Combine this horrible policy change with SNAP and Medicaid work requirements. With the coming loss of ACÁ insurance subsidie. With decimating funding for homeless youth in school. It adds up intentional cruelty and pain for people at the margins.

the @chicagoreader.com also put together know your rights resources for unhoused folks interacting with federal agents in chicago, based on the excellent information compiled by @chicagohomeless.bsky.social. they're available in spanish: chicagoreader.com/news/conozca... and english:

I appreciate both @katieprout.bsky.social’s write-up and @brian-goldstone.bsky.social’sshout out to @chicagohomeless.bsky.social‘s workin his recent visit to Chicago to discuss his excellent book “There is No Place for Us.” We can’t solve homelessness without first understanding its true scope.

With millions at risk of losing SNAP in the coming days, a reminder: hunger doesn't happen in isolation. When food assistance disappears, families use rent money to eat. Then come evictions and homelessness. Housing, food, healthcare—it's all connected. Cut one thread and the whole thing unravels.

“Cruz’s friend, who is homeless, did not have legal status and was taken away by the feds.” It’s almost an afterthought in this article. We have no idea how many unhoused folks have been taken.

ICE has hit three homeless shelters in the last week. All shelters that were set up to serve migrants. So they forced people to move to Chicago, Chicago stood up shelters to support migrants, and the feds use those shelters as targets for their kidnapping. blockclubchicago.org/2025/10/01/b...

Downtown Chicago, today. The little girl …

According to reporters on the ground, ICE is now **deliberately firing** what appears to be "non-lethals" at press at this morning's protest in Broadview, IL. One @unraveledpress.com reporter got hit. Unraveled has been putting in serious work during this crisis--throw them some cash if you can.

NWSRR is now reporting ICE agents snatched two people at the migrant shelter near River Park this morning:

As I've said before, for a chronic, loggorrheic liar, Donald Trump can be shockingly honest, such as when he said at Charlie Kirk's funeral: "I hate my opponent, and I don't want the best for them.” That's why he wants to send the military into Chicago. Not to reduce crime, but to hurt the city.

Thanks to @chicagotribune.com for sharing @chicagohomeless.bsky.social & CFTEH‘s letter. No one wants people to have to sleep in parks or under viaducts or anywhere else unsheltered. Let’s come together around the solution - new revenue for permanent housing & service.

Truly outrageous. Erasing the evidence of mounting suffering won't make it go away. It's just a matter of time before he cancels the annual homeless count.

Share with your networks. Direct, low barrier cash assistance works.

Believing that homelessness is the result of ”individual choices” allows you to avoid discomfort and abdicate yourself of responsibility for contributing to systemic solutions.

I found this post really helpful in wrapping my brain around the different agencies that might do Chicago raids. The biggest takeaway: A lot of attention is on the the National Guard. But federal LEO's (ICE, FBI, etc.) can exert just as much (if not more) muscle & there's less to stop them.

My column on the front page of the Sun-Times today: My original headline was "Flash! Crime terror (doesn't) grip Kill City!" But my editor thought that might confuse people. I liked "Kill City" myself. www.everygoddamnday.com/2025/09/flas...

A Labor Day reminder: today there isn't a single city, metro area, or state in the U.S. where a full-time minimum-wage worker can afford a modest 2-bedroom apartment. Millions of people with jobs—even multiple jobs—aren't safe from homelessness in this country.

We prepared this Know Your Rights card in partnership with All Chicago to support the unsheltered on the coming weeks. We also created a phone line to answer question and help direct people to resources. We are going to do all we can to protect people in this moment of threat.

@chicagohomeless.bsky.social and our partners are doing everything we can to ensure the safety of those experiencing homelessness

We are aware of reports that the Trump Administration may deploy federal troops to Chicago soon. We know that this may directly impact Chicagoans experiencing homelessness and many people—including us—are concerned and afraid of what might happen.

The fastest-growing homeless population in America? School-age children. Last year, student homelessness in California—where rents continue to soar past wages—rose by 20,000, reaching its highest level in a decade. But sure, keep insisting homelessness is all about mental illness and addiction.

Talked to kid who has first job out of undergrad helping folks on Medicaid w/ serious healthcare issues. Said something to me like "they all have housing issues, unstable, unsafe housing...so much of it tied to housing" Housing instability is a cause, not just a symptom, of so many problems.

Which underlines the reality that this president doesn’t care about solving homelessness. He just wants to hide it.

UPDATE: Unlawful arrests and forced displacement of homeless D.C. residents expected to begin this morning at 10 AM with federal and local police throwing away tents at 62 encampments; arrests are expected to begin at nightfall to avoid media attention.https://buff.ly/gRAsxWS

This. All of it.

