![]() ![]() The figure doesn’t include Chicago Public School students facing homelessness - the district has 16,059 currently enrolled students living in temporary situations. Though the “Point-in-Time” count is a snapshot for a single night, organizations and city officials say the number is higher, potentially around 65,000 in 2020. ![]() That’s the highest number of unhoused people logged in a city survey since 2015.įor 2023, the city’s Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS) says in its estimate, 5,149 people live in shelters and another 990 are “on the street or other locations not meant for human habitation.” That same organization manages over 3,000 shelter beds at 50 facilities, according to the city. The city has seen its homeless population nearly double between its 2022 “Point-in-Time” count and its 2023 snapshot of residents experiencing homelessness on a single night, jumping from 3,875 to 6,139. The city doesn’t take into account people who live “doubled up,” which could include couch surfing with friends or family or other situations.īy any measure, the problem is only growing worse. ![]() ![]() Some organizations say the city’s approach to counting people experiencing homelessness, which involves going out on one of the coldest nights of the year to count people, underestimates the size of the problem. The slow dispersal of federal money has stalled the launch of some new homelessness programs and pinched the budgets of some nonprofits looking for quicker payments. The city’s recovery plan devotes $117 million to a range of homelessness support services. Other federal dollars the city received have a deadline of 2030. Municipalities that received pandemic recovery funds must create a plan to use them by the end of 2024 and spend the funds for that plan by the end of 2026, according to the Chicago Recovery Plan. Though the city continues to expel people experiencing homelessness from its airports, underpasses and L cars, it has spent at most only 15 percent out of one of the largest pots of federal money it was given for programs to help people experiencing homelessness get into housing faster, according to the city. The city has budgeted more than $200 million this year to provide services for people like David who are experiencing homelessness, with much of that money coming from federal pandemic relief aid.īut what the city’s homelessness support system has actually spent so far tells a different story. (Victor Hilitski/For Illinois Answers Project) “So, I don’t know if they can say, ‘You got to get the f- out of here.’ Like, at least help us with housing or something.” A sign posted on a pillar informs the people living in an encampment under the Kennedy Expressway at California that the area will soon be cleaned, making them fear they will lose their possessions. “This is kind of like my dwelling, I live here … it’s pretty much my house,” David said. Still, it wasn’t long before the city came through, with workers slapping green signs on tents and nearby concrete pillars, warning of an upcoming “cleaning” that could see David’s belongings, along with those of his friends and about five others, tossed in the garbage. Only recently has he stayed longer in an encampment in Avondale on the Northwest Side when he made a friend. So David, who asked that his last name not be used, usually has stayed on the move, fearing his tent and belongings could be next. CHICAGO - David has little faith in people.Ĭalling himself a “nomad,” David, 35, has been without housing for five years and witnessed how people like him are treated on the streets - their tents burned, slashed or thrown away. ![]()
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