JOURNEYS The Road Home
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Mission Statement
The mission of JOURNEYS | The Road Home—to individually assess and serve the homeless and those at risk of becoming homeless, while broadening community awareness and involvement with the homeless—stems from its deep desire to seek justice and dignity for these vulnerable individuals and families who need a place to call Home. This desire has roots which reach as far back as 1989 when the agency’s predecessor bodies first began offering shelter and counseling. The agency has made a steady transformation from a primarily volunteer-driven, limited-service agency for homeless residents into today’s comprehensive, professional human service agency for all facing housing crises. JOURNEYS | The Road Home is offering housing assistance, income development, and healthcare, as well as emergency shelter and other safety net services to neighbors who are homeless or living on the edge of becoming homeless. JOURNEYS ioffers a comprehensive continuum of care for 37 northwest and north suburban metro Chicago communities.
About This Cause
JOURNEYS meets the crises of suburban poverty and homelessness by offering immediate shelter through its Emergency Shelter Program, restorative counseling and safety net services at the HOPE Day Center, and affordable housing through the Pathways Housing Readiness Program. The agency’s first line of defense for homeless residents is the Emergency Shelter Program. More than 2,000 volunteers offer meals, clothing, a place to sleep, respite, and hospitality at 20 safe and secure PADS shelter sites. Local faith communities partner with the agency by opening up their facilities to host these sites from October 1 to April 30 annually. Two or more of these shelters are opened each night of the week. Volunteers work from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. in three 4-hour shifts, including setup and leanup. They also purchase and prepare all the food for the guests. This past May—in order to begin offering year-round shelter—the agency inaugurated its first summer shelter program, Two new and one existing faith communities provided shelter on Tuesdays through Thursdays from May through September. For Summer 2018, the agency plans to partner with additional communities, both new and existing, towards the goal of providing shelter that covers all 7 nights of the week. Seven shelter sites are located in Arlington Heights, three in Palatine, two in Mt. Prospect, two in Prospect Heights, and one each in Inverness, South Barrington, Des Plaines, Elk Grove Village, Schaumburg, and Buffalo Grove. The hosts reflect different faith traditions including Roman Catholic, Lutheran, United Methodist, Presbyterian, United Church of Christ, and Evangelical. This is the 28th year that the shelter program has assisted homeless residents. Of the 20 faith communities hosting sites today, 16 have been in continuous operation since the earliest years. Shelter alone is not sufficient to help residents resolve their housing problems. Therefore, all shelter clients are directed to the HOPE Center where they will join other homeless and near-homeless clients. There, clients can make use of one or more of the Center’s emergency resources, such as the Food Assistance Program (daily meals and food pantry), laundry service, showers, gas and public transit vouchers, and a clothing closet. In addition, many will seek help from the clinical staff for housing, income, and healthcare services. Housing: The Pathways Housing Readiness Program helps clients find housing they can afford. Through the Pathways Development Institute (PDI)--JOURNEYS' exclusive partner--clients, who don't qualify for other area housing programs, can apply to live in two PDI housing units. The staff also helps clients complete complex applications to qualify for other local affordable supportive housing programs. Income: The Vocational Case Manager assists work-ready clients in searching for jobs and sharpening job skills, developing resumes, and participating in workforce programs. All case managers also help clients who are eligible for government entitlements to apply to the Social Security Administration, the IL Department of Human Services, and other federal and state programs. Healthcare: Clients can be referred to a Mental Health Counselor or Social Worker who will provide tools and techniques that help them manage symptoms, build confidence, and avoid dependence on substances. Those with existing substance abuse issues work toward placement in treatment facilities and sober-living houses. An Advanced Practice Nurse from the Heartland Alliance provides primary care weekly at the Center. With a mission to individually assess and serve the homeless and those at risk of becoming homeless, while broadening community awareness and involvement with the homeless, JOURNEYS sets goals to feed and shelter the hungry and poor, increase clients’ income and employment readiness and placement, and help clients obtain and/or remain in housing. JOURNEYS served 943 clients during Fiscal 2017, nearly the same as Fiscal 2016. The HOPE Center staff assisted 847 of these clients—the remaining 96 used the shelters for a week or less and did not come to the HOPE Center. Among the Center clients, the staff assisted 613 homeless and 228 near-homeless residents (6 clients had unknown housing status). The staff transitioned 135 homeless residents into housing—a 41% increase from Fiscal 2016 and the largest number