Eye On Illinois: A problem to be solved, or a person to be helped?

Scalable solutions.

I’ve explored that concept a few times, wondering whether government efforts to address problems in one state agency might apply elsewhere. And while it’s a valid approach from an institutional level, every so often comes a reminder that some challenges are truly individual.

Shaw Media’s Tom Collins covered a Nov. 7 Illinois Valley Community College panel discussion about public policy approaches to reducing homelessness. It’s not idle chatter. At a July 2023 bill signing, Gov. JB Pritzker said his goal was “functional zero,” adding “For those who don’t know and who may be listening, it’s a measurable metric of success that reduces homelessness to something that’s brief and rare and nonrecurring.”

That commitment followed Pritzker’s 2021 executive order creating the Interagency Task Force on Homelessness and the Community Advisory Council on Homelessness, which centralizes programs across 17 departments and agencies. Each year the state spends hundreds of millions of dollars on these services, often presented as an investment in prevention that curbs further public spending when the effects of housing instability ripple into public health, education and other sectors.

When writing about the “functional zero” pledge, I said “Each person experiencing homelessness has their own story and circumstances, which complicates attempts at systemic solutions.” So I took a bit of a mental victory lap when reading a quote from Jon Rocke, executive director of Pathway Ministries in Peoria, at the IVCC panel:

“If we think of poverty and homelessness as a problem to be solved, we’ll be overwhelmed. We have to think of it as a person who can come around. They all have names. They all have stories. But it means getting down to it at a personal level.”

Carol Alcorn, executive director of Illinois Valley Public Action to Deliver Shelter, agreed: “We need to not look at homelessness not as an issue or a problem, but as a human being that has a destination somewhere and needs help.”

This isn’t to say government efforts are misplaced. Many efforts have been fruitful, and even if the ultimate goal is zero, keeping rates from worsening is its own small progress.

The Office to Prevent and End Homelessness (tinyurl.com/DHShomeless) says that “On any given night in Illinois, an estimated 11,947 people are living in shelters and transitional housing programs, in parks and abandoned buildings, in cars and in barns” while another “tens of thousands of Illinois families live temporarily and unstably with family and friends.”

Overwhelming is an understatement, especially when processing all those numbers as individual names and stories. But if we listen to the people already doing the difficult, essential work, it becomes clear the only lasting way to functional zero is one story at a time.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. Follow him on X @sth749. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.