2008

- Working with our No Youth Alone campaign, the CCH Law Project
secured a significant victory this summer: Illinois has allocated $3
million to help fund homeless education programs in its public
schools. More than 22,000 students are served statewide with this
first-ever state funding, with more than 10,600 students served in
Chicago.

- CCH attorneys helped 112 students on school-related cases in the city
and suburbs in fiscal year 2008 (July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2008). This
includes the Salazar class action that represented 225 Chicago Public
Schools students affected by the closure or relocation of three
elementary schools this fall. Student clients were also represented in
the suburbs, including Crystal Lake, Dolton, Evanston, Joliet, Lansing
and Oak Lawn.

- A new CCH study, "Needs of unaccompanied youths in Illinois,"
showed cash-strapped youth service providers had to turn away 52% of
the youths who sought help in FY 2007. Illinois funds only 318
beds for unaccompanied youth – yet a state-run study shows almost
25,000 teens are homeless in Illinois in the course of a
year.

- The Speakers Bureau ran 77 engagements in its first year, bringing
together homeless leaders and civic, religious and student groups in
the city and suburbs. Core teams were organized at venues at
which the audience was especially engaged—this has mobilized volunteers
at 18 churches and seven colleges and universities. Core teams
have now begun to help CCH with its community organizing efforts.

2007

- The "It Takes a Home" campaign unveils an initiative to increase the
state’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Among other uses, the state
trust fund allocates money for prevention grants. Our proposal would
restructure the state’s real estate transfer tax to increase trust
funding by $43 million yearly. Housing Action Illinois and Business and
Professional People for the Public Interest partner with CCH in the
research and launch of this initiative.

- CCH mobilizes 30 shelter providers to push for an evaluation of
Chicago’s 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness. By April, the Chicago
Alliance to End Homelessness agrees to our request for a thorough
evaluation, including our recommendation that no more shelter beds be
cut until a study is done. CCH Policy Director Julie Dworkin is
appointed in May to serve on the evaluation committee.

- CCH organizers, along with organizations in the Grassroots
Collaborative, including the Service Employees International Union
(SEIU), help convince voters in Albany Park’s 33rd Ward to ratify a
health care referendum that calls on tax-exempt hospitals to pay taxes
if they fail to deliver adequate levels of charity care.

- CCH’s Leaders and Re-Entry Project help PART enact First Offender
Probation, the SMART Act. This law allows judges to offer probation
with rehab services to those charged with felony prostitution, a charge
that’s possible after two misdemeanors.

2006

- CCH leaders, working with the Grassroots Collaborative, lobby Chicago
City Council to pass the “Big Box” living wage ordinance by a 34-15
vote. Though the ordinance was eventually derailed by a mayoral veto
seven weeks later, CCH leaders then rallied to boost the Illinois
minimum wage; it rose to $7.50 per hour in July 2007.

- CCH and the Survey Research Lab at the University of Illinois-Chicago
publish "How Many People are Homeless in Chicago," a report that looks
at the number of people in Chicago who are homeless in the course of a
year and the number of people homeless on a typical night. Among the
findings: In 2006, there were 21,078 people were homeless on a typical
night, which was three times the city’s last official count.

- CCH organizers mobilize 84 men at the New Ritz Hotel. The city was
finalizing plans to buy a run-down South Loop facility where these
elderly, disabled and low-wage workers lived. Days before the move, CCH
organized the men to negotiate a 42-month rent subsidy far better than
the $475 the city first offered.

- PART proposes and leads the 2006 fight for the new Illinois Predator
Accountability Act, which allows survivors to sue the people and
organizations that trafficked them.

- Thirteen PART leaders film a one-hour documentary, "Turning the
Corner," on the birth of their advocacy; 725 people attend the Feb. 6
premiere at Northwestern University Law School.

- CCH persuades the governor’s office to double funding of homeless
prevention grants - a program first created because of our advocacy -
to $11 million, which will help 15,000 families a year.

2005

- The "It Takes a Home to Raise a Child Campaign" passes the Rental
Housing Support program legislation to provide $30 million in rental
subsidies to 5,500 families in Illinois earning less than $20,000 a
year. The program is funded through a $10 charge on real estate
recordings. This program is the largest state-funded rental subsidy
program in the country.

- CCH completes a survey of patrons of One-Stop employment centers to
learn how well people with multiple barriers are being served.

- CCH joins the Coalition to Protect Public Housing to initiate "Human
Right to Housing" campaign to save Cabrini Green. UN official Miloon
Khotari accepts CPPH's invitation to tour Chicago public housing.

