Learn - Chicago Coalition to end Homelessness (2024)

CCH defines homelessness as a state when someone does not have a permanent home and stays in a shelter, on the streets, temporarily with others, and/or in other places that are not meant for living.

Researchers at CCH, Vanderbilt University, and the Heartland Alliance Social IMPACT Research Center developed a census-based model to estimate people experiencing homelessness that incorporates children, family, and adults living temporarily with others due to economic hardship, or doubled-up.

Learn more about our methodology for quantifying doubled-up homelessness here. More details are available in a 2021 research article published in Housing Policy Debate.

In August 2023, CCH released its annual homeless estimate report showing that an estimated 68,440 people were experiencing homelessness in Chicago in 2021. This reflects a 2,829-person increase from the previous year. Data reflects massive shifts in the way people are experiencing homelessness, with 7,985 more people staying on the street or in shelters.

Key report findings include that people of color, and Black Chicagoans in particular, continue to disproportionately experience homelessness due to racist economic, educational, and housing practices. Our research also shows that Latino/a/x/é Chicagoans are more likely to experience homelessness by couch-surfing, with 91% in doubled-up situations. Unaccompanied youth and families with children are likewise more likely to experience homelessness by temporarily staying with others than on the street or in shelters, at 88% and 68%, respectively, living doubled-up.

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) identified 17,700 students as homeless during the 2022-23 school year, with that number rising to 24,157 as of February 2024, only two-thirds into the 2023-24 school year, and representing 7.23% of enrolled students. This number represents a 57% one-year increase and is the highest number ever identified. The educational rights of students experiencing homelessness are protected under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.  

CPS data show that 67.4% of students experiencing homelessness live doubled-up in the homes of others due to economic hardship. Another 28%, or 6,780 students, lived in shelters; 2.2% of students lived in motels (532); and 2.1% (511) lived in a car or other public place.  

Students experiencing homelessness in Chicago are overwhelmingly children of color due to systemic racism, at 97%. 51.67% of homeless students were Latinx, 44% were Black, 1.8% other ethnicities, and 2.1% white.  

Other CPS data show that 3.5% (853) were “unaccompanied youth,” defined as students who are experiencing homelessness and living on their own, without a parent or guardian. Another 14.7% of students were diagnosed with disabilities or developmental delays. 

Homeless estimates are limited to what is documented. Any estimates of people experiencing homelessness should be observed as homelessness that is captured in data, and no one data source is a complete reflection of all homelessness.

• Point-in-Time: The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reports 11,947 Illinois residents were unsheltered, staying in an emergency shelter, or living in transitional housing on a single night of the year in 2023. The traditional Point-in-Time (PIT) method for enumerating homelessness tallies people experiencing street and shelter homelessness on a designated night of the year, but it does not account for those temporarily staying with others. Because the PIT uses a narrow definition of homelessness that does not include the way most people experience homelessness, it is a dramatic undercount that can lead to wrong policy solutions. Without a full understanding of the scope of the problem, it is hard to develop the right solutions.
• Accessing Homeless Services: The Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) tallied 50,991 people receiving services in FY 2020: 30,900 received Emergency and Transitional Housing services, 11,060 received Supportive Housing services, and 9,031 people received Homeless Prevention services.
• School Enrollment: The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) tallied 58,498 students experiencing homelessness during the 2022-23 school year. This represents a 22% increase in students experiencing homelessness in Illinois since the 2021-22 school year. The number of students identified is expected to further increase during the 2023-24 school year.

Temporarily Staying with Others (or “doubling-up”): Using data from the American Community Survey, administered by the U.S. Census, CCH estimates that 109,842 people experienced doubled-up homelessness in Illinois in 2020.

Unaccompanied youth are young people through age 24 who are living without a parent or legal guardian and lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.

Unaccompanied youth are more likely to temporarily stay with others than to stay on the street or in shelters. In 2021, 11,885 people experiencing homelessness were unaccompanied youth (age 24 and younger), 88% of whom temporarily stayed with others. In total, 3,143 unaccompanied youth and their children (under age 18) experienced homelessness.

Homelessness disproportionately affects people of color, and in particular Black people, due to systemic racism and white supremacy.

