Maintain shelter beds, create new hub among recommendations for unified shelter system in Chicago

The city should freeze the number of shelter beds until further analysis is done to determine how many would be needed under a new system that would merge services for people experiencing homelessness and for newly arrived immigrants, according to a list of recommendations made public Thursday.

The recommendation to maintain at least 14,175 beds and make them available for anyone needing shelter was part of a 23-page report published Thursday during a community meeting at Deborah’s Place on the city’s West Side that addresses how the City of Chicago could move forward with the unified system, known as the One System Initiative.

The recommendations include streamlining data collection, creating a location for people seeking shelter that would always remain open, implementing a standard of care across all shelters and community centers where people could seek help for workforce development, landlord meditation and legal support.

The recommendations were made following discussions with working groups that consisted of more than three dozen government employees, community organizations and social service organizations like Matthew House, Lawndale Christian Health Center and the Venezuelan Alliance.

Andrew Winter, the executive director of Cornerstone Community Outreach, was part of a panel discussion at the meeting, and he said the two populations have similar hurdles, and the past two years have amplified the needs of people facing housing insecurity.

“I think that the system has kind of scraped by to meet those needs, and this has amplified those needs and identified the systemic issues,” Winter said, adding that what has changed is the volume of people needing help.

Officials at the meeting did not detail the costs associated with merging shelters or a timeline for when some of the changes could go into effect. Beatriz Ponce de León, the deputy mayor of immigrant, migrant and refugee rights, told reporters afterwards that the city had not made a commitment to implement all of the recommendations, adding that the city will be creating a five-year plan to end homelessness in the city.

“This is a sharing of a vision of recommendations that we will now take back as city and state, and we will use those as we continue planning for the One System,” Ponce de León said during the meeting.

In early September, there were more than 5,463 newly arrived immigrants who were staying at 17 shelters across the city, according to the city’s Department of Family and Support Services. That figure is down from when there were more than 14,800 people in shelters in January, according to data from City Hall’s committee on immigrant and refugee rights. The city recently announced it planned to close three shelters for new arrivals, which added up to 3,030 beds.

In June, the city had 3,000 shelter beds for people experiencing homelessness and 11,175 for new arrivals, according to the report.

Judith Triplett, who previously experienced homelessness and was part of the discussions that led to the recommendations, said it was important for the city to let people know how to access services, saying she didn’t know where to turn to when she didn’t have a home.

“When I was homeless did I know where to go?” she said she asked herself. “Did I know who to get in touch with? The answer is no.”

She said it’s also important that the staff has empathy, and there is clear information given to residents about how to report a grievance. She recalls that many times shelter workers would not give her the information to make a report.

Beth Horowitz, from All Chicago Making Homelessness History, said the recommendations also need buy in from the community, saying one of the challenges of opening new shelters is lack of support from residents.

“We can’t work to fix the shelter system that we currently have, and we can’t do what we need to add more, if communities say no, not in my neighborhood,” Horowitz said.

Across the city, the number of people experiencing homelessness has increased from 6,139 in 2023 to 13,679 in 2024, according to the city’s annual tally. The city’s count this year also included new arrivals. And in the past two years, more than 47,900 newly arrived immigrants have sought shelter in Chicago, after Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott, a Republican, started sending migrants to Democrat-led cities.

In Humboldt Park on the city’s Northwest Side, the issue of homelessness can be seen as a tent encampment has grown to about 80 people that includes people with ties to the area, people who were pushed out from tent cities in the suburbs and a small percentage includes newly arrived immigrants, said Ald. Jessie Fuentes, whose 26th Ward includes the park, Thursday morning.

Fuentes said they are trying to find housing for all residents by December. This month, city officials will host an accelerated moving event for encampment residents, and they have identified 60 available apartments so far, she said. Residents who aren’t matched to an apartment will be placed in a shelter.

“No one deserves to live outside and not know if they’re going to wake up because of the weather conditions overnight,” Fuentes said.

She is supporting two new shelters in the area that will be non-congregate, meaning the space would allow a person to have a private unit because of concerns people have had about their safety in congregate shelters.

“In the immediate, we just have to be able to merge the systems so that we are serving everyone,” Fuentes said. “But the long-term shelter plan has been to sort of go away from congregate shelter and to be able to develop more non-congregate shelter.”