Housing Overview

Evictions across Illinois are unequally dispersed. The map below shows the number of evictions in the past year as a percentage of the number of renters.


For the purposes of the evictions filing rate, evictions are limited to the most recent calendar year. These evictions data are updated through Sep 2023. The number of renters used for the denominator of the evictions filing rate is sourced from the most recent ACS 5-year estimates in 2022.

Evictions data are limited to filings that are stored electronically and can be publicly accessed through an API. As a result, our data are limited to a handful of counties in northeastern Illinois. (Developers note: If people who are in a position to authorize/facilitate the sharing of county data are in the distribution list of this dashboard, I think it would make sense to have a sentence or two here to the effect of “we want to make this more representative of statewide, if you’re interested in contributing data to this dashboard, please contact person@emailaddress.com”.)

Similarly, the burden of renting a home varies across Illinois. The map below shows the percentage of cost-burdened rental households across the state.


The percentage of cost-burdened renters is one of the metrics used in the Urban Institute’s Emergency Rental Assistance Priority Index. Cost-burdened rental households are defined as households with an income below $35,000 who pay more than 50% of their income towards rent.

Viewing these two metrics together, we can understand where evictions and vulnerability overlap in Illinois.


This view is limited by areas where we have evictions data. Dark maroon areas are places where both the share of cost-burdened renters and the eviction filing rate are high. More blue areas represent places where the share of cost-burdened renters is high, but evictions are relatively low. Finally, more red areas show areas where the share of cost-burdened renters is low, but the eviction filing rate is high.

Evictions

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Racial/Ethnic Makeup of Households, Renters, and Eviction Filings in Northeast Illinois

Eviction Filings by Month + County

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Black/African American residents from counties in our dataset account for 22.4 percent of all renters, but 44.3 percent of total eviction filings. Black/African American Illinoisans are over-represented in eviction filings by 21.9 percent.

Counties in our dataset averaged 3,821 filings per month over the last 3 months. Overall filings in the most recent 3 months are down -2.9% over the prior 3 month period.

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Filing Rate - Renters

Homeless Services

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Summary

Households served by continuum & year

We show the households (HH) served in each continuum of care, presented as a percentage of the vulnerable population within that continuum of care. Here, ‘vulnerable population’ is defined as households at or below 300% of the Federal Poverty Level. You can see the size of these populations in the FPL concentration map on the right of this page.

The data

Data are collected from a variety of sources to present the most up-to-date information on homeless services provision across the state of Illinois, with the primary dataset coming from the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS). IDHS collects publishes annual data on services provided by each Continuum of Care (CoC) — the local group responsible for coordinating services in each region. This data covers 2020 and 2021 fiscal years. IEL is working with IDHS to obtain more frequent reporting metrics.

‘Households’ are taken from the US Census definitions of Households - these include both ‘family’ and ‘nonfamily’ households (the latter of which includes individual householders). More information can be found on the US Census website.

The Continuum of Care (CoC) Program is designed to promote communitywide commitment to the goal of ending homelessness; provide funding for efforts by nonprofit providers, and State and local governments to quickly rehouse homeless individuals and families while minimizing the trauma and dislocation caused to homeless individuals, families, and communities by homelessness; promote access to and effect utilization of mainstream programs by homeless individuals and families; and optimize self-sufficiency among individuals and families experiencing homelessness. More information about the CoC program can be found on the HUD website.

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Follow-up Outcomes - 2021

FY2021 Plot

All providers were required to conduct follow-up by contacting every participant or family that received assistance from the Homeless Prevention Program during the previous fiscal year to assess the housing retention rate for the entire program. The follow-up data is reported to IDHS as specified at the end of each fiscal year. We present plots of the percent of households housed/unhoused/unable to locate at follow-up, as well as provide the raw counts in the “Follow-up Tables” tab.

Follow-up Outcomes - 2020

FY2020 Plot

All providers were required to conduct follow-up by contacting every participant or family that received assistance from the Homeless Prevention Program during the previous fiscal year to assess the housing retention rate for the entire program. The follow-up data is reported to IDHS as specified at the end of each fiscal year. We present plots of the percent of households housed/unhoused/unable to locate at follow-up, as well as provide the raw counts of each in the tables below the plots.

Follow-up Tables

Data summary

All providers were required to conduct follow-up by contacting every participant or family that received assistance from the Homeless Prevention Program during the previous fiscal year to assess the housing retention rate for the entire program. The follow-up data is reported to IDHS as specified at the end of each fiscal year. We present plots of the percent of households housed/unhoused/unable to locate at follow-up, as well as provide the raw counts below.

2021 Follow-up Table

2020 Follow-up Table

Summary of Services Offered

Summary of Services Offered

The following table shows a summary of various services offered by different Continua of Care, including rental assistance, mortgage assistance, and security deposit assistance for years 2020 and 2021.

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Federal Poverty Level (FPL) concentration

Change in Households Served: 2020 to 2021

Continuum of Care Funding Summaries

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Funding Summary

Summary

In Illinois, Continuum of Care (CoC) organizations developed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to provide a network of homeless services to serve the entire state. Funding for the Homeless Prevention Program is allocated to each of these organizations utilizing HUD’s homeless distribution formula. The Continuum of Care organizations in turn solicit proposals from local providers that serve homeless families and individuals. Each CoC organization then recommends agencies to receive Homeless Prevention Program funding from IDHS. Upon execution of a contract, the Homeless Prevention Program providers receive payments, and implement the program.

Funding table

The Continuum of Care organizations that received Homeless Prevention Program funding allocations in Fiscal Years 2020 and 2021. Per Household (HH) Budget is calculated by dividing the yearly budget of the CoC by the number of households served.

 

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