The Community Advisory Council on Homelessness
September 3, 2025
10:00 AM to 12:00 PM (Hybrid)
In Person:
Impact House
200 W. Madison Street
Chicago, IL 60606
Agenda
- Welcome & Roll Call
- Approval of Minutes
- Current Status of Federal Action
- Public Comment
- CACH Recommendations to the Task Force
- Next Steps
- Closing
Minutes:
Meeting Open: 10:00am
Meeting Adjourn: 12:00pm
Community Advisory Council on Homelessness members present:
Alexander-Milan, Tamela - Ever Thrive Illinois
Gaston, Otha - Lived Experience - Chicago
Haley, Christine - Chief Homelessness Officer
Herring Sr., John S. - Illinois Network of Centers for Independent Living Representative of Disability Community
Hill, Jennifer - Alliance to End Homelessness in Suburban Cook County
Humphrey III, Eugene - Human Resources Development Institute, Inc. (HRDI)
Kriscuinas, Emily Chicago's Funders Together to End Homelessness (CFTEH)
Lund, Ronald - Project Now
Mahoney, Colleen - Illinois Department of Human Services/OPEH
Munoz, Jose M. - La Casa Norte
O'Connell, Brenda - Illinois Housing Development Authority
Olison, Eugenia - Illinois Department of Public Health
Redzic, April - DuPage Pads
Reeves, Sherri Allen - Phoenix Foundation, NFP
Reyna-Guerrero, Susan - Covenant House
Ross, Carolyn K. - All Chicago Making Homelessness History
Rowe, Richard - Illinois Department of Corrections
Walker, Angie - City of Rockford
Warner, Linda A. - Stopping Woman Abuse Now, Inc. (SWAN)
Williams, Monique - Supportive Housing Providers Association
Wilson, Nicole - Heart of Illinois United Way
Opening Remarks
June 10, 2025 Minutes Approved
Christine - Recent federal changes and agency feedback
How the Task Force and CACH can be responsive to what is happening in Chicago and CACH recommendations to prevent and end homelessness
Current Status of Federal Action - Timeline - In May, president released budget detailing cuts to programs and funding
Exposure and Risk
2025 PIT Count Estimate14,571 with 1,281 identified as newcomers and 13,289 identified as Illinois residents.
Chicago's current data (as of 7/28/25):
Approx. 50% of Illinois homeless population in Chicago
16,995 actively literally homeless people
70% Black
71% single adults
37% ages 25-44; 29% ages 45-64
Coordination Calls - What are the interventions that can be made and how to advance our timeline in preventing and ending homelessness?
AllChicago - Daily coordination and data calls to complete assessment of resources and categories for unsheltered homelessness. Digging up shelter beds and Chicago releasing emergency winter beds early along with assistance from additional partners.
Money is more scarce than normal but looking to see how we can help our neighbors on the street such as providing storage and items. Federal presence in Chicago and communicating with CoC partners and other agencies to determine impact.
Working with faith-based organizations and aligning with outreach teams and DFSS of Chicago. Street outreach every night with palm cards to check on the unsheltered homelessness population
An estimated 13,000 people experiencing homelessness with not enough beds.
Looking at long-term solutions so we do not put people in shelter just for them to be released. This is the landscape that we are built to do and appreciate OPEH's support and kindness.
Street Outreach and Education
Christine - All Chicago and DFSS working on street outreach and education. Looking into accessing the Opioid settlement fund to increase participation and conduct street outreach and education.
Multiple strategies are being utilized including communication with faith-based communities to increase capacity. Insufficient capacity to house every single individual but there is a significant effort to increase resources and engage persons who are experiencing homelessness.
The state is looking to add another 300+ beds for RRH and Transitional Housing. More opportunities are being explored to increase housing availability as soon as possible.
- Street Outreach and Education
- Shelter Beds
- Housing
April/Carolyn
National Guard presence in Chicago with their approach to encampments
About 40 encampments were approached by the National Guard in DC and told to simply move. Unsure of what is going to happen in Chicago but that is why we are providing as many palm cards as possible to advise individuals of their rights and help with relocation.
Susan - Noticeable increase of young individuals with pets that are experiencing homelessness because of shelter policy preventing pets from admittance.
Sherri - Concerned about food access and need to engage churches and drop-in places to receive food and rest. How are we going to get the communication out to the public to receive assistance and is a covert operation needed?
Jose - Saw decrease in food pantry access because of federal raids and seeing communities afraid of ICE coming. It's not just food, health and shelter access are being impacted.
Susan - Noticed that undocumented adults picking up their children are afraid of ICE.
John/Carolyn/April/Jose - Looking at hoteling to provide food and shelter but there is a significant cost with its feasibility. Maybe if we have advance notice then we can reserve a more affordable rate but pricing varies.
Jennifer - Concerned about federal presence and Homeland Security at the train station and whether the focus is on immigration enforcement or homelessness. Is there a way we can determine their motive?
Sherri - Are we at risk of our funding and causing our partners and advocates to not speak out about what is happening? Noticed that websites are being updated, and people may not know what is happening. Are we too silent on this matter because we are too concerned about losing federal funding?
