The University of Illinois Hospital will find housing for 25 additional homeless patients. The hospital will provide $250,000 to finance places for chronically homeless emergency department patients through its Better Health Through Housing program. Case-management services will be provided by the Chicago Center for Housing and Health. The program began in 2015 as a pilot project. The initial $250,000 investment assisted 26 patients. Dr. Robert Barish is vice chancellor for health affairs at the U of I at Chicago. He says lack of housing has been shown to have serious health effects. He says the school reinvested in the program because it’s difficult to get and stay healthy without a home base. Chronic homelessness is associated with high rates of traumatic brain injury, asthma, pulmonary diseases, cancer and more.
