Resources for the Unhoused

The Village of Oak Park is aware of the influx of unhoused individuals within the community and that they congregate near an encampment at or around Oak Park public transportation stations. There are also established encampments near the Village's borders in neighboring communities. Oak Park continues to work diligently with Chicago and other jurisdictions to mitigate the situation and ultimately assist individuals to find permanent housing.

Village staff hosted a policy discussion meeting in July 2023, with community stakeholders and officials from the Chicago Transit Authority, Cook County, and the State of Illinois. During the meeting, Christine Haley, Chief Homelessness Officer for the State of Illinois, provided an overview of the current state of homelessness at the State level and Housing Forward provided an update on its efforts in the Village. For more information from the presentation, please open the "State of Homelessness" tab below.

100-Day Challenge

A dedicated team of frontline staff, including representatives from the Village of Oak Park, and others from our homeless response system, as well as experts with lived experience from throughout Suburban Cook County have embarked upon a 100-Day Challenge.

The challenge is to successfully house 88 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in safe and stable housing with 30% of those individuals being adults who are age 55 or older. The group also aims to connect 167 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness to shelter such as transitional housing, nursing homes, etc.

The team believes that success will only be achieved by creating strong connections and facilitating better coordination and communication between the different components of our system. For more information, please visit www.re-institute.org.

As part of the 100-Day Challenge, our community is hosting three Accelerated Moving Events to bring together landlords with available units and households that are actively working with a housing navigator to identify a unit. These events will expedite the housing search process and will provide more information to landlords about the benefits of partnership.

West Suburbs - Friday, April 12, 2024 – Oak Park Public Library – 12:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
South Suburbs - Saturday, April 13, 2024 - Matteson Public Library - 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
North Suburbs - Saturday, April 20, 2024 - Des Plaines Public Library - 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Click here to RSVP for a session.

Community Forums

The Village of Oak Park hosted a pair of community forums to discuss the topic of unhoused persons living within the community in November and December 2023.

The first forum was held on Nov. 30, focusing on community education and ways to best interact with, and provide support to, Oak Park’s unhoused population. A group of panelists discussed challenges and potential solutions, spoke on advocacy and policy and partook in a question-and-answer session.

Click here to view presentation slides from Nov. 30

Click here to view a recording from Nov. 30

The second event on Dec. 18 centered around affordable housing and the role of private landlords. Subject-matter experts aimed to help attendees better understand the unhoused crisis, while looking at the roles of landlords and agencies such as Housing Forward in identifying solutions. The group highlighted success stories and reviewed support services that are available to tenants. There was also a Q&A portion during the forum.

Click here to view presentation slides from Dec. 18

Click here to view a recording from Dec. 18

State of Homelessness

Annually 120,857 persons are experiencing homelessness in Illinois. Of those experiencing homelessness it is estimated that:

18% are people living with a serious mental illness
12% are people living with a substance abuse disorder
5% are veterans
8% are victims of domestic violence
6% are young adults ages 18-24
5% are parenting youth or children of parenting youth

Currently, the average wait time for access to homeless housing resources in Chicago is 802 days (2.2 years) from the initial point of contact with service providers. The goal is to reach ”functional zero,” which is defined as a sustainable milestone where a community has measurably solved homelessness. This benchmark includes making homelessness rare, brief, non-recurring, and equitable. This can be achieved in the State by increasing shelter capacity by an additional 4,551 beds, 9,421 rapid rehousing units (short-term rental assistance with support services), and 6,292 permanent supportive housing units (affordable housing units with supportive services).

Housing Forward shared that since January 2023, 69 individuals have received services through Housing Forward’s emergency shelters located in Oak Park. The emergency shelter can support 15 beds per evening. In addition to the 15 persons in the emergency shelter, an additional six individuals reportedly live in an encampment on North Blvd., two individuals reportedly live at Maple Park, and one individual reportedly lives at Scoville Park. The number of persons at these encampments does fluctuate and numerous other individuals, as many as 30, have been located within the encampments at times. At this time, Housing Forward’s policy is to not ask individuals to relocate from the encampments. Instead, Housing Forward’s two street outreach employees dedicated to the Oak Park community work to engage and build a relationship with the individuals at the encampments and to provide them with assistance to meet their basic needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Oak Park Homelessness Coalition?

The Village is an active member of the Oak Park Homelessness Coalition working with 50-plus businesses, individuals and service agencies throughout the community, including Housing Forward and Live4Lali, to provide case management, emergency shelter, substance use treatment, interim housing, and employment readiness services for these homeless individuals to get support. Housing Forward re-opened an Emergency Shelter in January 2023 with access to 15 beds to help meet the growing demand in Oak Park. For a full list of Coaltion members, please click here.

How can I support ending homelessness?

In our community, volunteers are a vital part of Housing Forward. Join a volunteer team and use your skills, talents, and expertise to improve the lives of neighbors experiencing housing crisis. For more information about a variety of volunteer opportunities with Housing Forward, please click here.

