18 min
08 | Flexible Housing Pool: Rapid Expansion to Address Regional Homelessness In The Solution
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- Sociedade e cultura
According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, in 2020, there were over half a million people experiencing homelessness on our streets and in shelters in America. Seventy percent were individuals, and the remaining 30 percent were families with children. They lived in every state and territory, and they include people from every gender, racial and ethnic group.
However, some groups are far more likely than others to become homeless. In the same year, The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress revealed that African Americans are overrepresented in the population of people experiencing homelessness compared to their share of the overall US population.
A recent report by the Chicago Coalition for the homeless found at least 65,000 people were experiencing homelessness in Chicago in 2020, including those who temporarily stayed with others in addition to people living in shelters and on the street. Additionally, similar to national data, although African American Chicagoans make up roughly 30 percent of the city's population, they represent 70 percent of the City’s homeless. For housing advocates and activists, ending homelessness is connected to the moral imperative to end racial inequities within our society’s systems, policies, and social practices.
INTRODUCTION
The Center for Housing and Health’s unique program, the Flexible Housing Pool, works to address the region’s homelessness through system coordination. Through the Flexible Housing Pool (or FHP), Cook County is able to rapidly house and provide supportive services to some of the region’s most vulnerable populations, including individuals experiencing homelessness who cycle through the criminal justice system and utilize hospital emergency rooms for care.
In this episode, I’m talking with Pete Toepfer, Executive Director of the Center for Housing and Health. The Center’s mission is to honor 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. We’ll hear more from Pete about how FHP has expanded in the past three years to meet the growing demand for permanent supportive housing and how the organization is centering racial equity in its strategic priorities.
Welcome Pete!
QUESTIONS
Just last week, the Flexible Housing Pool, or FHP, housed its 1,000th resident. Congratulations on this milestone! Can you share more about its significance in the context of serving people in the Chicago region experiencing homelessness?
Kuliva. Thanks so much. As you pointed out, an awful lot has changed since 2019. The least of which was the covid 19 pandemic. For a little context, in the first year of the Flexible Housing Pool, like lots of projects that are starting up, it began fairly slowly. In the first year we housed just under 60 people, and now we’re at 1,000. So as you can tell, the growth has been very, very rapid, but very, very necessary when we’re talking about the tens of thousands of our neighbors who are homeless each year in Chicago. So, for me, the biggest takeaway is that we have dramatically improved the lives of a thousand of our neighbors, and many of those are children. About 350 of those thousand people are minors/children. So those are children who will not have to experience the trauma of living in cars and bouncing between an aunt’s house or grandma’s house, a shelter and that can focus on school, friends and playing. Just like every child should do.
One of the stories that I feel is really fitting around the Flexible Housing Pool is one of the first residents who received housing as a result of the Flexible Housing Pool. Her name is Kayla Wallace, and she was actually one of the residents who was at an early p
According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, in 2020, there were over half a million people experiencing homelessness on our streets and in shelters in America. Seventy percent were individuals, and the remaining 30 percent were families with children. They lived in every state and territory, and they include people from every gender, racial and ethnic group.
However, some groups are far more likely than others to become homeless. In the same year, The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress revealed that African Americans are overrepresented in the population of people experiencing homelessness compared to their share of the overall US population.
A recent report by the Chicago Coalition for the homeless found at least 65,000 people were experiencing homelessness in Chicago in 2020, including those who temporarily stayed with others in addition to people living in shelters and on the street. Additionally, similar to national data, although African American Chicagoans make up roughly 30 percent of the city's population, they represent 70 percent of the City’s homeless. For housing advocates and activists, ending homelessness is connected to the moral imperative to end racial inequities within our society’s systems, policies, and social practices.
INTRODUCTION
The Center for Housing and Health’s unique program, the Flexible Housing Pool, works to address the region’s homelessness through system coordination. Through the Flexible Housing Pool (or FHP), Cook County is able to rapidly house and provide supportive services to some of the region’s most vulnerable populations, including individuals experiencing homelessness who cycle through the criminal justice system and utilize hospital emergency rooms for care.
In this episode, I’m talking with Pete Toepfer, Executive Director of the Center for Housing and Health. The Center’s mission is to honor 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. We’ll hear more from Pete about how FHP has expanded in the past three years to meet the growing demand for permanent supportive housing and how the organization is centering racial equity in its strategic priorities.
Welcome Pete!
QUESTIONS
Just last week, the Flexible Housing Pool, or FHP, housed its 1,000th resident. Congratulations on this milestone! Can you share more about its significance in the context of serving people in the Chicago region experiencing homelessness?
Kuliva. Thanks so much. As you pointed out, an awful lot has changed since 2019. The least of which was the covid 19 pandemic. For a little context, in the first year of the Flexible Housing Pool, like lots of projects that are starting up, it began fairly slowly. In the first year we housed just under 60 people, and now we’re at 1,000. So as you can tell, the growth has been very, very rapid, but very, very necessary when we’re talking about the tens of thousands of our neighbors who are homeless each year in Chicago. So, for me, the biggest takeaway is that we have dramatically improved the lives of a thousand of our neighbors, and many of those are children. About 350 of those thousand people are minors/children. So those are children who will not have to experience the trauma of living in cars and bouncing between an aunt’s house or grandma’s house, a shelter and that can focus on school, friends and playing. Just like every child should do.
One of the stories that I feel is really fitting around the Flexible Housing Pool is one of the first residents who received housing as a result of the Flexible Housing Pool. Her name is Kayla Wallace, and she was actually one of the residents who was at an early p
18 min