CHICAGO — Researchers from the University of Illinois joined Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker Thursday afternoon to release a report focused on socioeconomic disparities contributing to Black homelessness across the state.
For more than a year now, searchers and state leaders working to end homelessness partnered to get to the roots.
According to Pritzker, the project called Black Homelessness in Illinois Structural Divers of Inequality, is one of the first statewide assessments to look at the disparity and the first in the nation to be released in partnership with state government.
To gather insight, the Office to Prevent and End Homelessness gathered a roundtable of experts on the Black unhoused population, including people who have experienced homelessness themselves.
According to the report, Black residents in Illinois are almost eight times more likely to be unhoused than white residents.
The gap in Illinois is one of the worst in the nation and double the national rate.
Pritzker said his administration is proposing an increase in revenue to fight homelessness in Illinois.
“The last fiscal year, we invested $200 million into Home Illinois
