As part of Speak Up’s initiative to bring in outside voices, we are privileged to welcome Dr. Thomas Hansen, Editor of Street Sense.

Street Sense is a Chicago-focused publication that provides uncensored news, profiles, columns, and creative writing about the homeless situation in Chicago and beyond.

Read it and subscribe.

This particular piece—based on Chicago-specific data—also lays out the broader national challenges of counting the homeless, the issue of Covid-19 data disruption, the different types of counts, and methods of grouping those being counted.

—Speak Up

By Thomas Hansen

In looking at the high number of homeless people in our cities, it is essential to look at all categories of persons who are not housed.  This includes persons sleeping in places not meant for humans to dwell in, persons who are doubling-up with relatives, folks who are couch-surfing, sleeping in churches, tents, sleeping bags, trains, cars, vans, dumpsters, buses, and also in various types of shelters.  The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has rules for benefits available based on what sort of location the homeless person “dwells” in.

One method for estimating homeless numbers has been used by the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) using national and community data.  The CCH reports that “An estimated 58,273 people were experiencing homelessness in Chicago, IL in 2019, immediately prior to the COVID–19 outbreak, per an analysis by CCH using data from the Chicago Homeless Management Information System and the U.S. Census American Community Survey.”  Although homeless numbers were decreasing in the city for about five years, now the numbers are rising dramatically.

The above pre-COVID-19 estimate is a low number, from a different era.  Going out at night in Chicago and seeing the high numbers of homeless sleeping or passing time outside will give the reader the feeling they are in a strange, foreign land indeed.  There are people asleep all over the Red Line and Blue Line trains, on busses, in doorways, in tents, in encampments, cars, vans, dumpsters, and alleys.  There are people milling around, some in all-night diners, some on the sidewalk trying to get money for their morning coffee, others conducting other sorts of activities.

There are no February 26, 2022, estimates available. 

There is no CCH estimate for that date, and no Census or city or county data, estimates, or guesses.  There may be well over 60,000 homeless now in the city.  The rise in numbers is clear to everyone—especially at night—unless the observer is blind.

A better educated guess is that there are over 65,000 homeless in Chicago now, on February 26, 2022.  You can quote me on that guess.  I know it is not far from wrong.

There is another method for yielding an estimate of the number of homeless in different American cities – and this is a fraction of the real number of homeless, a slice of the pie, if you will.  These numbers come from the “point-in-time” counts that are done in Chicago and elsewhere.  Chicago just conducted their 2022 count on January 27.  As of this writing, the results are not available.    

The point-in-time counts look at the number of sheltered and unsheltered persons in the city and serve as a sort of “snapshot” of how many persons are unhoused on one night.  They are not a very valuable resource, however, because the numbers are so ridiculously low.  The 2021 data was gathered in a reduced fashion because of the pandemic and stood at 2,468 and it breaks down into shelters and outdoors figures and by demographics.   Because of the safer and less-intrusive search methods, the number is lower than it should be.

The 2020 data included a broader sweep of locations and persons and stood at 3,668. Again, this number is a very low total in what is supposed to be representative in a city with a very high homeless population.  Data for previous years is also available and broken down, for those readers interested in investigating the approach more.     

A very important—but pre-COVID—publication which really spells out the realities on the demographics and details of homeless persons in Chicago is the “Fact Sheet” put out by the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.  The fact sheet reveals that while nationally the percentages of homeless who are White is about 47% and who are Black is 40%, in Chicago the situation is very different.  In the Windy City, only 15% are White while over 79% are Black.  The homeless who are living doubled-up with a relative show about 55% being Black, 33% being Latino, and 6% being White. 

While the fact sheet above is from 2018, it gives a good starting point for research, grant-writing, public presentations, and discussions.  Figures and estimates lag for the homeless.

Another 2018 estimate is a number of 552,830 being homeless nationwide.  These are starling figures in the richest country in the world, as people are constantly reminding homeless advocates – and as the advocates themselves are often screaming while imploring politicians, candidates, and taxpayers devote more time and money to the homeless problem.  Over 552,000 persons – though after COVID-19 -- the number is doubtless dramatically higher. 

This includes the possibility of a higher number of homeless persons in Chicago.  Maura McCauley, of city’s Department of Family and Support Services, in talking about the Point-in-Time count in January, explained that this particular method of documenting (or attempting to document) homeless numbers can help signal what is needed in the shelters.  Regarding numbers of homeless, in a recent article, she admitted that because of what numbers were indicating before the COVID outbreak, “…and now the exacerbations of the pandemic, I would not be surprised if there was an increase.”

We will know more soon about the estimates on total homeless persons in Chicago—and elsewhere.  We will know more soon about what is happening with the Point-in-Time numbers and maybe any interesting bi-products of the process this year—like whether there were any glitches in the system, revealing collateral data that arose unexpected, or any terrible difficulties or errors. 

We will know soon whether Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Expedited Housing Initiative (EDI) is working—and how many people are being rescued from homelessness through it.  The Chicago Department of Family and Support Services announced the initiative on its webpage, and told of the mayor using millions of CARES Act dollars, plus support from local partners.  The webpage explains that “EHI is a homeless intervention program aimed at rapidly connecting residents experiencing homelessness to available rental subsidies and units by removing barriers such as income verification and other limitations that can impede rapid placement of the residents in rental units.”

Stay tuned.