Amy Colucio’s cat, Little Man, struts around the quiet tent community in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood next to the bustling Lakeshore Drive. But he never strays very far from his owner as the frigid winter temperatures set in.

Colucio has been living in a tent since Sept. 29, 2024, with her sister and cat after they were evicted from their apartment. They have not been able to find housing with their Social Security benefits since then.

“We just haven’t been able to find anything. We have Social Security but it’s just, you know, finding a place on $967 a month, it’s hard to find an apartment at that point,” she said.

Colucio, like thousands of other Chicagoans, was displaced from her home and ended up on the streets. According to the 2024 Chicago Point in Time Count of homeless people, 18,836 Chicagoans were facing homelessness, which is triple the amount from 2023. 

People experience homelessness for a number of reasons. According to the Chicago Coalition to end Homelessness, the primary reason is “lack of affordable housing coupled with economic precarity and an inadequate social safety net.”

Molly Brown, an associate professor of community psychology at DePaul, said the migrant population in Chicago has spiked over the last two years. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s efforts to send migrants to sanctuary cities, like Chicago, has added an estimated 51,649 migrants to the city’s population since 2022, according to city data.

“The numbers (of homeless individuals) that we’re seeing in Chicago are inflated right now due to the broader circumstance of new arrivals being bused into Chicago without a place to stay, a landing place,” Brown said. “That’s where that rapid increase in numbers came from.” 

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson proposed the One System Initiative in October 2024. The initiative promotes a unified shelter system for all Chicagoans, by combining the current systems for unhoused individuals and migrants. 

The system is a $40 million investment and would add 3,800 beds to the 3,000 beds already provided by the Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS), according to the 2025 city budget presentation.

The One System Initiative was set to begin on Jan. 1 and was made in collaboration between the City of Chicago and the state of Illinois. Under the initiative, DFSS will continue to offer shelter services and lead the transition into the unified system. According to the 2025 Chicago Budget Recommendation, under the Homeless Services Fund, $13.7 million will be budgeted for the DFSS.

Daisy Contreras, an Illinois Department of Human Services spokesperson, told the Chicago Tribune that the initiative aims to shift “permanent shelter management to the nonprofit workforce.” 

Brown, the DePaul professor, said since the need for both migrant and homeless shelters was decreasing, the city of Chicago decided to combine the programs. 

She said the city began the One System Initiative to be more efficient in delivering services to migrants and those experiencing homelessness. 

However, the new initiative is raising concerns among those who are working to help these populations.

Danielle Walker, the volunteer coordinator at Lincoln Park Community Services, is concerned that under the city’s One System Initiative, unhoused people will be placed in shelters that lack the proper resources to support them. 

“We have no say in who goes where. If somebody comes in, we may not be able to assist them in the best way that we can,” Walker said. 

She said that someone who does not speak English might be referred to any shelter with availability, even if there were no bilingual staff or translators at that location.

Her organization works with the city to provide interim housing with 48 beds and offer support services, such as showers, laundry facilities, case management and individualized support. However, under the One System Initiative, the roles of volunteers at the Lincoln Park shelter  have changed. 

Walker said the volunteers and workers there have to do jobs they were not trained for or expected to do. Without proper training and preparations to deal with specific migrants’ circumstances, their work has become more complicated. 

Walker explained that when migrants are sent to her and her colleagues for housing, they often require more care in specific areas, such as Social Security. 

“We sat for hours on the phone with Social Security, while the migrant shelters had people to do those jobs directly,” Walker said. 

Migrant shelters are set up so that migrants receive services that cater to them directly. However, Chicago closed its last migrant landing center in December 2024. Lincoln Park Community Services and other homeless shelters are not set up to address the particular needs of the migrants, such as language services and asylum assistance.

Thresholds is another nonprofit organization that provides services for people with serious mental illnesses and those who are experiencing homelessness. Their outreach program provides primary and psychiatric care for these people and helps them find housing. 

Thresholds did not reply to The DePaulia’s request for an interview.

Nemieka Horton, a woman without housing, has been working with Thresholds to find a home. She said she had been sleeping on trains and outside until she was arrested in 2023 for battery, according to Chicago police records.

“I lost my apartment. My family is no longer with me. No one is with me right now,” Horton said. “But I’ve been trying to get myself together a little bit, I’m feeling a little bit better.” 

Horton is trying to find a job and is working with Thresholds to get back on track. She said she wants to show that she is trying to change her current situation in life.  

Colucio says that, while the search for housing has been slow, the tent communities often receive resources from nonprofits, shelters and the city.  She said she would like to see more resources to find housing. 

“There’s a lot of community resources, though, because (the) Department of Family Services come out here, Night Ministries, Lincoln Park Community Services, and they feed us, they give us water,” Colucio said. “They do a lot for us.” 

Chris Nash contributed to this report.

Related Stories:

• Below-zero temperatures raise concern for Chicago’s unhoused
• Plastic bottles out, hygiene concerns bubble up
• As Chicago closes migrant shelters, community leaders step up to help those already here

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