Critical Needs

We are working towards a future with a strengthened safety net of essential services across Cook County that enhances individual and community stability and economic security by providing housing, food, and other fundamental human services and supports.

The Chicago Community Trust works towards a future with a strengthened safety net of essential services across Cook County that enhances individual and community stability and economic security by providing housing, food, and other fundamental human services and supports.

Our Vision

As we move forward, we are committed to learning together, adjusting, and being responsive. We will use insights from our grantmaking and input from our partners to shape our learning journey and approach. 

Critical Needs: State of the Space

Access to healthy and secure housing is essential for individuals and families to achieve long-term stability and economic security. However, a financially vulnerable family struggles with economic hardships and higher levels of stress, delays getting health care, has trouble paying rent, and worries about having enough money for food. 

According to the Financial Health Network Chicago Pulse report, staggering numbers of Black and Latine respondents reported struggling to make ends meet. More than half of Black and Latine respondents (59% and 52%, respectively) said they were unable to pay all their bills on time, compared to 18 percent of whites. Almost four in 10 Black and Latine residents (39% and 38%, respectively) reported that, over the last year, they worried about running out of food, compared to 11 percent of whites. In Chicago, 47 percent of renters are forced to spend more than 30 percent of their household income on rent and utilities and are considered “cost-burdened” by the city’s excessive housing costs. 

Financial instability and a lack of affordable housing – now at a 10-year high – are significant drivers of Chicago’s dramatic increase in homelessness. The 2024 Chicago Point-in-Time Count estimated 18,836 people experiencing homelessness on any given day, over three times the number from 2023. This increase is largely attributed to the influx of asylum seekers who have come to Chicago since August 2022.

Gun violence is another urgent issue facing our region. The effects of gun violence are devastating to individuals, families and communities. The impact is felt throughout the region and poses a significant threat to Chicago’s vibrancy. Safety concerns inform how people live and feel in their communities, which challenges our economy and affects our overall quality of life. And while violence disproportionately occurs in Black and Latine neighborhoods, the direct costs of gun violence to the region are estimated at over $3 billion annually, including health care costs, police work, victim support, prosecution, and incarceration. 

Where We Focus

As a community foundation, the Trust will always support addressing Chicagoans’ critical needs. While a wide range of interventions can address these needs, the Trust has identified three areas where we believe we can have the greatest impact: housing stability, community safety, and responding to unexpected crises. 

The Trust’s Critical Needs strategy supports programs and services that help Chicagoans meet their basic needs to achieve economic stability and security, including housing, food and nutrition, and other human services. As it has since we were founded, the Trust also steps up in the face of unanticipated and ongoing crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, gun violence, and new arrivals, in partnership with philanthropic, government, corporate, and civic actors.  

Critical Needs Funding

Specifically, the Trust’s funding to address critical needs prioritizes:

  • Housing Stability: To help Chicagoans who are unhoused or unstably housed.

  • Community Safety: By addressing the root causes of community violence.

  • Responsive Grantmaking: As needs arise in communities during times of crisis.

Collaboration is Needed

These priorities reflect where the Trust can achieve measurable impact. However, we cannot meet residents’ basic and emergency needs alone. 

Opportunities to Engage

  • Illinois Immigration Funder Collaborative: Prioritizes individual legal assistance, community defense and strengthening, and capacity-building to help organizations serve Illinois immigrants and work together in coalitions to mobilize for change. You can make a contribution to the collaborative on the Trust’s website.
  • Illinois Justice Project: Engages in criminal justice reform efforts to make our communities safer and reduce recidivism among youths and adults.
  • Partnership for Safe & Peaceful Communities: Identifies and supports community-led, evidence-based solutions that the public sector can scale as part of a comprehensive approach to addressing gun violence. The Chicago Fund for Safe and Peaceful Communities provides grants of $1,000 to $10,000 to neighborhood-based nonprofit groups that create events, programs and activities to unite and strengthen communities. To support this work, visit Ways to Give – United Way of Metro Chicago and input “The Chicago Fund” in the internal campaigns section.
  • Unity Fund: A collaborative effort that gathers contributions from generous donors to support nonprofit organizations addressing the Chicago region’s most urgent needs. Please contact WHO for more information about supporting this work. You can contribute to Unity Fund on the Trust’s website.

Our Critical Needs Team