Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) organizes and advocates to prevent and end homelessness based on our belief that housing is a human right in a just society.

CCH will hold a holiday donor drawing for books autographed by President-elect Barack Obama and Studs Terkel, who in recent years signed a small number of books for us. All donors who give $25 or more before 4 p.m. CST on Dec. 17 will be entered to win their choice of Dreams from My Father or The Studs Terkel Reader. CCH will choose a total of ten winners--and make sure their books arrive in time for Christmas or Hanukkah!

Click HERE to donate and enter to win!

 **We also have a limited quantity of each book available for donors able to give $1,000 or more before Dec. 31.  Please call 312-435-4548 to check for availability of the title you desire. 

Chicago Coalition for the Homeless is the only organization in Chicago to run regular outreach to homeless families, unaccompanied youth, ex-offenders, prostitution survivors, and single adults. We offer this at emergency shelters, transitional housing, SRO and street programs – 30 across the city each month, reaching more than 3,500 people a year.

We are the only non-profit in Illinois dedicated to crafting public policies that curb – and one day, can end – the homelessness that hurts low- and middle-income families. CCH pursues initiatives to preserve a shelter safety net, to secure more affordable housing and rents, boost access to transitional job programs and support services, and create re-entry options and alternatives to incarceration. We train and empower homeless people to advocate on these issues.

Ours is the only law office in Illinois dedicated solely to serving homeless people, with focus on children and teens turned away by public schools or denied school services. The Law Project represented 190 clients in the city and suburbs in FY 2008.

Also unique in Illinois, a youth attorney works full-time with homeless teens. Most clients are unaccompanied youth living on their own, without family to care for them. The mobile legal clinic runs street and school outreach, with weekly hours at Teen Living Programs, Center on Halsted, Broadway Youth Center, and a drop-in youth group co-run
with The Night Ministry.

To preserve its independent voice, CCH does not take government funding. Instead, when we advocate for public funds, it’s to create more housing, better services for those who are homeless or at-risk, and help support providers who serve the homeless.

CCH effectively pairs community organizing with advocacy. Just one example: homeless moms helped our housing campaign convince the state to create homeless prevention grants, one-time grants to help families avoid foreclosure or eviction. CCH advocates yearly for funds, and doubled state funding by 2007. In nine years, 79,000 Illinois families were helped ($800 on average in 2008); 86 percent remain housed 18 months later.

Remembering Juancho

November 17 marked the fifth anniversary of the passing of John "Juancho" Donahue, the beloved executive director of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.

Juancho fought for social and economic justice throughout his life. He was utterly dedicated to ending homelessness. A native Chicagoan, John's activism and eloquence stirred rich and poor alike, and gave voice to many marginalized
communities. Shortly before he died in 2003, John was profiled in the Studs Terkel book, Hope Dies Last:

"Some people who are better off have the luxury of losing hope," Juancho told Studs. "But poor people never lose hope....Some people say "How can you continue to work with the homeless and the poor?" That's where I get my energy because they never lose hope."

We remember Juancho -- the passion, persistence, and humor that helped make CCH the great organization it is.

"The people, united, will never be defeated!"

A fitting time, too, to recall one of Juancho's favorite street chants.
 

Participate in CCH Community Organizing Training, Dec. 3

CCH members and the public are invited to attend CCH's Community Organizing Training on Wed., Dec. 3. Developed by a group of experienced Chicago organizers, the training will include four workshops covering the basics of making social change. The cost of the training is $50 for non-members; CCH individual members pay a discounted rate. Space is limited. To RSVP, contact CCH organizer Hannah Willage.

New Youth Manual Now Available

The CCH Law Project has released a new publication entitled "Legal Rights and Resources for Youth Without Housing" which describes the legal rights of homeless youth and the services available to them. Hard copies are distributed free by the CCH youth attorney during outreach to homeless youth, and are available to service providers and others for $15. J.P. Morgan Chase Bank made a generous donation to cover the cost of printing. To order, contact youth attorney Beth Cunningham.

