. Numerous public systems release people into homelessness, with no housing or resources for self-sufficiency. This includes people coming out of the prison system, "aging out" of the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), and people coming from mental health hospitals or medical hospitals. For instance, it is estimated that 20 percent of the people seeking assistance at the Stroger Hospital of Cook County are, in fact, homeless. Upon exit, many of these people have no choice but to seek homeless shelters. Work needs to be done to ensure that these systems locate-and create-permanent housing placements for people being discharged.
• Chronic Drug or Alcohol Abuse Problems. An impressive array of strategies exists for helping this population, including Safe Havens and Harm Reduction housing; trauma-informed therapies; and specialized engagement strategies. Work needs to continue to bring these innovative models of housing and service delivery to scale.

Managing Growing Pains.

Chicago's homeless system must continue to operate without any disruption of services as it simultaneously changes to the new Housing First approach. Frontline homeless service agencies, which are already managing the challenge of helping transform the lives of the people they serve, must have sufficient resources to both meet the demands of today and make the changes required for future service delivery.

More Affordable Housing.

Starting approximately 25 years ago, the federal government began withdrawing financial support for the creation of affordable housing. The result of this withdrawal is an affordable housing shortage throughout the country. The National Alliance to End Homelessness estimates that over 3 million units of new affordable housing are needed nationwide. A recent report from DePaul University's Real Estate Center projects that Cook County will face a shortfall of 78,000 units of affordable housing by 2020.

Numerous other factors have converged to intensify this affordable housing crisis in Chicago. These include the loss or closure of tens of thousands of public housing units, the rapid conversion of affordable units to condominiums in many neighborhoods, and an overall reduction in the number of Section 8 vouchers.

There are, however, some positive developments. For example, significant new housing has been created for people who are homeless using new strategies, such as:

• HUD funding being redirected to permanent housing and mixed with city, state and federal sources;
• State funding being created through a $10 fee on documents recorded with the county recorder of deeds.

There is also reason to be hopeful that the decades-long retreat from affordable housing at the federal level may be changing. Legislation to create a National Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which would create 1.5 million units of affordable housing over 10 years, has strong bipartisan support and was passed by the House of Representatives on October 10, 2007.

Nevertheless, increased funding for affordable housing remains critical to meeting the Plan's goals.

Independent Evaluation.

Though it can be difficult to measure outcomes when the work is about changing peoples' lives, efforts must be made to assess progress under the Chicago Plan.

There are some indicators that are showing positive results. The "Point in Time" count is a process mandated by HUD, which requires all homeless systems, every two years, to count people in shelters and on the streets on the same evening across the country. A comparison of Chicago's 2005 Point in Time count to the 2007 Point in Time count, which used the same methodology, shows a 12% decrease in the number of people who are in shelters or on the streets in Chicago.

Other information suggests areas of concern. For instance, some shelter providers are stating that they have experienced an increased number of "turn-aways"-people who they cannot serve because their beds are full.

The Plan needs to be formally evaluated to give the full picture of what is working and what needs improvement. Questions include:

• Are the new models resulting in faster housing placements?
• Are we able to locate sufficient housing for households with incomes?
• How well are we matching the creation of new housing units to those who most need them?
• What does the existence of so many households that are marginally self-sufficient do to the likelihood of success of the Plan?