A Major Healthcare Crisis—Is It Being Addressed?
How do healthcare providers know what health issues will arise among the Chicago homeless? How do healthcare professionals know who the homeless are? How many there are? There are a variety of sources to consult in planning interventions.
We know that the great majority of Chicago homeless persons are Black—79.6 percent—even though Blacks make up less than 36 percent of the city’s population (2018-Fact-Sheet.pdf (pcdn.co)). The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless provides all the numbers one needs to ascertain which races, genders, and other factors need to be considered in providing health services relevant to the population.
Most homeless persons in Chicago are male, and most are single (2018-Fact-Sheet.pdf (pcdn.co)). Of homeless persons, 39 percent of unsheltered and 18 percent of sheltered persons have reported recently they have received services for substance abuse. About one-third of Chicago homeless veterans are Black.
Homelessness among veterans had dropped significantly from 2009 to 2016 because of various initiatives and special collaborative projects between the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Veteran Affairs (Veteran Homelessness Drops Nearly 50 Percent Since 2010 > U.S. Department of Defense > Defense Department News). However, once COVID-19 entered the scene, numbers got harder to find.
Although COVID has impacted all homeless numbers, it is still impossible to know by how much because point-in-time and other counting methods were complicated by the pandemic. There is no doubt that homeless persons “hiding out” during Chicago and other lockdowns contributed to the difficulties figuring out where numbers are going and have been going since the start of COVID-19. HUD also avoided many dangerous situations while conducting recent counts. HUD even provided recommendations to organizations conducting counts (Safety Considerations for Counting During COVID-19 (hud.gov)).
Counts provide objective data to help with healthcare planning and anecdotal data shore up the facts—there are many reports and studies showing how the gap in Black vs. non-Black life expectancy is getting worse (Black life expectancy gap in Chicago continues to get worse, report finds - Chicago Sun-Times (suntimes.com)). In June, 2021, the Sun Times reported, “From 2012 to 2017, the life expectancy gap between Black residents and non-Black residents grew from 8.3 years to 9.2 years…”
One major danger for the homeless—and therefore for Chicago homeless Blacks—is illness and death caused by COVID-19. Residing in a shelter makes the chances of contracting the virus even worse. Well-established is the fact that homeless persons residing in shelters are at great risk of infection from COVID-19. The reports and numbers make this fact very clear indeed (Homeless and Homeless Shelters - Cook County Department of Public Health (cookcountypublichealth.org)).
The risk is high for other illnesses for the Black homeless population also, such as strokes, asthma, diabetes, and lung cancer (Why 7 Deadly Diseases Strike Blacks Most (webmd.com)). In fact, Black men are 50 percent more likely than White men to get lung cancer. Blacks are three times more likely than Whites to die of asthma.
Add to these illnesses the need for support with substance abuse recovery, assistance with mental illness challenges, and dealing with violence both at home and on the streets (2018-Fact-Sheet.pdf (pcdn.co)).
Advocates for the homeless can continue to demand a stronger focus on the development of more high-quality interventions—and systems providing them—to better serve the unique needs of non-housed individuals in the Windy City. Staying safe and making it through another dark lonely night is one of the major goals of the average homeless person. They must also worry about their health.
The healthcare needs of Black homeless persons in Chicago represent nothing less than a major medical crisis in the city.