Download a PDF version of the Legal Rights publication here.

More Than 700 People Registered in Homeless Voter Registration Effort

More than 30 organizations involved with CCH's effort to register homeless voters have signed up more than 700 of their clients and leaders. This includes 250 voters registered by CCH, more than 100 voters registered by Mercy Housing Lakefront, 80 voters registered by The Inspiration Corporation, 73 voters registered by Women of Power, 30 voters registered by Interfaith House and 28 voters registered by West Suburban PADS.

Working with Cook County Clerk David Orr, CCH organized a 90-minute training held on Tuesday, Sept. 16 for people interested in registering voters who are homeless. At the training, 57 staff and volunteers representing more than 30 organizations became deputy registrars able to sign up new voters.

In Illinois, the deadline to register voters was October 7, but a new state law called "Grace Period Registration and Voting" allowed people to register and vote through Tuesday, October 21. Click here for more information.

Listen to coverage on Chicago Public Radio.

"Poll vaulting," from the Oct. 30-Nov. 5, 2008 issue of Time Out Chicago, by Sheila Burt

While Barack Obama and John McCain debate how their tax plans will affect Joe the Plumber’s ambitions to buy his company, William Klee has other things on his mind. The 51-year-old has been homeless for three and a half years and spends his days selling StreetWise around DePaul University’s campus. On Tuesday 4, Klee will cast his ballot (for the first time) after a rep for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) outside of DePaul registered him. Although he doesn’t have a permanent address, Klee is able to vote thanks to a 1992 law that allows homeless people in Illinois to use an address they often frequent, such as a shelter, for registration. This September, the CCH and Cook County Clerk David Orr pushed for recognition of the law by holding a training session for shelter representatives to become deputy registrars. Though numbers are still coming in, the CCH’s Mimi Chubb says those who attended the training registered more than 550 homeless people. An excited Klee says he’s voting Obama on election day. “Obama will probably try to change things around a little bit for the middle- or lower-class people,” he says. “Whether he’s successful or not, I don’t know, but I think he’ll give it a try.”

2008 CCH Annual Meeting – celebrating 25 years of achievement of the Youth Committee.

On Wednesday, October 15, 150 CCH supporters, leaders and staff came together at First Baptist Congregational Church to honor the work of the CCH Youth Committee.

Merri Dee, long-time community relations director for WGN-TV, was host and keynote speaker. In an address that focused on her own experience as a homeless youth, Dee said, "To each of you that has been homeless, understand that that is not your name. Have people call you by your name...You have one. Use it! Use it with great pride!" View a TV tribute to Dee--in which she mentions her early experience with homelessness--here.

Flora Koppel, CEO of Unity Parenting & Counseling, received the Les Brown Award. A 23-year veteran of the Youth Committee, Flora said as she accepted her award, "Every time I see a fact or a figure [about homelessness], I see a face, and some of those faces are doing well, and some aren't."

Rev. Tom Behrens, Fouder and Chief Strategist of The Night Ministry, was honored with the John "Juancho" Donahue Award.

Also recognized were State Rep. Greg Harris (D-13) and the H.E.L.L.O. youth activism group. H.E.L.L.O. members read their poems and essays. When Rep. Harris accepted his award, he joked that he would keep it short because politicians can be boring. "I'll tell you who's not boring," Rep. Harris said. "Members of the youth advocacy committee! I don't think the governor would have vetoed this [$1.6 million increase in funding for homeless youth programs] if he'd met you folks, because you tell a story."

Awards were also given to The Chicago Community Trust and the Chicago Bar Foundation. Dr. James Lewis, a senior program officer, said that The Chicago Community Trust has "for years...realized the importance of work done by CCH, here and in Springfield." The Trust has generously funded the coalition's work since 1992, and has been the major funder of our statewide housing campaign.

The Chicago Bar Foundation has supported the work of the CCH Law Project since it got started 11 years ago. In fact, it was funding from the Chicago Bar Foundation that allowed CCH to launch a mobile legal aid clinic for homeless youth 4 years ago.

