DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) — A new community-wide effort in Macon County is aiming to end homelessness before it begins.
The Macon County Continuum of Care has launched a 100-Day Challenge to prevent people from losing their homes. The initiative is supported by the Illinois Department of Human Services in partnership with the Supportive Housing Providers Association and RE!NSTITUTE. It brings multiple agencies together to achieve early intervention and keep people housed.
"This is an initiative by the Illinois Department of Human Services, and there are five counties in the state engaging in the challenge. Macon County is one of five," said Tara Murray, executive director of the Empowerment Opportunity Center.
The challenge officially began on March 9 and will run through mid-June. During that time, local agencies will work to prevent at least 60 households from entering homelessness, with more than half expected to be families with children.
Leaders said the effort is about strengthening a system that already exists and making it work better.
"In Macon County, we have a group of agencies that have come together that all provide homeless prevention services, and we're working on strengthening our homeless prevention system in the community," Murray said.
Those agencies include the Empowerment Opportunity Center, Heritage Behavioral Health Center, Salvation Army, Dove Homeward Bound, Land of Lincoln Legal Aid, and United Way. Together, they are coordinating referrals, sharing resources, and tracking data in a more unified way.
Jasmine Kaylor, director of homeless prevention and support services at Heritage Behavioral Health Center, said collaboration is key to reaching their goal.
"Our goal is to prevent homelessness for 60 individuals, with roughly 56% of that being families and children," Kaylor said. "Our goal of this whole initiative is to strengthen our coordination efforts, the referral systems, the resources that each agency has."
The approach focuses on prevention. Major Randall Summit with the Salvation Army said the challenge is also about measuring that impact.
"This is the flip side of that… we're going to be measuring how many people we kept from being homeless," Summit said.
He explained that data will help local and state leaders better understand the importance of funding prevention programs.
"If we didn't get these funds from the state, many people would have gone homeless," Summit said.
Organizers say homelessness can happen to anyone.
"Anyone can lose their home," Murray said. "It takes one medical emergency, one lost paycheck… it's often not the stereotypes that people think of."
Kaylor added that everyday challenges, like transportation issues, can quickly snowball into a housing crisis.
"When you think of having issues with your car… then you can't get to and from work… and you are really struggling to pay the bills to keep the house, to feed the kids," she said.
The services used to prevent homelessness vary from case to case. They can include rent or utility assistance, help with car repairs, mediation with landlords, or other short-term support to stabilize a household.
Community involvement will also play a major role. Organizers are encouraging landlords, churches, and residents to get involved by identifying struggling tenants early and connecting them with resources.
"We're hoping that more community members, more landlords, more agencies will come to the table and say, 'Hey, this is how I can help,'" Kaylor said.
While the challenge lasts 100 days, leaders said the impact is meant to last much longer.
"It's really a concentrated focus… in order to improve the overall system long term," Murray said. "At the end of 100 days, our goal is to have pieces of this that will continue indefinitely into the future."
By focusing on prevention now, organizers hope to reduce long-term homelessness across Macon County.
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