2004

- CCH helps to pass Senate Bill 3007. It allows people who have been
convicted of felony prostitution or low-level drug offenses to have
their records sealed if they have been out of prison for four years
without re-offending.

- The Women's Empowerment Project registers 2,100 people to vote.

2003

- CCH's Youth Committee and Law Project passes legislation to amend the
Illinois Emancipation of Mature Minors Act to allow homeless minors
aged 16 and 17 to consent to services in transitional housing programs.

- CCH successfully advocates for $5 million in Homelessness Prevention
funding. Eighty percent of households remain housed six to 18 months
after receiving assistance.

- CCH Law Project helps homeless woman win a record judgment in Sellers
v. Outland, a lawsuit against a landlord who sexually harassed a tenant.

2002

- The "It Takes a Home to Raise a Child Campaign" increases funding for
the Family Homelessness Prevention Program from $1 million to $4.5
million for this year.

- CCH successfully advocates for the passage of House Bill 1961, a bill
that provides Cook County Judges with the authority to sentence women
who are convicted of certain nonviolent felony offenses to a pilot
residential treatment and transition center rather than state prison.

- CCH completes the first-ever survey of women in Cook County Jail. It
shows that many of them were homeless before entering jail or thought
they would be when they got out.

- CCH's Law Project secures compensatory damages for homeless youth
pushed out of school by suburban school district because he was
homeless.

2001

- The Day Labor Project, working through the Sweatshop Task Force,
triggers audits that result in the refund of more than $200,000 to more
than 5,000 day laborers who were overcharged for transportation by
agencies in violation of the Day Labor Services Act.

- CCH then passes a Day Labor Ordinance through the Chicago City Council which regulates the industry.

- Brand New Beginnings, Inc., a 24-unit building, opens to provide
affordable subsidized housing and support services for homeless women
with children.

- CCH's Latino Task Force Against Homelessness helps create the Latino
Jobs Action Group to discuss the issue of discrimination against
undocumented workers.

- CCH plays a crucial role in Congressional reauthorization of the
federal McKinney-Vento Act, which protects the educational rights of
homeless children.

2000

- The CCH Law Project successfully brings the first lawsuit enforcing
the Cook County Human Rights Ordinance prohibition on discriminating
against the homeless. The case involves a man who was fired from his
12-year position at a public library when he revealed he was homeless.

- CCH completes a study, in coordination with the Children's Defense Fund, on the effects of welfare reform on homelessness.

1999

- The "It Takes a Home to Raise a Child Campaign" passes legislation
and wins $1 million in funding to create the Family Homelessness
Prevention Program to provide emergency assistance to families at risk
of homelessness.

- CCH Law Project successfully represents homeless families and obtains
a sweeping court order to force Chicago Public Schools to serve
homeless children.

1998

- CCH, in conjunction with other community organizations, wins the Jobs
and Living Wage Campaign. It requires companies receiving city
subsidies or contracts to pay their workers at least $7.60 an hour. The
Living Wage Ordinance represents an average annual wage increase of
$5,000 for approximately 10,000 formerly minimum wage workers. This
precedent-setting decision made Chicago the 20th locale in the nation
to establish a living wage policy.

- CCH's Statewide Homeless Youth Initiative works with the Illinois
Department of Human Services (IDHS) to increase funding for homeless
youth programs from $2 million to $4 million.

- CCH launches the statewide initiative "It Takes a Home to Raise a
Child" to help homeless families and prevent others from becoming
homeless.

1997

- CCH's Latino Task Force, along with other organizations, works to
secure $10 million in the Illinois State Budget for immigrant
populations losing their public benefits.

1996

- CCH's SLCDD secures a commitment from the City of Chicago to build
two new single room occupancy hotels (SROs) with supportive services
for the homeless in the South Loop and also prevents the destruction of
six additional SROs in the South Loop.

- CCH works with the state of Illinois in order to prevent the transfer
of the Homeless Youth Services Division of DCFS to the Department of
Corrections.

- CCH and public housing residents found the Coalition to Protect
Public Housing. Its mission is to protect the rights of public housing
residents and to ensure the continued existence of public housing.

- CCH starts Growing Home, an urban gardening and greenhouse project
that trains homeless people in organic horticulture, gardening and
growing techniques, and provides homeless people with jobs.

- CCH works to secure passage of Illinois Education for Homeless Children Act.