Housing Forward also accepts contributions to support its goal of ending homelessness. Donations help support services that prevent homelessness, respond to homelessness and build stability that will end homelessness, one person at a time. For more information on ways to give, please click here.

What is the role of the Oak Park Police Department?

Over the past few months, the Oak Park Police Department has prioritized community engagement and proactive measures to address the needs of the unhoused individuals living within the Village. The Police Department, too, has partnered with Housing Forward and this partnership has already resulted in the successful placement of several unhoused individuals into stable housing.

Police Department patrol officers across all three shifts have conducted hourly checks at encampments to prevent loitering, aggressive panhandling, and criminal activities near public transportation stations. Their presence has significantly deterred such activities and creates a safer environment for everyone. Furthermore, these officers have made several arrests for possession of controlled substances, warrants, and burglaries in the area of public transportation stations, which has contributed to a reduction in drug-related theft activities.

What is the difference between panhandling and homelessness?

It is important to distinguish the unhoused, or homeless, population from the panhandling population. Panhandling is the act of soliciting money, often in public places like transportation routes, parks and markets. Not all panhandlers are unhoused. In fact, many have access to housing and other resources and use panhandling as a source of income.

A person is considered unhoused if they lack a fixed and regular nighttime residence or if their main nighttime residence is a supervised shelter that provides temporary accomodations, a halfway house or similar facility that provides temporary residence for persons intended to be institutionalized, a place not normally recognized as a place to sleep (i.e. hallway, train station, library, car, etc.) or a temporary stay in the residence of another person.

If services are available, then why are they not used?

It is important to note that not all individuals who are experiencing homelessness are interested and/or willing to access the support that is available through the Coalition and elsewhere. Housing Forward’s street outreach team works throughout the Village of Oak Park, and neighboring west suburban communities, daily to engage with each individual to ensure they have access to services.

Resource Poster

This poster is currently displayed in Oak Park at the Metra station (1115 W. North Blvd.)

Click here to download PDF

Information Card

Click here to download PDF

Copies are also available at Village Hall (123 Madison St.)

Accessing Resources in Cook County

Click here to download PDF

Copies are also available at Village Hall (123 Madison St.)

Legal Parameters

Village of Oak Park Attorney Paul Stephanides provided what follows regarding the legal parameters governing unhoused persons.

Applicable Case Law

The leading federal court cases on the issue of legal tools concerning homelessness involve two different approaches. The first approach is a wide-spread ban against homeless encampments in a municipality. The second approach is to prohibit homeless encampments only in certain areas of a municipality.

In the cases of Johnson v. City of Grants Pass, 50 F.4^th 787 (9^th Cir. 2022) and Martin v. City of Boise, 902 F.3d 1031 (9^th Cir. 2018), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that in the absence of adequate shelter beds, people experiencing homelessness can use tents, sleep in vehicles, or use other forms of protection from the elements without being subject to civil or criminal punishment. In both cases, the court held that the applicable municipalities’ custom, pattern, and practice of enforcing anti-camping ordinances, anti-sleeping ordinances, and criminal trespass laws against involuntarily homeless individuals violated the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution’s Cruel and Unusual Punishment clause. The court in the Martin case stated that its holding was a “narrow one,” and only applied “so long as there is a greater number of homeless individuals in a jurisdiction than the number of available beds in shelters.” Martin, 920 F.3d at 615.

The federal district court in the case of Frank v. City of St. Louis, 458 F.Supp.3d 1090 (E.D. Mo. 2020), did not follow the holding in the Martin case cited above because of significant factual differences. In the Martin case, the City of Boise’s ordinance was enforced throughout the city. In the Frank case, the City of St. Louis prohibited a homeless encampment in a specific part of the city pursuant to a notice and order enacted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. St. Louis identified the area as especially high risk for the spread of COVID-19. Persons who attempted to inhabit the encampment in the prohibited area were free to sleep in other areas of the city without being in violation of the notice and order.

Furthermore, St. Louis stated in the case that it did not intend to arrest individuals who had been residing at the encampments. Rather, the city’s intent was to ensure that those individuals move from the encampments to safer alternative housing options. The notice and order posted at the encampments stated that there was sufficient alternative housing available to everyone that slept at the location.

Bill of Rights for the Homeless Act

The State of Illinois enacted the Bill of Rights for the Homeless Act in 2013. The Act provides that the homeless have “the right to use and move freely in public spaces, including but not limited to public sidewalks, public parks, public transportation, and public buildings, in the same manner as any other person and without discrimination on the basis of his her or housing status.” 775 ILCS 45/10(a)(1). “Housing status” under the Act “means the status of having or not having a fixed or regular residence, including the status of living on the streets, in a shelter, or in a temporary residence.” 775 ILS 45/10(b).

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