The city of Chicago must integrate health and housing systems to stabilize people experiencing homelessness and protect them from potential loss of health coverage, according to a new report issued Tuesday.

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The five-year blueprint released Tuesday says the city can leverage the Medicaid program to pay for some housing services. It also calls for establishing redetermination support to help residents maintain coverage ahead of new eligibility requirements set to take effect next year.

The report from the city’s chief homelessness officer and the Chicago Funders Together to End Homelessness flagged several major issues facing the population, including high rates of emergency room use and hospitalizations without follow-ups and under-resourced behavioral health conditions.

The blueprint includes dozens of actions that Chicago agencies and partner organizations can take to prevent and end homelessness.

Mayor Brandon Johnson said the report reflects the city’s “responsibility to build better coordinated systems that actually work for people.”

“By aligning our resources, our data, and our partnerships, we are making housing stability dependent not on navigating disconnected systems, but something every Chicagoan can access with dignity and support,” he said. “This is about prevention, stability and ensuring every Chicagoan has a real pathway to permanent housing.”

The report’s release comes a day after Johnson announced he would eliminate the city’s chief homelessness officer, just two years after the position was created.

He told reporters Tuesday the role was never permanent and work was already being done by city agencies to implement the blueprint.

Johnson said Jonah Anderson, the city’s first deputy mayor for health and human services, will assume a dual appointment as director of the mayor's office of homelessness.

The Chicago Funders Together to End Homelessness called for the city to find a way to keep the position permanent.

“CFTEH continues to believe that dedicated, senior-level leadership in the Mayor’s Office and sustained city investment are two key components of our collective efforts to end homelessness,” they said.

Johnson told reporters that “everything is on the table” on how to fund the blueprint.

A referendum that sought to increase taxes on real estate transfers over $1 million to raise $100 million annually to address homelessness was narrowly rejected by voters in 2024.

Other healthcare-related solutions noted by the report include an expansion of a program that provides on-site wound care. medication-assisted treatment, drug checking, mental health support and overdose education for encampment residents and an increase of medical respite beds for individuals with complex medical needs, with support to transition to stable housing. 

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