Health
The number of people experiencing homelessness in the United States on a single night was the highest ever recorded in 2024. The overall rate increased by 18%, and in Chicago, the number of unhoused people tripled from 2023 to 2024.
But homelessness among Black people is seeing an even higher uptick in Illinois, more than double the national average.
Those figures are part of a report by the University of Illinois Chicago in collaboration with the Illinois Office to Prevent and End Homelessness. The report showed a number of structural issues contributing to this disparity — a lack of affordable housing and sufficient income chief among them.
The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning conducted an analysis and found the median household income for White Chicagoans is $89,050, compared to $40,700 for Latino Chicagoans and $27,713 for Black Chicagoans.
“I think the structural issues that we are really trying to understand is we understand that if we look at homeownership, if that’s where you pull from, how that has disproportionately impacted Black households and not being able to access credit, you look at redlining, you look at segregation history,” said Christine Haley, chief homelessness officer for the Illinois Office to Prevent and End Homelessness.
Rent burden is a major driver of Black homelessness. If Illinois residents spend 30% of their check on rent, they are considered “rent burdened.”
According to the report, Black residents are more likely to experience rent burden than White residents. Statewide, 63% of Black renters were rent burdened in 2022 compared to 51% of White renters.
Haley said the state understands that a lack of affordable housing is the cause for the increase of homelessness.
Within the report, community members, homelessness service professionals and individuals with lived unhoused experience helped officials gain a better understanding of this crisis.
When it comes to the increase in numbers within the last year, experts highlight social factors such as the impact of evictions on Black homelessness; the criminal legal system; and how individuals matriculate out of the child welfare system.
“Those types of system involvement do have a role to play in how we can make interventions to catch people if they fall through those systems,” Haley said. “But at the end of the day, we see higher rates of Black homelessness because we don’t have enough housing and because Black folks don’t have the same generational assets that can help them, that can help us during a crisis.”
The Illinois Department of Public Health released the state’s first health report for people experiencing homelessness and found the average age of death for the unhoused community is 18 years younger than in the general population.
“We really need to understand that if we look at mental illness, if we look at pieces such as cold-related injuries, we understand from the report that people experiencing homelessness are 38 times more likely to die of a cold-related injury,” Haley said.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office has made a number of efforts to address the homelessness crisis. Home Illinois, Illinois’ Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, collaborates with Illinois residents, community agencies and state government officials.
In October 2024, Home Illinois issued a report outlining a financial plan. The state’s budget for the 2024 fiscal year increased funding for homeless services by $200 million, and in 2025 there will be an additional $90 million allotted to the Home Illinois budget. However, the Illinois Shelter Alliance said the $290 million is not sufficient and is asking for an additional $100 million.
Additional funding may be difficult as the state anticipates a $3.2 billion deficit for the upcoming fiscal year.
“We have 16 state agencies that are really working towards understanding within their budgets, within their purview: How can they address homelessness?” Haley said. “We have increased funding for homelessness in the state of Illinois by over 156% in that we have invested in shelter, permanent housing, employment services, clinical services and others. I think that we understand very clearly that we have a need and are working towards addressing it.”