UPTOWN — Heartland Alliance Well being, a former department of the behemoth social service community Heartland Alliance, is shutting down.
The group well being care nonprofit will shut its Uptown and Englewood clinics and its three meals pantries by April 7, stated Michael Brieschke, chair of the union representing most of the group’s employees. Brieschke stated the union was notified in regards to the impending closure throughout a gathering final Wednesday.
In an announcement, Heartland Alliance Well being’s Chief Working Officer Christina Martinez confirmed the nonprofit is shuttering.
“Sadly, after intensive efforts, [Heartland Alliance Health] has decided that it now not has a sustainable path ahead and should wind down operations,” Martinez wrote. “HAH is awfully grateful for the employees, members and companions who supported the group for the previous 40 years. HAH will proceed to work intently with funders, group suppliers, and authorities companions whereas winding down operations with a give attention to lessening the affect on its weak inhabitants and employees.”
The clinics at 4009 N. Broadway and 5501 S. Halsted St. are now not taking new appointments for sufferers and are directing folks to different federally certified well being facilities or clinics, in line with Heartland’s web site. After Block Membership Chicago reached out, the nonprofit introduced its closure on its web site.
There are 113 employees members at Heartland Alliance Well being who will lose their jobs because of the group shutting down, 50 of whom are within the union, Brieschke stated. Between the low-cost clinics and the meals pantries, the group serves about 8,000 folks a yr, he stated.
“This leaves a extremely large gap in the neighborhood, notably for well being care,” Brieschke stated. “There’s already a scarcity of well being care providers for low-income communities.”
Brieschke stated he was instructed the closure stems from monetary points, which he stated had “been brewing for at the very least the final yr and a half.” In 2023, earlier than the group cut up from Heartland Alliance to change into its personal nonprofit, Brieschke stated a “substantial” variety of workers needed to be furloughed because of this. Some had been introduced again a pair months later, however others had been laid off, he stated.
Martinez and Mary Kay Gilbert, interim govt director of Heartland Alliance Well being, didn’t reply to Block Membership’s questions in regards to the causes for the nonprofit’s closure, its monetary state or its timeline for shutting down.
Final yr, Heartland Alliance management instructed the Chicago Tribune earlier monetary points had been brought on by employees vacancies, rising well being prices after the COVID-19 pandemic, shelters being strained from the surge in migrants arriving in Chicago and enormous upfront prices concerned in contracts with businesses such because the Chicago Division of Public Well being.
It’s unclear if those self same causes are behind Heartland Alliance Well being’s present monetary struggles.
Heartland Alliance, a Chicago-based social service group with roots relationship again to progressive reformer Jane Addams in 1888, confronted important challenges previously few years of its existence.
In 2023, the group dissolved its housing arm, Heartland Housing, additionally due to monetary woes. Fourteen inexpensive housing properties had been positioned beneath receivership after Heartland Alliance didn’t pay utility and trash payments, tackle constructing code violations and safe property insurance coverage.
In April 2024, Heartland Alliance introduced its remaining divisions would change into unbiased entities to enhance their viability. As of July 1, Heartland Alliance Well being turned its personal nonprofit. Heartland Human Care Providers, Heartland Alliance Worldwide and the Nationwide Immigrant Justice Heart are additionally former Heartland Alliance divisions that turned separate nonprofits.
The timeline for when every Heartland Alliance Well being clinic and meals pantry will shut remains to be unclear, Brieschke stated. He stated he was instructed it will be a “gradual” and “incremental” shutdown till April 7.
Ellen Meyers, a frequent donor to the Heartland Alliance Well being meals pantry at 5543 N. Broadway in Edgewater, stated its closure will likely be a devastating loss to the group. Meyers stated she had been an everyday volunteer on the pantry because it opened in 1988 till about six years in the past. Heartland Alliance Well being additionally operates meals pantries at 4121 W. Lake St. in Garfield Park and 151 W. seventy fifth St. in Larger Grand Crossing.
Also referred to as GroceryLand, the Edgewater pantry was based to assist folks dwelling with HIV or AIDS, however has grown to change into a useful resource for anybody who wants it, Meyers stated. Persons are in a position to get nutritious meals in addition to fundamental items that may’t be purchased with meals stamps, corresponding to rest room paper, laundry detergent and pet meals, she stated.
“That’s what GroceryLand is: It’s a non-judgmental, human contact for folks,” Meyers stated. “There isn’t any dialogue of like, ‘Why are you right here?’ why you’re there.”
With the upcoming closure of Heartland Alliance Well being, Meyers stated she’s apprehensive about the place pantry clients will go, contemplating meals pantries throughout the town have seen elevated want over the previous few years, on prime of bracing for potential interruptions in federal funding applied by President Donald Trump’s administration.
Different Former Heartland Alliance Divisions Affected By Fed Funding Suspension
Different former Heartland Alliance divisions are additionally going through challenges.
Heartland Alliance Worldwide furloughed greater than 90 % of its employees and suspended a lot of its bigger contracts because of the ongoing suspension of international help, Chief Working Officer Rebecca Obrock stated final week on LinkedIn.
Obrock didn’t reply to a request for remark from Block Membership in regards to the nonprofit’s viability.
Brieschke, chair of the union that additionally contains workers from Heartland Alliance Worldwide, stated 16 union workers in Chicago who work with the group’s Marjorie Kovler Heart had been furloughed however introduced again to work after the group discovered further funding.
Heartland Human Care Providers officers instructed Block Membership the nonprofit just lately skilled a funding pause however hasn’t wanted to furlough employees.
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