Tag:homelessness
Chicago’s Low-Income Housing Trust Fund at a Crossroads: Leadership, Equity, and an Uncertain Future
On February 11, the Chicago City Council Committee on Housing and Real Estate delayed approval of the appointment of eight board members to oversee the city’s low-income housing trust fund. The vote was postponed due to concerns about the lack of Black representation on the board and among the appointees, particularly from the South and West sides. For decades, Chicago has grappled with the challenge of providing affordable housing to its poorest residents. The Chicago Low-Income Housing Trust Fund (“Trust Fund”), established in 1987, has been a crucial force in addressing this need. The Trust Fund was created through a City Council ordinance and supports low-income residents—those earning at or below 50% of the city’s median income—by funding rental subsidies and housing programs.
Chicago’s One System Initiative: Merging the Homelessness and Forced Migration Response Services
Since August 2022, Chicago has seen a record influx of new arrivals, with nearly 47,000 individuals seeking asylum in Illinois from the southern U.S. border. In response to this surge of new Chicagoans, the city and state launched the One System Initiative, an ambitious effort to integrate the systems serving Chicagoans experiencing homelessness and new arrivals. By aligning resources and streamlining services, the initiative aims to enhance the city’s overall homeless response system. Such integration must also comply with various federal, state, and local regulations concerning eligibility requirements, funding restrictions, and documentation demands.
Regulating Government Agencies & Contractors: Banning the Use of ‘Hostile Architecture’ Through A City-Wide Ordinance
The way we construct our buildings, parks, and communities are reflective of our collective interests and values. Often when constructing public spaces, contractors and city officials employ deliberate methods of design that discourage their use by homeless people, this is known as hostile architecture. From bifurcated city benches to boulders being placed under city overpasses, hostile architecture is an affirmative policy action that is used by cities to discourage and eliminate use of public spaces by those who are unhoused. Collectively, these actions amount to another weapon in the arsenal of government actors in their war against homeless people, instead of homelessness. In order to stop these harmful building and design policies, cities around the United States, including Chicago, should implement regulatory policies banning their use with public funds or through governmental contractors.