DOWNTOWN — Jamae McDaniels has lived on the streets off-and-on for the previous 15 years. He was sleeping on a blanket and different bedding on a frigid sidewalk on Decrease Columbus Drive Thursday evening when he was approached by metropolis staff and volunteers out to rely Chicago’s homeless inhabitants.
First, two Chicago cops ask McDaniels if he wants any social providers and whether or not he’s open to speaking. When he says he’s, employees from Division of Household and Help Companies approaches him and asks for his data. They provide him a snack bag, hand heaters and different gadgets.
The outreach on an evening that dipped into the single-digit temperatures is a part of the town’s annual Level-in-Time Depend. It takes a snapshot of homelessness within the metropolis and gathers numbers of each sheltered and unsheltered individuals dwelling within the metropolis on a single evening.
Final yr’s survey discovered 18,836 Chicagoans experiencing homelessness. Of these,17,202 had been dwelling in shelters and 1,634 had been unhoused. That quantity tripled 2023’s rely of 6,139 individuals experiencing homelessness.
Metropolis departments and organizations that serve individuals experiencing homelessness use point-in-time numbers to estimate funding wanted for programming. For instance, earlier this month, a nonprofit introduced plans to distribute “backpack beds” to Chicago’s unhoused, with a aim of offering round 1,600 beds based mostly on the variety of unsheltered individuals counted in 2024.
The figures from this yr’s survey will likely be compiled and launched within the coming weeks.
As dozens of staffers and volunteers gathered on the workplaces of the Division of Household and Helps Companies Thursday evening, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Maura McCauley, performing commissioner, addressed the group and mirrored on the town’s progress in addressing homelessness.
Final month the town merged its homeless shelter and migrant shelter methods, greater than doubling the beds already in homeless shelters from 3,000 to six,800 and creating a brand new “One System Initiative.” The transfer got here as the town slowed its acceptance of migrants and closed the touchdown zone for brand new arrivals utterly Dec. 31.
“This One System Initiative we constructed out of necessity,” Johnson mentioned to volunteers.
McCauley praised Johnson’s funding of the Fast Re-Housing Program within the metropolis’s 2025 finances. This system expedites everlasting housing placement for people and households who don’t want intensive or ongoing help. This system doesn’t require circumstances that might sometimes exclude individuals from acquiring housing, similar to employment, revenue, the absence of a legal report or sobriety.
“This $7 million, mayor, that you simply made positive was included within the 2025 finances for fast housing, helps us proceed to serve 1,000 Chicagoans in housing and home a further 360 new households via accelerated shifting occasions,” McCauley mentioned.
After a full yr of migrants arriving within the metropolis, 2024’s rely included 13,891 new arrivals — a dramatic improve from 2023’s 2,196 new arrivals counted.
Of the individuals counted in 2024 who weren’t new arrivals, 72 % self-identified as Black. Below one-third of Chicago’s inhabitants identifies as Black, based on Census knowledge.
Thursday evening, Heather Zunker advised metropolis staff she had been dwelling on the road for a month, after dropping her non permanent housing placement.
“I hate it,” Zunker mentioned on the transition again to the streets. “I need to go residence.”
Zunker praised her case supervisor, supplied by a neighborhood outreach group Featherfist, however mentioned she needs there have been extra case managers and different sources out there.
“You bought to have a very good case supervisor,” Zunker mentioned. “I suppose there’s not sufficient case managers on the market, however they’ve an enormous workload.”
McDaniels mentioned he’s sometimes at one of many metropolis’s public libraries throughout the day, searching for employment and attempting to make himself marketable.
“In Chicago, it’s a must to wait to get employment and achieve success with them [employers] wanting to rent someone similar to myself,” McDaniels mentioned.
Free meals supplied by the town and native teams assist, McDaniels mentioned, however he needs there have been extra shelters with prolonged hours to assist his scenario.
“They should make extra buildings, totally different sorts of shelters, so individuals could be in there for eight hours, 12 hours and maneuver round,” he mentioned.
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