case manager
doctor
mother
housing Specialist
youth
daughter
IN 2021, the Center for Housing and Health (CHH)
played a vital role as a direct service organization and systems-change leader.
CHH organizes the funding of housing services directly to partner agencies across Chicagoland through an integrated system for families and individuals experiencing homelessness. Together, we expanded essential partnerships to bridge healthcare and homeless services, ensuring robust service coordination across systems for all participants. Last year, our essential workers — case managers, housing specialists, counselors, and other service partners ensured that 675 households had continued access to housing, food, utilities, and transportation. We are so grateful to our dedicated direct service staff, who went above and beyond to ensure our participants felt connected and supported as the pandemic continued. CHH’s largest project, the Flexible Housing Pool (FHP), coordinates partners from Chicagoland’s housing and healthcare systems to reach marginalized individuals with complex needs. FHP leverages cross-sector investments to fully integrate these housing and healthcare systems and improve its participants’ health outcomes. In 2021, with funding from Polk Bros. Foundation and in partnership with Point Source Youth, CHH launched a Youth Learning Collaborative. The Collaborative combines the insights gained between youth participants, service providers, and partners to implement best practices for youth tenants. CHH recognizes the importance of centering racial equity and justice as critical to ending homelessness and the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, in partnership with its parent organization AFC, CHH launched a process to develop and implement a Race Equity Action Plan. Since the plan’s 2
launch, CHH has begun work to embed racial equity into all policies and administrative practices and root racial equity in all programs, relationships with our partners and participants. The core part of CHH’s work addresses the lack of interaction between healthcare, housing, behavioral health, and other supportive service systems. As we move forward, CHH will continue to listen to the essential voices to promote systemic change and work to help all Chicagoans meet their critical housing and health needs. With gratitude,
PETER TOEPFER
Center for Housing and Health, Executive Director
KULIVA WILBURN
Center for Housing and Health, Board Chair 3
I went from that transitional space to, within a couple of months, receiving my keys. To me, that was the biggest blessing of my life to literally receive those after being through so much.”
ON A TYPICAL MORNING,
Zarria Alexander, a 22-year-old Chicagoan and poet, can be found taking care of her two-year-old daughter, Zuri. There’s a sense of safety and security in their home that Zarria said has been everything to her. “It’s been wonderful honestly,” Zarria said. “I wake up every day, and I’m just really thankful.” Still, it wasn’t always so easy. In 2019, Zarria started dating her then boyfriend, who she eventually went on to live with. As their relationship progressed, Zarria began to experience intimate partner violence. After she had her daughter, Zarria began to look for alternative, safe housing options. She applied to various low-income housing programs, but never heard back from any of them. In August of 2021, Zarria’s boyfriend kicked her out, forcing her to return to staying with friends or relatives. Fortunately, Zarria had a mentor, who referred her to CHH’s Flexible Housing Pool (FHP). Developed in collaboration with community partners, the FHP helps residents, including young adults with minor children, experiencing homelessness find reliable, stable housing of their choosing through partnerships with landlords across Chicago. Once housed, the program helps participants pay their rent each month, furnish their 4
apartments and find other supportive services. After receiving the referral, Audrey Hartfield, a Youth Flexible Housing Pool Outreach & Engagement Specialist at the Night Ministry, called Zarria, conducted an intake and coordinated a temporary hotel stay. Torri Clay, CHH’s Manager of Outreach and Housing Placement, then worked directly with Zarria to find her an apartment she felt safe in. After touring the apartment, Zarria moved in at the end of September and remains stably housed to this day. “I went from that transitional space to, within a couple of months, receiving my keys. To me, that was the biggest blessing of my life to literally receive those after being through so much,” Zarria said. Zarria was one of the 433 households the FHP housed and provided supportive services to in 2021. This is a 225% increase in the number of households housed from the end of 2020. This increase can be attributed to several factors including the dedicated work from CHH’s direct service staff, new partner agencies and new referral sources for the FHP youth program, including the City of Chicago’s violence prevention program, Service Coordination and Navigation (SCaN). In total, the investors and new referral sources will lead to an anticipated 300 new FHP participants each year. At this growth rate, CHH anticipates reaching 1,000 FHP households in the next two years.
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PERMANENT SUPPORTIVE HOUSING 1,119 PEOPLE ENROLLED IN HOUSING PROGRAMS INCLUDING 237 CHILDREN We offered a permanent home and intensive, wraparound case management services to 1,119 people.
94% OF HOUSEHOLDS REMAINED STABLY HOUSED FOR AT LEAST 12 MONTHS 94% of participants were stably housed for 12 months or longer in 2021.
SYSTEM LEADERSHIP THROUGH COORDINATED ENTRY 6,300 ASSESSMENTS 2,000 MOVED INTO PERMANENT HOUSING The Coordinated Entry System is the central city-wide housing referral network in Chicago, designed to house our most vulnerable community members experiencing homelessness. The Center oversees the refinement of the Coordinated Entry Housing Assessment to support an effective assessment process that is accessible to all, trauma informed, and up to date on system prioritization. In serving as a lead agency for the Coordinated Entry System, we’ve supported the completion of over 6,300 assessments, leading to over 2,000 people moved into permanent housing.
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DIRECT CLIENT SERVICES 48 CASE MANAGERS & SUPPORTIVE STAFF 16 PARTNER AGENCIES We worked with 48 case managers and 16 partner agencies to provide direct services to participants throughout the Chicagoland area.
437 FURNITURE SETS & MOVE-IN KITS We delivered 437 furniture sets and essential move-in items to participants after they moved into their apartments.
72 SERVICE COORDINATION & NAVIGATION (SCaN) REFERRALS To date, 72 SCaN referrals have been made to the FHP. Eighteen (25%) youths are parenting. The average age is 21 years-old. 37 youths have been housed and the remainder are searching for their new home.
