Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness (CCH) unveiled its latest estimate of homelessness in Chicago at a virtual event last night, revealing that 58,625 people experienced homelessness across the city through 2024. The report, which includes data from 2015 through 2024, shows that homelessness in Chicago is far more widespread than federal counts suggest, underscoring the urgent need for comprehensive systemic solutions.
The federally mandated Point-in-Time (PIT) count conducted annually by the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services identified only 18,836 people experiencing homelessness in 2024. By contrast, CCH’s analysis draws from multiple datasets to capture the full year-round tally—including people doubled up, couch surfing, or temporarily staying with others.
“This Point-in-Time count is really important for giving us a kind of estimate, but it’s also really important that we be clear about the many, many, many people who literally don’t count, who our country has said, you do not count, your experience of homelessness does not count – those in doubled up arrangements, couch surfing, or those in these extended stay hotels,” said Brian Goldstone, author of There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America during Wednesday night’s panel discussion. “They literally don’t count, and they’ve been written out of the story that we as a nation have told ourselves about homelessness, who it’s happening to, and why it happens.”
Key Findings
- Black and African American Chicagoans remain disproportionately impacted, with 12,063 in shelters or on the streets and 20,841 doubled up.
- Latine and Hispanic residents make up a substantial share of hidden (or doubled-up) homelessness, with 12,767 people doubling up compared to 2,671 people in shelters or on the streets.
- Doubled-up homelessness is nearly three times more common than street and shelter homelessness, revealing a hidden crisis beyond what is visible on the streets.
- Vacant housing units outnumber unhoused residents: In 2024, Chicago had more than 109,000 vacant housing units—nearly double the number of people experiencing homelessness.
A Systemic Crisis Rooted in Inequity
Chicago homelessness reflects long-standing systemic inequities. Black Chicagoans, who make up less than one-third of the city’s population, account for more than half of those experiencing homelessness, an outcome tied to decades of discriminatory housing practices, redlining, and disproportionate incarceration.
Other groups, including people with disabilities, survivors of gender-based violence, immigrants, asylum seekers, and LGBTQIA+ residents, also face intersecting barriers that increase vulnerability to housing instability.
“Discrimination collapses already thin margins,” said Channyn Lynne Parker, CEO of Equality Illinois and a panelist on Wednesday. “We’re working with people who already live and exist on such thin margins as it is. […] Most people seek services only after exhausting every informal option to stay housed […] and eventually your back is up against the wall.”
Temporary pandemic relief funds provided crucial support, helping thousands remain housed. The decrease in homelessness we observed from 2022 to 2024 indicates that increased resources are effective. The American Rescue Act Plan significantly expanded subsidized housing programs, for example the Emergency Housing Vouchers, and increased prevention funding. With those resources now expiring, cuts to other crucial federal safety-net programs like Medicaid and SNAP, and increasing cost of living, the risk of displacement and housing insecurity is growing. Without significant intervention, progress made in both preventing and alleviating homelessness could easily unravel.
At the same time, federal policies continue to systematically exclude large segments of the population from access to stable housing. Across the country and here in Chicago, efforts to address homelessness increasingly include counterproductive and inhumane approaches like arresting, fining, or involuntarily institutionalizing people because they don’t have a home. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is dismantling long-proven solutions. These actions threaten to push even more people into instability and do nothing to sustainably address the issue.
The Path Forward
CCH emphasizes that solutions already exist. Approaches like Housing First, which prioritizes stable housing as the foundation for addressing other needs, have long been proven effective yet remain underfunded. CCH and community allies are pushing for consistent Chicago-based funding to expand housing and supportive services.
“Homelessness is not something people earned,” said Evie Alexander, CCH grassroots leader and board member. “It’s not a personal failure. It’s a trauma and it can happen to anyone. I believe that homelessness is a community issue, and I personally won’t rest until I see a better future for my siblings and for everyone who’s at risk of housing instability.”
Contact:
Claire Sloss, Director of Strategic and Policy Communications, CCH
(773) 906-3409
csloss@chicagohomeless.org
