LOWER WACKER DRIVE — A caravan of cars meandered through the underbelly of Downtown overnight into Friday morning as city workers and volunteers worked to count the city’s homeless population.
Unhoused residents arose from their rest to take a survey and accept snacks, gloves, Narcan and other supplies.
The Point-in-Time (PIT) Count is “the annual snapshot of the number of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on a single night in Chicago,” according to a press release from Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office.
Speaking to volunteers and staff at the Department of Family and Social Services before the count began Thursday night, Johnson touted his administration’s efforts to serve the unhoused community, including establishing the city’s first Chief Homelessness Officer.
“Housing is a human right, and unfortunately in this city for far too long housing the unhoused has not been a top priority,” Johnson said. “The strategy is ultimately to provide investment so that we can create a pathway for individuals to be housed.”
The mayor’s remarks came as the city’s twice-delayed deadline to begin evicting migrants from shelters approaches.
Johnson didn’t directly address questions about plans for the thousands of migrants facing homelessness or the letter signed by 16 alderpeople asking Johnson to rescind the city’s 60-day shelter limit.
“As we continue to explore ways in which we can support migrants that continue to be sent here by the governor of Texas, we’re going to keep exploring … those options,” Johnson said.
“I mean, how many more shelters am I going to be asked to open?” he said. “We have literally built an entire infrastructure for international crisis that Congress hasn’t figured out.”
Read more: 60-Day Shelter Limit For Migrants Should Be Revoked, 16 Alderpeople Say In Letter To Mayor
Read more: ‘Panic And Rumors’ Swirl In Chicago’s Migrant Shelters As Evictions Loom
The Count
As was done in 2023, this year’s count will include both asylum seekers and non-asylum-seeking individuals and families.
A total of 6,139 residents experiencing homelessness were counted in 2023 — 5,149 of them living in homeless shelters and 990 either on the street or “other locations not meant for human habitation,” according to city data.
Of last year’s population, the city counted 2,196 asylum seekers. Sixty-nine percent of the non-asylum seekers counted in 2023 were Black and 62 percent identified as male.
City Council passed a resolution in November aimed at raising the city’s real estate transfer tax on high-end properties to fund homelessness prevention. Voters will face the measure, known as Bring Chicago Home, in a ballot referendum question in March.
Progressive activists and anti-homelessness groups have for years advocated to increase the tax rate buyers pay on property sales over $1 million, with the additional revenue dedicated to providing permanent affordable housing and wraparound services for unhoused people. The policy was a central promise of Johnson’s mayoral campaign.
Read more: Bring Chicago Home Heads To Chicago Voters After Council Passage
Vincent and Heather were among those counted Thursday night. Their tent sat amid a row of others on the lowest level of East Stetson Avenue as rain poured down columns nearby.
“It’s dangerous because we don’t know who walks among us at night. All kinds of people walk through here,” Vincent said.
The two hope to “get stabilized again” and find a place to live, Vincent said. They appreciated being counted Thursday night, he said.
“It means a lot to me, it’s showing me that there’s people still out here that care about us,” Vincent said. “It’s up to us, too, we have to do things too.
“In order for them to keep on helping us, we have to do what we have to do.”
Block Club Chicago’s Quinn Myers contributed reporting.
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