1995

- CCH launches the South Loop Campaign for Development without
Displacement (SLCDD). SLCDD's goal is to create a truly mixed income
community in the South Loop by preserving and expanding the number of
single room occupancy hotels (SROs) and by requesting that any housing
development in the South Loop receiving Tax Increments Financing (TIF)
subsides from the city of Chicago set aside 20 percent of the units for
low-income people.

- CCH's Women's Empowerment Project acquires a 24-unit building from
the Chicago Abandoned Property Program (CAPP) that will be developed as
housing for homeless families.

- CCH activists succeed in closing a homeless shelter where male
administrators sexually harass women and, in so doing, wins the first
legal case in the nation requiring shelters to abide by the Fair
Housing Act.

1994

- CCH develops the Latino Task Force in order address the hidden problem of homelessness in the Latino community.

- CCH, among other community organizations, works with the city of
Chicago to secure a commitment of an additional $520 million over five
years for affordable housing in Chicago through the Affordable Housing
and Jobs Campaign.

- CCH devises quality of care standards for shelter operators that are
adopted as official requirements for Chicago's Department of Human
Services funded homeless shelters.

- CCH wins its Presidential Towers Campaign with a commitment from HUD
to provide 165 units in Presidential Towers for homeless families and
1,014 project-based Section 8 certificates, low-income housing for
homeless people.

- CCH leads legal effort to secure expansion of tuberculosis prevention
and treatment services in Cook County, resulting in major improvement
of health services.

1993

- CCH releases "Alone After Dark," the first of its kind report on
homeless youth in Illinois that receives significant attention from the
media and gives government officials a credible source of information
on homeless youth.

- CCH researches and releases its "Recommended Service Delivery System for Homeless Youth in Illinois."

1992

- CCH creates the Youth Empowerment Project (YEP), a leadership group comprised of Chicago area homeless youth.

- CCH receives the Chicago Council on Urban Affairs' "Coalition of the
Year Award" for its design of the Women's Empowerment Project, a
comprehensive program which empowers homeless women to take control of
their lives.

- CCH helps pass a law protecting shelter residents from financial exploitation.

1991

- CCH works with the Illinois State Board of Education to allocate
needed resources to twenty-six community-based organizations serving
homeless children and youth for educational programming.

- CCH successfully works to insure that homeless people have the right to vote in Illinois.

1990

- CCH's Substance Abuse Task Force, working with the Department of
Alcohol and Substance Abuse (DASA), creates demonstration projects to
serve the needs of homeless people suffering from substance abuse.

- CCH successfully wins the first allocation to the Chicago Low-Income
Housing Trust Fund through the Presidential Towers Campaign.

- Homeless parents, working with CCH, bring a successful lawsuit
stopping DCFS removal of children from families experiencing
homelessness. Norman v. Johnson establishes multi-million dollar
housing assistance fund at DCFS.

1989

- CCH works successfully to legalize the creation of shelters for
homeless minors. Previously it was illegal to shelter homeless minors.

1988

- CCH works successfully to establish the Low Income Housing Trust Fund
Commission to oversee and expand the funds that maintain and create
affordable housing in Chicago.

1987

- CCH works with the city of Chicago to increase resources for homeless shelters to $3 million.

- CCH helps pass the first national legislative response to homelessness, the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act.

1986

- The Youth Committee brings pressure on the state of Illinois,
resulting in the funding of the first five shelters serving homeless
youth.

1985

- CCH lobbies the State of Illinois to increase resources for homeless programs to $1.6 million.

- CCH works with the governor's office to convene the first ever
Governor's Task Force on Homeless Youth in Illinois and releases a
report indicating that there are more than 21,000 homeless youth in
Illinois.

- CCH helps found the Illinois Coalition for the Homeless.

1984

- CCH hires its first Executive Director and establishes its first independent headquarters.

- CCH initiates the Interfaith Council for the Homeless to organize
Chicago's faith-based community to respond to the crisis of
homelessness by developing religious-based resources for homeless
people.

1983

- CCH founds the Homeless Youth Committee in response to the murder of a homeless youth in the Uptown community of Chicago.

- CCH hosts the founding convention in Chicago to establish the National Coalition for the Homeless.

- CCH publishes "When You Don't Have Anything," a report that develops an alternative definition for homelessness.

1982

- Under Mayor Jane Byrne's administration, CCH presses for and wins the
first-ever city-funded shelter for the homeless in Chicago.

1980

- In response to the growing numbers of homeless people in the city of
Chicago, Catholic Charities, Traveler's and Immigrant's Aid, along with
a host of other major service providers, establishes the Chicago
Coalition for the Homeless (CCH).