McHenry County: A Place to Call Home, A Call to Action

The Heartland Alliance Mid-America Institute on Poverty conducted an assessment of the need for and the supply of affordable housing in McHenry County, Illinois. The study found that there is a serious lack of housing in McHenry County that falls in the price range of low and even middle-income families. The need is particularly salient for households with annual incomes below $35,000 and for people with special housing support needs

Study of Supportive Housing in Illinois: Interim Report on Publicly-Funded Service Usage by Residents Prior to Entry into Supportive Housing

This study was launched to document and analyze supportive housing residents' use of public services prior to entering housing and afterwards, in order to determine the cost savings of supportive housing to other systems. The hypothesis of the study is that supportive housing reduces a person's usage of expensive, primarily public-funded services.The study tracks individuals' amount of service usage for 2 years before they entered supportive housing, comparing it to their usage of services 2 years after, as well as the change in types of services utilized over time. The study included supportive housing residents across Illinois living in developments that had been in operation for at least one year, and that served individuals who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, and individuals who have a mental illness and/or who are formerly incarcerated

The Size of the Illinois Human Service Workforce

Human services cover a broad range of programs, services, and facilities provided to the public that are designed to enhance the quality of life and well-being of people and communities. In most cases, human services are provided by agencies at the community level and include programs and services such as affordable housing, child care, mental health and substance use treatment, and job training, as well as those targeting specific populations such as immigrants, seniors, or people experiencing homelessness.This paper outlines an approach to estimating the size of the human service workforce in Illinois. Quantifying the size of Illinois' human service workforce fills a knowledge gap; with such diversity among human service organizations, a total figure for the entire sector has not before been estimated. An estimate of workers employed in human service organizations gives a sense of how much of the workforce is dependent on human service jobs. Additionally, it gives context and illustrates the relative size of this portion of the workforce to examine cross state comparisons in terms of the number of human service workers to residents in each state

The Financial Conditions of Illinois Human Service Nonprofits

This document examines the financial conditions of Illinois human service nonprofit organizations. The first section examines median and aggregate data of all nonprofits and the second section examines the financial conditions of the various nonprofit sectors, including Mental Health and Crisis Intervention; Crime and Legal-Related; Employment; Food, Agriculture, and Nutrition; Housing and Shelter; Youth Development; and Other Human Services

Back Home Again: LaPorte County, Indiana, Plan to End Homelessness

The Social IMPACT Research Center (IMPACT), a program of Heartland Alliance, worked with leaders in LaPorte County, Indiana to create a Plan to End Homelessness for the county. Plans to End Homelessness help communities determine and implement key system improvements, build community and political will for addressing homelessness, align resources efficiently, and begin the important march toward ending homelessness.LaPorte County's Plan to End Homelessness harnesses best practices, local realities, and community input to solve a problem that affects far too many lives: those who are at risk of homelessness, those who are experiencing homelessness, and their children, neighbors, friends, and family.LaPorte County's Plan includes goals in three areas: prevention, housing, and income/services with a number of action steps established to reach each goal. The Plan is designed to serve those who have been identified as needing services in LaPorte County, to help service providers enhance and streamline services, and help funders of the homeless system target funding and community resources to prevent and end homelessness

Supportive Housing in Illinois: A Wise Investment

This study reports on 177 supportive housing residents around Illinois, comparing their use of publicly-funded services two years before entering supportive housing to two years after entry. Data were collected from Medicaid-reimbursed services, state mental health hospitals, substance use treatment, state prisons, and various county jails and hospitals. The study found an overall cost savings of over $850,000 in the two years after entry into supportive housing, a little over$2,400 per person annually. There was a drastic reduction in state prison, county jail, and state mental health hospital overnight stays. There was a shift from using expensive inpatient services before housing (nursing homes, inpatient care, state mental health hospitals) to less expensive outpatient services after entry into housing (outpatient medical and psychiatric care, case management). Supportive Housing in Illinois: A Wise Investment was researched and written by the Heartland Alliance Mid-America Institute on Poverty with support from the Illinois Supportive Housing Providers Association and the Corporation for Supportive Housing

Running on Empty: Nutritional Access for Children in Cook County, Illinois

In an effort to make informed program expansion and improvement decisions, the Greater Chicago Food Depository commissioned the Social IMPACT Research Center of Heartland Alliance to conduct a study of child nutrition program coverage and child nutrition and hunger in Cook County, Illinois.This study examined the geographic coverage of child nutrition programs to identify areas that have the greatest number of unserved children and have the worst program coverage. The study also took an in-depth look at the nutritional lives of children attending summer nutrition programs. Insights in these two areas are vital to helping organizations like the Greater Chicago Food Depository make sound programmatic and expansion decisions that will best meet the nutritional and hunger needs of Cook County's most vulnerable children