14 HARM REDUCTION TRAININGS & 470 NARCAN KIT DISTRIBUTIONS In 2021, harm reduction counseling services were provided to 26 participants in supportive housing programs.
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WHAT’S NEW VIOLENCE REDUCTION & THE FLEXIBLE HOUSING POOL The Center for Housing and Health is beginning to impact another one of Chicago’s major public health issues: gun violence. The FHP is partnering with SCaN, a collaboration of youth anti-violence organizations funded by the City of Chicago to engage with youth who are likely victims or perpetrators of gun violence. Many of the young people in SCaN experience homelessness, which further affects the safety and stability of their lives. By ensuring they have a permanent home and services, CHH is reducing violence and ending homelessness. This collaboration will expand further in 2022 to serve additional youths. Through 2021, FHP has housed 563 participants in 433 households. Of those housed through FHP, 224 households are headed by a youth participant aged 18-24 and 209 households are headed by an adult participant. Of all participants who have moved into permanent housing, 96% remained housed.
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DEMOGRAPHICS 1,117 ENROLLED PARTICIPANTS IN CHH PROGRAMS
6 NON-BINARY/
GENDER
2 PREFER TO SELF-DESCRIBE
NONCONFORMING/ THIRD GENDER
1 GENDERQUEER
172 UNKNOWN/ REFUSED
460 MALE RACE & ETHNICITY
476 FEMALE
7 OTHER 9 MULTI-RACIAL
4 AM. INDIAN OR AK NATIVE
2 NATIVE HAWAIIAN
OR OTHER PI
2 ASIAN OR ASIAN AMERICAN
72 WHITE 140 UNKNOWN/ REFUSED
147 HISPANIC/
734 BLACK, AFRICAN AMERICAN, OR AFRICAN
LATINO/A/X
AGE 236
232
196 183
128
84 52
UNDER 16
45—54
18—24
55—64
25—34
65—74
35—44
75+ UNKNOWN
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1
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FINANCIALS REVENUE TOTAL REVENUE
$18,275,784
Private Sources
$298,807
Contributions – Foundation and Corporate
$298,807
Public Sources U.S. Dept of Housing & Urban Development
$13,557,179 $7,017,182
Chicago Dept of Public Health
$4,036,819
IL Dept of Public Health
$1,024,649
Chicago Dept of Family & Support Services
$717,109
IL Dept of Human Services
$522,521
US Dept of Health & Human Services Flexible Housing Pool Grants
$238,900 $4,419,798
EXPENSES TOTAL EXPENSES Program Services Management & General
$18,040,745 $1,957,489 $449,183
Direct Client Support
$13,861,084
Subcontractor Costs
$1,772,989
CHANGE IN NET ASSETS TOTAL CHANGE IN NET ASSETS
$235,039 10
HOUSING PARTNERS AMITA HEALTH
INNER VOICE
CHICAGO HOUSE AND SOCIAL SERVICE AGENCY
LA CASA NORTE
CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER
NORTHSIDE HOUSING AND SUPPORTIVE SERVICES PRIMO CENTER
DEBORAH’S PLACE HEARTLAND HUMAN CARE SERVICES HEARTLAND ALLIANCE HEALTH
RENAISSANCE SOCIAL SERVICES INC. THE NIGHT MINISTRY THRESHOLDS
HOUSING FORWARD
UNITY PARENTING AND COUNSELING
FUNDERS ADVOCATE AURORA HEALTH ALL CHICAGO
ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES
ANONYMOUS
MERIDIAN HEALTH PLAN OF ILLINOIS
THE CHICAGO COMMUNITY TRUST
MICHAEL REESE
CHICAGO DEPARTMENT OF FAMILY & SUPPORTIVE SERVICES
NORTHERN TRUST POLK BROS. FOUNDATION
CHICAGO DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS HOSPITAL & HEALTH SCIENCES SYSTEM
CHICAGO HOUSING AUTHORITY
BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD OF ILLINOIS FOUNDATION
THE CITY OF CHICAGO COOK COUNTY HEALTH
MEDICAL HOME NETWORK
COUNTY CARE
PRINCE CHARITABLE TRUST
THE CROWN FAMILY
ELIZABETH MORSE GENIUS CHARITABLE TRUST
CSH
BOARD OF DIRECTORS KULIVA WILBURN, WILBURN STRATEGIC SOLUTIONS, CHAIR
RICHARD C. POWELL, REVERE CONSULTING, MEMBER
CHAD THOMPSON, LYCEUM LEADERSHIP CONSULTING, TREASURER
CHRISTY PRAHL, CROWN FAMILY PHILANTHROPIES, MEMBER
STEPHANIE ALTMAN, SHRIVER CENTER ON POVERTY LAW, MEMBER
ALEJANDRO SEGURA, JP MORGAN CHASE, MEMBER
SIMONE KOEHLINGER, AIDS FOUNDATION CHICAGO, MEMBER (EX-OFFICIO)
DR. PAVIELLA FOSTER, HOWARD BROWN HEALTH CENTER, MEMBER
JENNIFER NELSON SEALS, COVENANT HOUSE OF ILLINOIS, MEMBER CHRIS O’HARA, THRESHOLDS, MEMBER
PETER TOEPFER, CENTER FOR HOUSING AND HEALTH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR JOANNA TROTTER, JP MORGAN CHASE FOUNDATION, MEMBER
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MISSION
CHH honors every person’s right to a home and health care, by bridging the housing and health care systems, to improve the lives of Chicagoans experiencing homelessness.
VISION
Every person has a place to call home that helps them reach their full potential.
200 W. Monroe St. Suite 1150, Chicago, IL 60606 housingforhealth.org 12