Home Illinois is an Historic Investment to End Homelessness

Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s FY 2024 proposed budget invests $350 million in state and federal funding to prevent and end homelessness. While some resources will come from existing funds, a new $200 million line item will rely on state General Revenue Funds, and the plan provides historically high levels of new investments using state funds to serve everyone in Illinois without a home.

Housing Action Illinois (HAI) said in a March 15 email blast that it helped organize the 50+ members of the Illinois Shelter Alliance to advocate for emergency shelter funding. The alliance particularly appreciates the FY24 budget’s $155 million to support unhoused populations seeking shelter and services. Included in this line item was $55 million to the Emergency and Transitional Housing Program, up from $10.38 million in last year’s budget.

The $55 million is very close to the $61.38 million funding level the shelter alliance sought to meet an immediate crisis: the depletion of pandemic relief funds. Last December, more than 220 housing advocacy organizations wrote Pritzker that the state was already 4,500 beds short of the 11,000 needed to accommodate everyone on a given night, according to a recent report to a state homelessness task force cited by Capitol News Illinois. Another 1,600 beds would be lost due to recovery money running out.

HAI celebrated its advocacy that made it into the governor’s $49.6 billion budget, such as $75 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) COVID recovery funds allocated to affordable housing programs:

• $40 million to support the development of new permanent supportive housing and emergency shelters

• $20 million for Illinois Housing Development Authority’s Opening Doors homebuyer program

• $7.24 million to support employee recruitment and retention for state-funded supportive housing and homeless service providers

• $5 million for the Here to Stay Community Land Trust, which provides permanent affordable home ownership opportunities in Logan Square, Avondale and Hermosa

• $3 million for state-designated cultural districts, including affordable housing preservation and resident anti-displacement

Pritzker’s office said in a Tweet that his proposed budget, released February 15, will provide homeless prevention to 5,000 more families; the capital to build 90 new units of permanent supportive housing; 460 new, non-congregate shelter units; new workforce development for homeless adults; rapid re-housing programs to provide short-term rental assistance; 500 new units of scattered-site, permanent supportive housing. The proposal will also mean stronger outreach, shelter diversion support, services for people re-entering society after prison, and medical respite care, which is the short-term opportunity for homeless persons to recover in a safe setting from physical illness or injury.

State Rep. Will Guzzardi (D-Chicago) worked to secure these funds, according to HAI, working with state Rep. Lindsey LaPointe and state Sen. Cristina Pacione-Zayas, both Chicago Democrats, and state Sen. Ann Gillespie, (D-Arlington Heights).

Addressing racial inequality and injustice is foundational to the HOME Illinois plan, because Black people are eight times more likely to experience homelessness than white people, HAI noted on its website.

The State of Illinois has now committed more than $339 million in federal ARPA money it has received to create affordable housing and end homelessness.

–Suzanne Hanney, from email and online sources

Gov. Pritzker