We are excited to share our 2024 Year in Review, highlighting the impact we’ve made together over the past year. We’re deeply grateful for our community of donors, supporters, people with lived experience, service providers, advocates, and institutional partners who stand with us in the fight to ensure everyone has a safe, welcoming, and permanent place to call home.
Throughout the year, our strategic campaigns, policy initiatives, and community outreach addressed the immediate needs of people impacted by poverty while advancing long-term solutions.
At the heart of our work is community organizing. We center the leadership of people who have experienced homelessness because we know that those closest to the problem are also closest to the solution. In 2024, our organizers engaged with 2,934 people impacted by homelessness through outreach in shelters, housing programs, and tent cities across Chicago and more than 15 suburban and downstate communities.
Our Law Project provides direct legal assistance to people experiencing homelessness, with a special focus on supporting youth. Over the last year, our attorneys represented clients navigating a range of legal issues, including educational rights, public benefits, family law, housing, criminal records relief, and obtaining identification documents. In 2024, we closed 379 cases for 295 clients, 68% of whom were students or youth aged 24 or younger.
We also joined national advocacy efforts, filing an amicus brief in Grants Pass v. Johnson, a U.S. Supreme Court case that ultimately decided that cities have the right to penalize people experiencing homelessness for sleeping outdoors. And we relaunched Streetlight Chicago, a free app and website that helps unstably housed young people connect with critical resources.
CCH continues to partner with advocacy organizations, service providers, and people with lived experience to shape local and statewide policy initiatives to address homelessness. Last year, nearly 1,000 witness slips were submitted by our supporters, helping to pass three new bills into law.
In December, we released our latest estimate of homelessness in Chicago. The data shows that 76,375 Chicagoans experienced homelessness in 2022—a 12% increase from the previous year. This rise reflects the ongoing impact of skyrocketing housing costs, wage stagnation, and the end of pandemic-era support programs, making it increasingly difficult for Chicago families to find and keep affordable housing.
To meet urgent needs, we provided direct financial assistance to 350 households experiencing or at risk of homelessness through our Edrika Fulford Mutual Aid Fund, distributing a total of $175,000. We also awarded $92,000 in college scholarships to 23 students impacted by homelessness.
Thank you for standing with us over the last year. We’re proud of what we accomplished together in 2024—and we’re energized to continue our work in 2025.
