The Chicago Alliance to End Homelessness was created in December 2006 through the widely-supported consolidation of the two organizations most integrally involved with implementing Chicago's 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness: The Partnership to End Homelessness & Chicago Continuum of Care. The Alliance brings together all of the essential ingredients for addressing homelessness in Chicago, while removing duplication, coordinating diverse efforts, & optimizing the use of limited resources. Key to the Alliance's success is its access to the advice of experts on creating programs & policy solutions via two advisory boards: the Consumers Commission & the Service Providers Commission. These consist of people on the front lines of ending homelessness & it is their expertise that helps guide the Alliance to target those arenas that can & must change in order to end homelessness. Since its inception in December 2006, the Alliance has achieved significant accomplishments. As the agency primarily responsible for implementing Chicago’s Plan to End Homelessness, the Alliance launched its Homelessness Best Practices Institute to improve services to hard-to-serve homeless individuals and to spur the develop of businesses to employ them. Also, in June of 2009 the Alliance began a two-year evaluation of Chicago’s Plan to End Homelessness, and results are beginning to be available. In addition, through advocacy efforts, the Alliance has succeeded in bringing additional resources to Chicago’s homeless system. The Alliance also manages the process that brings over $45 million annually to Chicago of HUD funding. This process includes the submission of an over 3000-page application and the provision of significant technical assistance to the 140 programs that receive HUD funding each year.

The mission of the Chicago Alliance to End Homelessness is to create, support, and sustain effective strategies to end homelessness in Chicago. The Alliance's key strategies are: (1) Implementing Chicago’s Plan to End Homelessness; (2) Advancing Policies to End Homelessness; (3) Increasing Public Support for Ending Homelessness; and (4) Administering Major State and Federal Grants.

The Chicago Alliance is pursuing 4 major strategies. (1) Implementing Chicago's Plan to End Homelessness: The Alliance continually identifies critical needs and best practices, which includes the following activities: (a) The Homelessness Best Practices Institute promotes the use of strategies proven to end homelessness, such as harm reduction, as well as innovative ways to serve subpopulations like veterans and homeless individuals over the age of 50. (b) Improving the homeless system, based on HUD funding mandates and the evaluation of Chicago's Plan, to better integrate homeless services, set system goals, and improve data collection and use. (2) Advancing Policies to End Homelessness: (a) Increasing resources: advocate for additional funding at the federal level, work to preserve state funding, and utilize the opportunity created by the change in leadership at the city to pursue sustainable funding for homeless services.(b) Impact the implementation of the HEARTH Act (new legislation that governs federal homeless funding) through the regulatory process and through advocacy with key federal policymakers. (c) Impact other systems, such as the health care system through health care reform, and institutions that discharge clients into homelessness, including prisons, jails and mental institutions. (3) Increasing Public Support for Ending Homelessness: (a) Work to ensure that the new city administration prioritizes homelessness. (b) Utilize the Alliances position as a national leader to lead national initiatives, including working groups on youth homelessness, health care reform, and veterans.(c) Continue to act as a go-to source for the media, working to highlight the Plan's progress and to combat stereotypes and share success stories. (4) Administering Major State and Federal Grants: The Alliance secures two critical public funding streams for Chicago's homeless assistance programs, as well as competes nationally for funds for new supportive housing. (a) 2011 HUD Homeless Assistance Funds: The Alliance manages the process for HUD renewals, providing significant technical assistance to the 140 programs receiving HUD funds, plus submitting a 3000-page application to HUD. (b) The Alliance participates in a national competition for HUD bonus projects, which totals over $4.2 million in new funding for supportive housing. The Alliance ensures the competitiveness of the Chicago application by undertaking an in-depth analysis of Chicago's homeless system. The Alliances application has resulted in Chicago receiving bonus projects for five years in a row. (c) 2011 State Homeless Prevention Funds: The Alliance applies for Homelessness Prevention Funds through the state of Illinois, and then runs an RFP process every few years to identify the recipient of these funds, which most recently has been the Emergency Fund. These state funds formerly totaled $3.3 million and, with the state budget crisis, now stand at approximately $900,000.