of clients to obtain housing in one year—and stabilized 228 near-homeless clients so they did not lose their homes. Even though the number of clients remained virtually the same in Fiscal 2017 (943 vs. 947 clients), staff provided 43,207 HOPE Center and shelter services, 15% more services than in Fiscal 2016. Services clients most frequently requested services were emergency shelter, shelter shuttle service, long-term case management, laundry, clothing, ongoing food assistance, housing counseling, and welfare assistance. More than 2,000 volunteers served 449 homeless residents at the PADS shelters—up 17% from Fiscal 2016—from October 1, 2016 to April 31, 2017. This is the second year in a row of double digit increases—the past two years has seen the number of shelter clients increase by 27%. An average of 71 shelter guests used the shelters each night for a total of 17,052 nights of shelter during Fiscal 2017. They received 51,156 meals. During its initial summer shelter program, the agency assisted 119 clients from May through September. These clients used the shelters 1,910 times and received 5,730 meals. The volunteers logged 30,649 hours of service at the shelters throughout Fiscal 2017. Fifty-four volunteer site directors provided oversight at the 20 shelters. The clientele is diverse. During Fiscal 2017, 57% of the adults and children were male and 43% female. Women and children comprised 51% of all clients. While 74% came as individuals, one- or two-parent families made up the remaining 26%. Among these families, 70% were single parents with children, 25% couples with children, and 5% couples without children or unknown status. The clients’ ages were infant to 17 (18%), 18 to 30 (14%), 31 to 50 (32%), 51 to 61 (26%), 62 and higher (9%), and not reported, 1%. African Americans made up 19% of the clientele, Asians, 3%, Caucasians, 57%, Native Americans, 1%, and 4%, not reporting. Sixteen percent were Hispanic. More than half of the clients are burdened with one or more types of physical and mental disabilities. Twelve percent reported that they were victims of domestic violence. JOURNEYS projects that it will provide shelter and HOPE Center clinical services for an estimated 930 residents during Fiscal 2018. Of these, 810 will access the HOPE Center for its clinical services while an additional 120 homeless clients will only use the shelters for a week or less. Among the 810 HOPE Center clients, an estimated 600 will be homeless and 210 near-homeless. The Center staff projects it will find housing for approximately 120 homeless clients and prevent 210 near-homeless persons from losing their homes. It will stabilize or increase the income of 75% of the clients. The 20 PADS emergency sites will provide shelter to approximately 480 homeless guests. Whether these projections are on target can be difficult to ascertain for certain. Those on the lower end of the economic ladder in Illinois face multiple challenges: low wages, less job security, and the difficulty, if not impossibility, of working through financial and medical disruptions—all challenges that undermine housing stability. Two years of no state budget have only increased the life challenges. As happened during Fiscal 2016 and 2017, more clients may continue to come to JOURNEYS during the current fiscal year if nonprofits which receive state funding continue to have a difficult time providing services due to inadequate payments from the state coffers. The presence of a growing number of poor people in metro Chicago, as well as other major U.S. cities, is not a recent phenomenon. For the last several decades, Americans of all economic classes, including the poor, have been moving to the suburbs in droves so that, today, more Americans are actually living in suburban regions than urban centers. Furthermore, the American economy has seen a major shift from manufacturing to lower-pay service jobs, and higher unemployment arising from two recessions in the 21st century have hit the suburbs more dramatically than in previous recessions. In the past 15 years alone, metro Chicago saw an 84% increase in its suburban poor population, compared to 87% in metro Detroit and 62% in metro Cleveland. These cities—long associated with the challenges of urban poverty—now count more poor residents living outside their urban centers than in them. Metro Chicago also witnessed a 5.1 percent decrease in its middle-class population. Generally, the shrinking of the American middle class results in increases in both the upper middle class and lower economic tiers. In Chicago, however, nearly 4 in 5 of those former middle-class adults moved to the lower income tiers. Suburban Chicago today is home to 1.57 million residents who are low-income; of these, 780,000 are categorized as poor by federal standards. One third of these poor (241,474) live on less than 30% of the Average Median Income for this region—approximately $1,383 per month—whom the federal government categorize as very poor. Of JOURNEYS’ 943 clients, 87% are among the very poor. Throughout the nation, the number of suburban poor grew by 57%, double the pace of growth in urban and rural areas. By 2015, 16 million poor people were living in the suburbs—3 million more than in central cities, 6 million more than in small metro areas, and 8 million more than in rural areas. These residents reflected the diversity of their communities: 70% were whites; 52%, Asians; 47%, Hispanics; and 41%, African Americans. More than one-third owned homes, rather than rented.