Chicago's plan to end homelessness derailed by rough economy

Eight years after an ambitious 10-year plan to end homelessness in Chicago was introduced, the city's homeless population remains relatively unchanged.

However, members of the organization that spearheaded the plan aren't ready to label it a failure.

"As with anything, there were things that were really great and there were things that were much more difficult," said Nonie Brennan, chief executive officer of the Chicago Alliance to End Homelessness. "I think there's a lot of things we can say were very big successes in the 10-year plan, one of which is that we have more than doubled the amount of supportive permanent housing in Chicago.

"We were one of the first cities in the country to write a 10-year plan," she said. "So we are evaluating that plan, which allows us to learn what went well and what things challenged us."

Mayor Richard M. Daley introduced the plan in 2003. In it, the alliance outlined several strategies to reach its goal, one of which included preventing individuals and families from becoming homeless in the first place.

The group saw some success in the early stages of the plan, when the city's total homeless population dropped nearly 12 percent between 2005 and 2007, from 6,715 to 5,922.

However, when the subprime mortgage crisis began to permeate across the country, any momentum gained by the city came to a screeching halt. In fact, Chicago's homeless population increased by 5 percent between 2007 and 2009, reaching a total of 6,240. The upward trend continued during the next two years, as the homeless population swelled to 6,638 in 2011.

Officials said the country's poor economic performance significantly hampered their efforts.

"I don't think anybody predicted the long recession and jobs crisis that our city and country is facing right now," said Nicole Amling, director of public policy for the alliance. "We're actually quite proud that our numbers haven't increased as dramatically as one would have expected with an 11 percent unemployment rate in the city of Chicago, a foreclosure crisis and the great recession of the past four or five years."

But the economy wasn't the only thing to blame for the statistical rise, officials said.

"The primary problem with the plan was a lack of resources to create the housing necessary to move people out of shelter quickly," said Julie Dworkin, director of public policy for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.

Just a few weeks after taking office, Mayor Rahm Emanuel's top policy staff reached out to Brennan and her team and encouraged them to start working on a new plan to end homelessness. The alliance calls it "Plan 2.0."

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires Chicago to conduct a point-in-time count of the homeless population every two years. On a cold night in January, hundreds of volunteers team up in pairs and travel around the city to physically count all people living on the streets, CTA, in parks and homeless shelters.

Last week the alliance met daily with more than 400 stakeholders in the community who provided feedback on the original plan and offered recommendations for the new project. Brennan and her staff plan on reviewing the recommendations before formally presenting Plan 2.0 to the mayor in the spring.

"I think anybody who was there learned so much," Brennan said. "Not just about what happened in the past, but also about what's possible. I think we are all invigorated and enthusiastic and excited about what the future holds."