More state funds to help Springfield’s unhoused

Gov. JB Pritzker’s decision to more than double state funding for programs designed to reduce homelessness in Sangamon County will help the community make meaningful progress and blunt a potential reduction in federal funding from the Trump administration, Springfield officials say.

“We’re just not used to this type of investment,” Josh Sabo, executive director of nonprofit Heartland Housed, said after a Dec. 15 announcement by the governor at Helping Hands of Springfield. “But all of the work that has gone into strategic planning has created a foundation where we know what to do – our organizations are growing and scaling up, and they’re already housing people with this money.”

Christine Haley, the Democratic governor’s chief homelessness officer, said the Pritzker administration reallocated money within this fiscal year’s $263 million Home Illinois program to give Springfield service providers $2 million more on top of the $1.2 million that the local system receives from the program annually.

“Today we are recognizing the lifesaving work of the Springfield community to protect its poorest residents,” Haley said at the news conference at Helping Hands, 2200 Shale St. “The state of Illinois is proud to partner with Springfield to end homelessness.”

Haley noted that people experiencing homelessness are 38 times more likely to die from cold weather-related health problems, and their average age of death is 56, almost 20 years younger than people who have stable housing.

Sabo said state officials approached Heartland Housed earlier this year to discuss ways of supplementing local efforts to serve people experiencing homelessness after learning about the community’s strategic plan to address the issue and how constraints in funding were creating challenges.

The goal with the $2 million in additional funds is to demonstrate success so the supplemental money can be added to the $1.2 million in future years, he said.

Heartland Housed wants to reach “functional zero,” which would mean the number of people experiencing homelessness and entering social-service programs each year roughly equals the number exiting the system and finding or being placed in permanent housing.

The new funding, Sabo said, is designed “to see if a community our size can really make a significant impact in the direction of functional zero, so it’s a bit of a pilot project from that standpoint.”

Sabo said the additional money already has begun to flow to the community’s three nonprofit groups administering permanent supportive housing programs – Helping Hands, Fifth Street Renaissance and Mercy Communities.

Those organizations, he said, are using the money to pay rent and provide counseling and other supportive services to people who previously were unhoused.

Sabo estimated that the $2 million would help create 200 more permanent housing slots.

Pritzker said state Sen. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, Springfield Mayor Misty Buscher and Sangamon County Board Chairperson Andy Van Meter are working together “to make historic investments in our state’s beautiful capital city to ensure it has a vibrant, thriving future.”

Pointing to the Springfield and Sangamon County 2022-2028 Strategic Plan to Address Homelessness, Van Meter, a Springfield Republican, said, “If we had not done that preparation, we would not have been eligible for the funding that Gov. Pritzker has made available. We were very carefully vetted to make sure that we had a system that could appropriately deploy the funds.”

Buscher commended the governor and local officials for caring about “our most vulnerable citizens.” She said she talks with mayors across the country, and homelessness, along with mental health and drug addiction, are the biggest problems their cities face.

“Our governor in Illinois is committed to making Illinois a state that is a leader in these issues,” Buscher said. “Not all states have this. We have to remember how lucky we are for this leadership.”

Pritzker and Haley said the Home Illinois program, funded with state general revenue fund dollars and formed three years ago, has seen progress in reducing homelessness in many parts of the state, including Springfield.

But Pritzker, widely discussed as a potential candidate for president in 2028, said, “The MAGA Republican administration in Washington is attempting to turn back the clock.”

Trump issued an executive order in July directing federal agencies to make changes to policies in response to what Trump called billions of dollars in federal funding “on failed programs that address homelessness but not its root causes, leaving other citizens vulnerable to public safety threats.”

At Trump’s direction, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development signaled that it would reduce future funding for permanent supportive housing by 60% to 70% in favor of other priorities such as transitional housing.

Facing lawsuits, HUD has temporarily paused the new funding priorities. Those new priorities would, among other things, reward communities that crack down on “illicit drug use” and enact local laws to fine and jail homeless people when they sleep on public property.

If not changed, the new funding rules would reduce the current $600,000 in annual funding for Springfield-area homeless agencies to $180,000 and reduce the number of formerly homeless people receiving housing support from the current 79 to 23.

The federal government’s mandated one-day count of homeless people in Sangamon County totaled 374 in 2025, a slight decrease from 388 in 2024. But the one-day count was 284 in 2019, so the one-day count has risen by 32% over that five-year period.

The number of people needing homeless services locally has risen while the number of homeless people finding permanent housing in Sangamon County has jumped by more than 300% in the past six years, Sabo said. In 2019, 94 found housing, compared with 380 in 2025 as of Nov. 1, he said.

In addition to state and federal grants, Heartland Housed’s annual funding includes $250,000 from Sangamon County government, $250,000 from the city of Springfield and $125,000 from Capital Township.