McLean County has been a leader in homeless services for years, with the Bloomington-based nonprofit PATH Crisis Center leading the region’s Continuum of Care [CoC] dedicated to ending homelessness.
The U.S. Department of Urban Development runs the CoC program nationwide, and the Central Illinois Continuum of Care [CICoC] covers 11 counties, including larger counties like McLean and smaller ones like Kankakee.
PATH announced it was stepping down as the collaborative applicant for the CICoC in April, and the CICoC board voted in the McLean County Center for Human Services [MCCHS] as the new lead at the end of June, keeping the role local.
MCCHS was not previously a CICoC member, though CEO Joan Hartman said she’s been personally involved for quite a while. She attended meetings during her tenure with Chestnut Health Systems, before joining the center, and said she believes in the continuum’s work.
“I'm very passionate about ending homelessness, and so it just felt right (to take over),” she said.
At the same time, Hartman said being a mental and behavioral health service provider can be a strength. She said the center often treats clients who are unhoused or housing insecure.
“You really can't be in recovery from your mental health if you don't have a place to live, and so it's a really important piece of the whole person for us is to ensure that people are safe and that they're housed,” she said.
‘We want to be able to provide them support’
As the new Central Illinois Continuum lead, MCCHS must convene members from across the 11 member counties and apply for grants on their behalf. Hartman said she’s in the process of hiring a new staffer to oversee these efforts and intends to send an offer soon.
One of Hartman’s primary goals with the CICoC, she said, is to make sure all counties have organizations that are active participants. She said some counties have members doing great work in their communities to end homelessness but have been less involved in the continuum’s efforts.
“We want to be able to provide them support and we want them to have a voice in what gets funded and doesn't get funded in the continuum, and to be able to also help us go for additional funding,” Hartman said.
Hartman pointed out that a more robust continuum is more likely to win grants.
Within McLean County, Hartman said she already has plans to take the housing coalition — which formed in March to find a temporary shelter for people living on the streets — and bring it into the CICoC. She said she hopes to subdivide that group into committees dedicated to specific populations, such as veterans and youth.
Hartman said she’s looking to counties like Kankakee for tips to improve overall operations.
“We want to emulate a lot of what they're doing and help spread that throughout the continuum,” she said.
PATH still plays a crucial role
While PATH has stepped back from leading the region’s Continuum of Care, interim CEO and Executive Director Adam Carter said the nonprofit still plays a crucial role. He said to operate an effective CoC, there needs to be three full-time employees doing the work.
“Our CoC has, has not ever been able to kind of flesh it out into multiple (workers), because that's a lot of financial overhead for one agency to have, where you have three individuals who are solely responsible for work not being done within your own agency,” he explained.
Now that PATH is no longer the collaborative applicant, Carter said the nonprofit has the time and resources to share the burden with MCCHS.
While the center takes over administrative work, PATH can hire someone to manage a database of persons interacting with homeless services — the Homeless Management Information System [HMIS]. Carter said he’s currently looking for an applicant to fill this position.
“It's the behind the scenes, things that are not exciting but keep us moving,” Carter said. “If we don't have the data, then we're not going to get more funding, and we're not going to be able to help our neighbors. So that is a piece that is a big piece.”
PATH is also still doing coordinated entry, which means it is the first point of contact for people requiring homeless services in the communities the CICoC serves. Carter said this is all to help build “a more collaborative continuum.”
