Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks during a news conference at state of Illinois’ offices in the West Loop last week.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Armed with reports showing that Black Illinoisans are most likely to be unhoused, Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Thursday announced a new action plan to combat homelessness with money for rent and legal help and funds to specifically address the racial disparities.
The plan includes a $50 million increase to funding in next fiscal year’s proposed budget for Home Illinois, a program created by Pritzker’s administration in 2022 to prevent and end homelessness.
Of that new money, $35 million would go toward court-based rental assistance, $2 million would be used for legal aid assistance and $13 million to reduce racial disparities in homelessness, Pritzker told reporters at the University of Illinois Chicago.
The plan was put together based on recommendations made by a roundtable created by the Illinois Office to Prevent and End Homelessness. Comprised of Black leaders from throughout the state, the Racial Equity Roundtable on Black Homelessness was convened to “address the systemic disparities that drive Black Illinoians to disproportionately face insecurity and homelessness,” Pritzker said.
Reports put together by the University of Illinois Chicago’s Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy found that Black residents are nearly eight times more likely to be homeless than white residents in Illinois — roughly double the national rate.
Rent burden, eviction filings, incarceration, unemployment and health care issues are among the root causes of the racial disparities in homelessness, according to the reports.
“Meeting the goal of ending homelessness requires an understanding of the factors that drive this gap and, more importantly, a plan to close it,” Pritzker said.
Joining Pritzker at the news conference was state Homlessness Chief Christine Haley, who said that the state was “moving away from false narratives that homelessness is caused by hanging out with the wrong crowd and making bad decisions.”
Haley said the proposed increase in funding for Home Illinois will “make advancements in bolstering our safety net” but emphasized the importance of understanding the policy recommendations listed in the report needed to end the disparity.
“Illinois has the second highest Black [to] white racial disparity in homelessness in the country,” Haley said. “We need to reflect wholly on that reality and utilize it to strengthen our collective will and resolve to close the disparity.”
The report also includes firsthand accounts from residents directly impacted by homelessness in Illinois.
After Blaire Flowers’ father died, she and her three children lost their apartment and the discrimination she faced “and barriers projected onto us created compound struggles,” she said.
“I felt abandoned, betrayed, by a society that preached compassion but practiced indifference,” Flowers said at the news conference. “To know that the state is committed to investing in programs that will provide support and resources to those who have walked a similar path [as me] is nothing short of a lifeline.”