Read more about our honorees here!

CCH applauds eviction freeze

After announcing Oct. 8 that his deputies would not evict residents from foreclosed properties until lenders prove that they gave sufficient notice to the affected residents, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart announced that he would resume evictions starting Monday, Oct. 20. A report in the Chicago Tribune indicates that "the reversal comes after a week of discussions with the court officials responsible for handling mortgage foreclosures to create language that would ensure the rights of good-standing tenants in foreclosed buildings."

Many times, renters facing eviction had been paying their rent and were unaware that their landlord allowed the building to go into foreclosure.

CCH Executive Director Ed Shurna was asked to speak at the sheriff’s Oct. 8 press conference announcing the eviction freeze. He referenced the human right to adequate housing for all and said CCH endorses the sheriff’s decision, and pointed out that “homelessness is rising, and foreclosures are a key reason why."

In shelter outreach, CCH organizers are meeting more and more people who say there were out on the street after losing homes or apartments to foreclosure.

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown has documented the problems of evicted renters for several months, focusing on a six-flat in the Albany Park neighborhood where six families were about to be evicted because of a landlord’s fraud. The families fought back – and as Mr. Brown put it in his Oct. 9 column, “Little guys who stand together are more likely to be seen.”

Forcibly evicting people from their homes when they lack adequate notice or when such action will render them homeless plainly violates international human rights standards.

Hundreds of articles about the eviction freeze--a first-time move by a county sheriff--are available online. Several are linked below.Human rights activists from across the nation also supported Sheriff Dart's action.

Read about Dart's most recent move to resume evictions, with protections in place for renters, here.

The Law Project, working with our No Youth Alone campaign, secured a significant victory this summer: Illinois has allocated $3 million to help fund homeless education programs in its public schools. This marks the first time that any state has helped fund its homeless education programs. Read more here.

300 Homeless Leaders Attend Equal Voice for America’s Families Convention

On Saturday, Sept. 6, the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless brought 300 homeless men, women and children to Navy Pier for the Equal Voice for America’s Families National Convention. The convention – which linked low-income families gathered in Chicago, Los Angeles and Birmingham by simulcast – launched a national family-issues platform created by families through a series of townhall meetings.

The Sept. 6 convention involved 15,000 people in all three cities.

“The whole idea is to give our low-income families a voice, an opportunity to be part of the decision-making process,” said CCH organizer Dollie Brewer. “It’s exciting.”

Founded on the belief that “strong communities require strong families,” the Equal Voice campaign targets issues that affect families – including affordable housing, access to subsidized childcare, living wage jobs, health care and education. This electoral season, the campaign aims to build a national dialogue around these issues that will lead to national policy changes.

CCH is proud to be active on the Equal Voice campaign. We applaud the Marguerite Casey Foundation of Seattle for its efforts to mobilize families coping with poverty, in Chicago and throughout the country.

For more information on this national campaign, go to www.equalvoice2008.org.

Homeless Teens Awarded CCH College Scholarships

On July 31, 2008, author Alex Kotlowitz joined CCH when it awarded $2,000 college scholarships to six Chicago teenagers who succeeded in school despite facing homelessness. The scholarship winners included Jermaine McClung, who was featured in CCH's fall mail appeal.

Four of the winners had to live on their own, without family, while finishing high school.

Read more about the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless scholarship winners here.

You can also listen to interviews with 2007 scholarship winners Bryan Riddle, Kianca Fincher, and Kieara Keys on our Voices of Hope podcast.

Check out Chicago Public Radio's feature story on scholarship winner Jasmine Edwards here.

CCH Goes Green

CCH is committed to doing whatever we reasonably can to reduce our carbon footprint. This includes reducing, re-using and and recycling whenever possible to help create a sustainable environment. We do this out of recognition of the terrible consequences of unsustainable practices, especially on the lowest income and minority communities. CCH has a Green Policy Committee that meets regularly, and our staff has approved a new set of sustainable office policies.

Read CCH's Policies and Practices for a Sustainable Office.