State Budget Cuts Will Guarantee More Households Becoming Homeless this Winter

Deep cutbacks in state funding have jeopardized two high-need programs that help Illinois households that are at immediate risk of becoming homeless, or already homeless and trying to get re-housed.Illinois' Homeless Prevention Grant program has had yearly funding cut by 87% ($9.5 million) since FY 2008, and Emergency and Transitional Housing was cut by 52% ($4.7 million) in the FY 2012 state budget. An October 2011 survey shows that because of these cuts, as we head into the winter months:Half of the Illinois agencies that distribute homeless prevention grants to households will have no funds remaining by the end of December -- so no new funds will be available until July 2012.Across Illinois, 62% of state-funded emergency shelters and transitional housing programs have already