Systematic data gathering and sharing—among healthcare providers and between the health and housing sectors—is the first step to better treatment, lower costs, and improved health for those experiencing chronic homelessness.

Homelessness is both a symptom and a serious health condition in its own right, one that, left untreated, costs Chicago taxpayers between $255 and $425.5 million in 2019.

Nearly one third of individuals who are chronically homeless suffer from a serious mental illness; two-thirds have a substance abuse disorder or other chronic health condition.

“At a very minimum, if we aren’t capturing information about people, then we certainly aren’t able to provide whatever resources that might exist to help them.”

Peter Toepfer, Center for Housing and Health

Since 2002, Michael Reese has been cofunding some of the most thoughtful—and influential—work being done in the U.S. to improve the health of those experiencing homelessness. The recent Center for Housing and Health-led data integration pilot, for example, was Chicago’s first attempt to create composite profiles of individuals’ healthcare and housing usage and needs from information currently stored in multiple, independently maintained databases. 

By bringing healthcare and human services providers together to establish high-priority goals, identify and eliminate knowledge gaps, and demonstrate workable, affordable solutions, our grantee partners are attracting national interest, as well as critical federal funding. More important, they are pioneering work that we believe will have a profound and permanent impact on our region’s health and well-being.

In 2018, the Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded Michael Reese and our funding partner Polk Bros. Foundation with a Secretary’s Award for Public-Philanthropic Partnerships for our role in launching the Chicago and Cook County Housing for Health Strategic Plan, the first federally funded healthcare and housing initiative in a major U.S. metropolitan area.