Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announces an expansion of services to the homeless through a partnership with Catholic Charities at a press conference Thursday on the construction site of the New Moms facility on the West Side. (Nancy Stone, Chicago Tribune / August 23, 2012)
By John Byrne
Tribune reporter
5:33 p.m. CDT, August 23, 2012
Catholic Charities is taking over as the agency giving people late night rides to shelters as part of Chicago's latest plan to fight homelessness.
The city will use an expected $1.7 million in annual savings from turning over the overnight services to the venerable charity to help provide more beds and support to homeless youth and others, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Thursday.
"For half the cost, we can provide the same services in terms of transportation, and then plow that money back into better servicing, more beds and more wrap-around services, both for the kids and adults," Emanuel said at the site of a shelter for young mothers and their children under construction in the Austin neighborhood.
The mayor has been looking for ways to cover the cost for services to the city's homeless population since last year.
After the state cut $2.3 million to subsidize the nighttime rides-to-shelters program, Emanuel briefly canceled it. After aldermen complained, he used $200,000 in city funds to rehire some of the workers who provided the rides. Eventually, the state restored the funding.
In addition to the overnight rides to shelters, Catholic Charities will answer requests for well-being checks and deliver food boxes, according to the administration.
The charity will dedicate 30 full-time employees and about 12 part-time employees to do the work, according to Evelyn Diaz, commissioner of the Department of Family and Support Services.
About 50 city jobs will be eliminated under the switch. The city will work with Catholic Charities to see if the organization will hire those who lose their positions, according to Matt Smith, spokesman for the city agency.
The announcement is part of a longer-term homelessness plan, Emanuel said.
"Plan 2.0" is a seven-year attempt to build more housing for homeless youth, create new units of housing for homeless people with disabilities and provide financial assistance to more families who have lost their homes so they can find new places to live. Next year, the city hopes to leverage state and federal funding to boost the housing units available to homeless people locally.
It's the latest attempt to make a dent in the difficult problem of homelessness in Chicago.
In 2003, Mayor Richard Daley unveiled a plan designed to end homelessness in the city by 2013, in part by closing homeless shelters and using the money saved to fund permanent housing.
jebyrne@tribune.com
Twitter @_johnbyrne
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