Ending Homelessness
Everyone deserves a safe, stable place to call home.
Homelessness affects people from all walks of life. Individuals and families are pushed into homelessness in many different ways, from a loss of employment and other economic hardships to domestic violence, family conflict, and serious behavioral health conditions. The reality is that most people experience homelessness because of circumstances beyond their control, and the most important factor in overall homelessness rates is a lack of affordable housing. While every person’s story is unique, everyone experiencing homelessness shares one thing in common: they do not have a home.
Whatever the causes, everyone experiencing homelessness deserves support in finding a stable, affordable housing situation.
Anyone can experience homelessness. Young people, families with children, survivors of domestic violence, veterans, seniors, and people living with disabilities are all impacted. In many communities, homelessness is a growing crisis driven primarily by the shortage of affordable housing. When rent rises faster than wages and housing assistance fails to meet the need, more people are at risk of losing their homes. The solutions lie in systemic changes and evidence-based programs.
We must address the root causes that force people from their homes, especially, above all else, the lack of affordable housing, while maintaining a robust, fully funded emergency response system.
To end homelessness, we need to create a society where everyone has access to affordable housing. Securing housing, particularly permanent supportive housing for people with a history of chronic homelessness, provides a stable base from which individuals and families can address other issues that have contributed to and been intensified by homelessness.
To reach “functional zero homelessness,” the current HOME Illinois Plan estimates that the state has a shortage of about 5,400 emergency shelter beds, more than 10,000 rapid rehousing units, and nearly 11,000 units of permanent supportive housing and other permanent housing.
How Many People Are Homeless In Illinois?
Counting homelessness is challenging. There is no universal definition of homelessness, and many people experiencing homelessness avoid public systems or remain temporarily “doubled up” with friends or family.
Housing Action considers homelessness to be any situation where someone does not have a fixed, regular, and adequate place to live. This can mean sleeping outside, in a shelter, in a car, on someone’s couch, or other impermanent or overcrowded situations.
HUD, however, defines homelessness more narrowly: primarily as living in shelters, on the street, in places not meant for habitation, or fleeing domestic violence. Other entities of the Federal Government, such as the Department of Education do recognize doubling up as homelessness, but they do not provide housing resources.
According to the 2025 HUD Point-in-Time Count released by the Illinois Office to Prevent and End Homelessness, 14,571 people were experiencing homelessness in Illinois in January 2025. This is a 44% decrease from January 2024, when the PIT count identified 25,832 people experiencing homelessness. Because the primary driver of homelessness is the lack of affordable housing, many more people across Illinois are living doubled up or without a home of their own but are not reflected in this number.
Including people living doubled up, the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless gives a 2026 estimate of 58,625 Chicagoans experiencing homelessness in any form.
In 2025, 2.7% of Illinois K-12 students, nearly 50,000 in total, reported not having a permanent or adequate home, an increase compared to the 2% reported in 2000.
People at risk of homelessness include people in renter households who are poor and have a severe housing cost burden. In 2026, The Gap found that 76% of Illinois’s 439,933 extremely low income renter households are in this situation, spending more than half of their income on rent.
Lived Experiences of Homelessness
Through our Storytelling for Change workshops, we partnered with individuals who have experienced homelessness to share their stories in our publication A Place to Call Home. These stories remind us that homelessness is not an abstract issue; it affects real people, families, and communities. By listening to lived experiences, we build understanding, compassion, and momentum for meaningful change.
What is a Continuum of Care (CoC)?
If you work in or read about homelessness policy, you will likely encounter the term Continuum of Care, or CoC. Continuums of Care are local planning bodies that coordinate housing and services funding for individuals and families experiencing homelessness.
Illinois has 19 CoC networks that form the backbone of the state’s homelessness response system. Together, they currently support more than 21,400 people maintaining permanent housing across Illinois and coordinate more than 27,000 emergency and transitional housing beds. These regional networks provide the foundation for preventing and ending homelessness in communities statewide.
Why Racial Justice Matters
Because of historic structural and systemic discrimination in many areas of basic life, such as housing, education, and employment, racial disparities are pronounced among people experiencing homelessness. In Illinois, our Black residents are almost eight times more likely to be homeless than white residents.
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Homelessness, Health, and Life Expectancy
In January 2026, the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Illinois Office to Prevent and End Homelessness released an updated Homeless Morbidity and Mortality Report covering 2017-2023. This report finds:
- The average age of death for people experiencing homelessness is nearly 20 years less than for the housed population (55.5 years compared to 74.2 years)
- More than 75,000 people experiencing homelessness accounted for more than 1.8 million hospital visits, with a median of 14 hospital visits per person.
- 313 people experiencing homelessness who died over the span covered in the report were classified in their death records as veterans, and 30 had worked in public sector jobs, including police officers, paramedics, and correctional officers.