About 82% of people experiencing homelessness in Chicago in 2021 were people of color. Chicagoans identifying as Black, African American, Asian, Pacific Islander, American Indian, Alaska Native, or Multi-Racial accounted for 55,857 people experiencing homelessness—19,970 people identified as Hispanic or Latino/a/x/é.

Only 12.6% of people experiencing homelessness were white. About 5% had an unknown race.

2021 Breakdown

Total # of people experiencing homelessness: 68,440

Race

• Black or African American: 36,334 – 53% (16,192 street and shelter; 20,142 temporarily staying with others)
• White: 8,606 – 12.6% (3,333 street and shelter; 5,273 temporarily staying with others)
• Asian, Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander: 2,357 – 3.4% (206 street and shelter; 2151 temporarily staying with others)
• American Indian or Alaska Native: 1,736 – 2.5% (282 street and shelter; 1,454 temporarily staying with others)
• Multi-racial or another race: 15,430 – 22.5% (21street and shelter; 15,409 temporarily staying with others)
• Unknown race: 3,977 – 6% (3,977 street and shelter; N/A temporarily staying with others)

Ethnicity

• • Non-Hispanic, Non-Latino/a/x/é of any race: 44,654 – 65% (18,325 street and shelter; 26,329 temporarily staying with others)
  • Hispanic, Latino/a/x/é of any race: 19,970 – 29% (1,870 street and shelter; 18,100 temporarily staying with others)
• Unknown ethnicity: 3,816 – 6% (3,816 street and shelter; N/A temporarily staying with others)

According to the annual Out of Reach study (June 2024) by the National Low Income Housing Coalition and Housing Action Illinois, the Illinois “housing wage” is $28.81 an hour, 21st highest among the states. The “Housing Wage” is the term the Out of Reach study uses to describe how much someone needs to earn to afford an apartment at fair market rent in a given area. For Illinois, this amount is based on fair market monthly rent of $1,498 for a 2-bedroom apartment and assumes a 40-hour work week for 52 weeks a year. The Illinois minimum wage is only $14.00 an hour.

In Chicago and the five-county suburban area, the housing wage is $32.96 an hour for a 2-bedroom apartment at fair market rent. The minimum wage in Chicago is $15.80 an hour for employers with 21+ workers, and $15.00 an hour for employers with 4-20 workers.

The primary cause of homelessness is the lack of affordable housing coupled with economic precarity and an inadequate social safety net. In Chicago, you must earn $32.96 per hour to afford a typical 2-bedroom apartment, more than twice than minimum wage. Other intersecting causes include low wages or loss of employment, family disputes (including gender-based violence), lack of access to adequate health care and mental health care, and structural and institutional racism.

For unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness, the causes are often abuse by parents or guardians, an unplanned pregnancy, or family rejection due to gender and/or sexual identity. While they are a contributing factor, neither substance use nor mental health issues on their own are leading causes of homelessness.

According to Chicago’s 2023 Point-in-Time Count, 30.7% of non-asylum seekers reported that their loss of housing was due to family disputes. Other leading causes were loss of employment or underemployment (19.6%), multiple causes (16.4%), and eviction/foreclosure (10.7%). The next highest causes were alcohol of substance use (7.6%) and release from jail or prison (5.1%).

The reasons people are forced into homelessness are varied and complex, but the solution is clear: affordable permanent housing with supportive services. Significant and ongoing funding is needed to build, develop, and maintain safe and permanent housing for people experiencing or at risk of all forms of homelessness – staying on the streets, in shelters, or doubled-up in the homes of others. To do so means we all have to work together to build the public and political will needed to create long-term solutions.

Get Involved:

• Join our email list
• Create a Take Action profile
• Follow our statewide advocacy efforts
• Keep up with Bring Chicago Home, a campaign to secure a dedicated revenue stream to address homelessness at scale in Chicago
• Learn about why all forms of homelessness must be included in policy solutions
• Donate to support CCH’s organizing, policy advocacy, legal aid services, and community education

Whether or not to give money to people who ask for it is a personal decision. There is no harm caused by giving money directly to people experiencing homelessness. People need money for a wide range of needs, and it can be difficult for single people in particular to access cash. Whatever you do, the most important thing is to make eye contact, respond, and treat people with dignity and respect.

CCH supports the civil rights of people experiencing homelessness, including the right to ask for help.