John - We see on the federal level there has been a push to eliminate DEI initiatives
Jennifer - We do not need to be afraid of losing funding and should not lose our advocate voice. Have seen case examples of funding and contracts being terminated by the federal administration but overturned. We need to be precise on what the real risks are, so we don't lose more by not speaking up. Implement Home Illinois and CACH recommendations to prevent and end homelessness.
Jose - Our funding is at risk if you look at the skinny budget and we must speak out so that we can serve our population. It's great that these meetings are happening but important to have a statewide call for organizations to know about the coordination efforts and message alignment.
Christine - Our office is aligned behind Governor Pritzker's messaging as the State of Illinois and understands the difficulty of statewide messaging and provider messaging that may be at-risk of losing funding. Understands the risk and concern.
Monique - It's an opportunity for us, the governments, the communities, and the ethnicities to get it right and not be in hiding. We shouldn't be too focused on what is happening and focus more on the permutations and what we can do to change it.
Susan - As nonprofit, trying to be sensitive about using our platform to speak out about what is right and being able to speak for our constituents and what levers we can collectively move.
Christine - Good idea to have a statewide messaging meeting, AllChicago and DFSS are doing something similar for Chicago providers. We really want to understand what is happening specifically with contracts and contract changes as it relates to the EO
New Frame: Public Safety
Implementation Implications
Housing First
Sharing Health Data with Law Enforcement
Incarceration
Involuntary Commitment
Advancing Narratives
Public Comment
Question - Are we tracking homelessness rates and the different forms of homelessness (such as chronic homelessness)? What are the metrics to gauge that? Are we incorporating programs available within Chicago and Cook Country to aid in the reduction of homelessness rates for Veterans and prior service members?
Christine - The HUD PIT count is used to track the homelessness statistics. Starting the Illinois Homelessness Response Collaborative to include additional statewide partners in achieving quality data and convening workgroups that will work on Veteran's homelessness specifically.
Carolyn - In the AllChicago website, we use HMIS and a data dashboard to track the rates of homelessness and provide better transparency with a breakdown of Veterans, prior service members, chronic homelessness, etc.
Presentation of CACH Recommendations to the Interagency Task Force
Introductions
Welcoming and Setting the Stage
Supporting Young People and Families
Improving Access to Public Benefits
Meeting the Demand
CACH Work Group
Work Groups
Improving Access to Public Benefits
Homeless Services Workforce Committee
Medical Respite
Three Buckets
Partnership - Based on relationship building
Policies - State, policy, and reform
Resources - Focus on whether we have enough resources to lead the system
Susan/April Redzic - Strengthening supports for young people and families
Good to receive YHSI grants. Conversations between OPEH and DCFS, saw that a big driver of youth homelessness is centered around youths leaving DCFS custody. Funding liaisons in homelessness systems to assist youths.
State should continue working with youth-serving organizations to design a continuum of service for young people including child welfare, homelessness, justice, and education. Currently these systems do not effectively talk to each other and that creates inconsistent and limited services to young people which leads to recidivism in the homeless and juvenile justice system.
Improving Access to Public Benefits - Ensure uninterrupted access to benefits and care for people experiencing homelessness
To address the issue with access to interviews, DHS should improve access to same day/on-demand interviews for people experiencing homelessness
Improve discharge processes and housing placement from Institutionalized systems (ie, IDOC, DMH, DJJ)
Support homeless service providers to ensure seamless and quality care is provided to the homeless population, particularly marginalized populations, across the state.
Establish Medical Respite as a unique intervention in the homeless services continuum.
Medical Respite providers and partners across the state have consistently encountered the need for official recognition of medical respite as a distinct program model in homeless services.
Ensure state funding and resources are strategically aligned with the goals of the Home Illinois Plan and Council recommendations and meet the ongoing demand
Given the increase in homelessness across the state, we want to see an increase in resources that ensures that people experiencing homelessness do not die.
- Fund emergency and transitional housing programming through GRF, do not pull from the IL Affordable Housing Trust Fund
- Release the amount included in the FY26 budget ($7M) as providers are actively planning to use those dollars for winter-warming-planning
Build out tools and resources to help communities address challenges related to zoning for affordable housing and shelters across the state.
Remove systemic barriers and build statewide capacity to expand housing and homelessness solutions.
Improve Workplace Practices
Strengthen and sustain the homelessness services workforce through equity for pay and support
Conduct a statewide compensation study and develop standardized wages for the sector, building on previous compensation studies
Closing Reflections
The role of ISBE and McKinney-Vento Liaisons in improving outcomes for youths and families who are experiencing homelessness and whether we can adopt that model and scale it to other ages.
Concern of EO and early intervention and head start programs being affected because they significantly impact families who are experiencing homelessness.
Christine - At the next ITF meeting, we will be meeting with Directors at different agencies with different interests such as DCEO, IDOC, etc. There is not a shared frame of reference for the taskforce. It is imperative that we can provide that and present clearly how agencies fit in the puzzle. We must also be able to acknowledge and recognize what has been done so we can strike a balance between constructive criticism and affirmation.
Jennifer - Further discussion is needed on pilot programs and Mckinney-Vento liaisons. Regarding compensation study, can we look at who are doing things well and share that data?
Next Steps
Are there ways to track the implementation of the annual CACH recommendations?
Additional webinar will be released regarding SNAP and work participation.
Recording