This observation sums up Trump’s priorities and how little regard he has for people experiencing homelessness.

Glad to share @chicagohomeless.bsky.social’s position on Trump’s horrendous EO on Chicago Tonight with @brandisfriedman.bsky.social.

“Let me promise you something — if the police can declare an American citizen mentally ill for living in a tent in Lincoln Park and throw him into an asylum, it can also declare an American mentally ill for protesting that policy.”

Good reporting by @wbez.org & @chicago.suntimes.com on the real impact on Trump’s cruel, inhumane, and ineffective EO on homelessness.

Predictable, but no less shocking or reprehensible: Trump just signed an executive order urging states to forcibly institutionalize homeless people, defund Housing First, criminalize encampments, and cut aid to cities that don't comply.

Keep in mind this growth in homelessness happened BEFORE Trump took office. With him and the Republicans in Congress aiming to drastically cut funding, we will see these numbers go much higher. We need to fight the cuts & fight for new state & local funding.

We did a run-through of this yesterday. Trust me, you won't want to miss this. I'm co-moderating this event. Hear from people across the country who have been victims of anti-homeless laws.

Hundreds of immigrant advocates are rallying in downtown Chicago, chanting: “No hate, no fear! Immigrants are welcome here!” @wbez.org and @chicago.suntimes.com

BREAKING: #Chicago finished this past month with the fewest #murders of any April since 1962, a @WBEZ analysis has found. The month’s 19 murders make 115 so far this year, the lowest January-through-April tally since 2014. www.wbez.org/cpd/2025/05/...

📢 CCH will hold its 3-day Community Organizing Training next month, May 21-23, at the CCH offices (70 E Lake St). Grow (or dust off) your organizing skills! Fill out the interest form by May 7: act.chicagohomeless.org/a/community-...

It may feel hard to find tangible things we can do to push back in this moment, but here is one. Raise your voice and ask your legislator to use theirs. We can ban the criminalization of homelessness in Illinois. Take action now. Share with your networks. Let’s get a win.

So many myths about homelessness hide the very human stories of the incredible people enduring it. I hope folks will read the new book by @brian-goldstone.bsky.social, which gives voice to many of these souls and exposes our own complicity. Review here: www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/b...

Excited to dig into @brian-goldstone.bsky.social’s important new book and happy to see @chicagohomeless.bsky.social’s Homeless Data Project highlighted.

It’s almost as if skyrocketing homelessness isn’t caused by addiction or mental illness, but by millions of people being rent-gouged out of a place to live.

“We choose how we treat our most vulnerable neighbors. Illinois can build a more just and effective approach to homelessness that addresses systemic failures, or we can choose to criminalize people for surviving them.” @chicagohomeless.bsky.social & @housingactionil.bsky.social

Hey. Follow @chicagohomeless.bsky.social ! bsky.app/profile/chic...

Earlier this month, 31 community members gathered at CCH to learn about the principles of community organizing and how to put them into action through interactive exercises and group activities. Stay tuned for our next training on May 21 - 23!

This change will hurt people. Full stop.

In preparation for today’s Super Bowl in New Orleans, state police forced over 100 homeless men and women onto buses under threat of arrest, dumping them in an unheated warehouse. Tents destroyed, belongings lost. Press are barred from the warehouse. The price tag for this cruelty? $17.5 million

Beyond disgusting. Without evidence and lacking an investigation, Trump gaslights DEI initiatives by suggesting it’s connected to this tragedy. Unbelievable. abcnews.go.com/Politics/tru...

Chicago does exceptional local news, but the Reader allows journalists like me to write in a narrative way we can’t anywhere else. Support us here: donorbox.org/support-the-...

"Through working with these families, I’ve been seeing an unfathomable amount of price gouging for housing." This is abhorrent, but let's be clear: it’s just a more extreme version of what we see every day in cities across the country, where landlords exploit desperate renters for maximum profit.

In 2025, Chicago Coalition to end Homelessness will double down & continue to organize & advocate to prevent & end homelessness. To all the people & businesses that said you care about homelessness as you fought to defeat Bring Chicago Home - where are you?

As @mcleanwillis.bsky.social said “increased homelessness is the tragic, yet predictable, consequence of underinvesting in the resources & protections that help people find & maintain safe, affordable housing.” @commondreams.org.web.brid.gy @corbettjessica.bsky.social

This increase in homelessness is coming at the same time communities are shifting to policies that criminalize people for having no home. We need housing. We need funding for housing.