Research is an important tool in helping to prevent and end homelessness. It provides new knowledge that can influence policy, inform best practices, and streamline resource allocation. All Chicago is proud to support and provide research and analysis to help our partners apply proven strategies to prevent and end homelessness in Chicago even more effectively.
In 2020, All Chicago convened stakeholders from the Chicago Continuum of Care (CoC) to develop a proactive statement on what research is most important to the CoC, which is reflected in the Chicago CoC Research Agenda. The agenda communicates the type of research the Chicago CoC is interested in having conducted by research partners and the values and expectations that inform the project review process. Foremost, partnerships should actively contribute to preventing and ending homelessness in Chicago.
Current Initiatives & Research Projects
Homelessness Prevention & Rehousing Accelerator
On August 29, 2023, The Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab (GPL) announced four jurisdictions that will participate in the inaugural Homelessness Prevention & Rehousing Accelerator. The new initiative is designed to help state and local jurisdictions test early interventions to prevent individuals from becoming homeless and make the rehousing process more effective, efficient, and equitable for those who are currently homeless.
Anchor Project – City of Chicago: The GPL will support the City of Chicago to test streamlining the permanent supportive housing process to address the length of time individuals are homeless, improve the client experience, and increase program financial sustainability.
Reports
All Chicago is proud to support and provide research and analysis to help our partners apply proven strategies to prevent and end homelessness in Chicago even more effectively. Below are examples of some of the research and one-pagers to support the Chicago community in these efforts.
Expedited Housing Initiative: Lessons Learned
October 2020 – December 2022
The COVID-19 crisis that began in March 2020 demanded action to safeguard people from the risks of the pandemic. The Expedited Housing Initiative (EHI) was established to support households experiencing homelessness at the highest risk of COVID-19 complications and ensure that they could safely socially distance. This report discusses how the Chicago CoC and All Chicago made progress toward achieving EHI’s goals and the need for continued iteration, investments, and accountability for the system to continue making progress on the goal of preventing and ending homelessness for all Chicagoans.
A National Scan: Data Sharing in the Housing and Health Sectors
A national scan led by All Chicago was performed to engage with other HMIS leads, CoC leads, homelessness analytics leaders, sector partners, and related software vendors to identify solutions that could be leveraged to achieve our vision in merging data from various resources through a city-wide Community Information Exchange (CIE).
CoC Pathway of Systems Change: A Reflective Evaluation
This reflective evaluation summarizes the perspectives of leaders in the City of Chicago’s homelessness prevention and care system. The report outlines how the system has changed over time, details successes and challenges, and discusses current system priorities and needs.
Student Emergency Fund Report: 2015 – 2018
The Student Emergency Fund provides college students with emergency financial assistance to help them stay in school when faced with short-term emergency. This report reviews the program based on student applications, follow-up forms, and interviews with All Chicago program administrators, fund managers at partner organizations, and student recipients of financial assistance.
Rapid Re-Housing in the City of Chicago: 2014 – 2017
Rapid Re-Housing (RRH) has become one of the major intervention models used nationwide to respond to homelessness. Using HMIS data, the report analyzes all Chicago area RRH projects between 2014 – 2017 to better understand the landscape in Chicago, gauge performance at the system and project levels, and recommend improvements based on this analysis.
The Case for Ending Homelessness
This case statement provides succinct arguments for communities to invest resources in proven strategies that end homelessness. These messages can be used to convince policy makers, funders, and other community members to support solutions that ensure our neighbors have a place to call home.
Understanding the Success of Chicago’s Ending Veteran Homelessness Initiative
Since 2015, the number of veterans experiencing homelessness in Chicago has decreased by 28%. Learn how the homeless services community worked together to achieve this milestone through this report based on 22 stakeholder interviews.
Get Involved
If you’re interested in conducting research in partnership with All Chicago, please contact Beth Horwitz, VP of Strategy & Innovation, at bhorwitz@allchicago.org.
To get more information about our research, please contact the CoC Programs team at cocprograms@allchicago.org, and include report title in the email subject line.
To submit a request for HMIS data, please visit the HMIS Data Request Webpage
