73,656

By Alicia Dorr in News on Dec 21, 2006 8:06PM

It doesn't take much wandering around in Chicago to see a lot of homeless citizens. Even though the city is in its fourth year of Daley's 10-year plan to totally eradicate the problem, the average person might not see that much of a change. Well, a study just came out that made one thing clear — the problem with homelessness is much, much worse than you think.

The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless released a report today, with the help of the Survey Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago, that aimed to count the number of homeless people in the city over the past fiscal year, which ended in June. The results are shocking: there are more than 73,500 homeless living in the city — on an average night there were more than 21,000 people without a home.

This is a far cry from the optimistic view taken by the city and those working towards the 10-year plan to end homelessness. The city points to a 100 percent increase in funding to ease the problem, among other things, but the Coalition maintains that the 10-year plan will not work. The study counts people who "double up," or are forced to stay with family or friends. While a lot of the money aimed at ending homelessness is sent to shelters and other programs, the report found that only 22 percent of all homeless are served in shelters.

This doesn't mean that shelters are bad or a plan to end homelessness is misguided. But we are extremely interested in the picture this report paints because it gets at the often misunderstood aspects and realities of homelessness. In a major city like ours, a goal like ending homelessness may seem incredibly lofty, but this Coalition and other incredibly dedicated people are working all the time to find the way to actually do it. The city may be off track now, but there are still six years left of HUD money, along with other help. We just hope the people upstairs are listening.

Photo via Dailyramblings.com.