According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 23 out of every 10,000 people in the United States experienced homelessness in 2024 – highlighting the national need to address this challenge. In response, Champaign City Council has prioritized developing a blueprint for addressing housing needs and homelessness in our community.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness attributes lack of affordable housing development and preservation, inadequate rental assistance programs, persistently low incomes, weak safety nets, and discriminatory policies and practices to find housing as the primary root causes of homelessness. Staff are currently developing a Homelessness Prevention Blueprint to better understand our local context and ways to address these root causes. From community data analysis and in-depth research of best practices, to community engagement, the Blueprint will propose objectives to make homelessness in Champaign rare, brief, and non-recurring.

Blueprint Snapshot

The following is an detailed version of the Blueprint's Vision, Mission, Guiding Principles, Goals, and Objectives, as of April 2026. An accessible PDF version is available here.

Vision

Champaign envisions a community where homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring.

Mission

We lead and collaborate with community partners to prevent housing instability whenever possible, and ensure if a crisis occurs, our safety net supports quick, compassionate resolutions that lead to measurable outcomes.

Guiding Principles

Access to Housing

Prioritizing permanent housing stability is essential in addressing any challenge an individual experiences. A stable home provides improved outcomes for employment, health, and education.

Data-Driven

By maintaining and using real-time, high-quality data, we can measure outcomes, identify disparities, and continuously improve programs.

Functional Zero

Homelessness should be rare, brief, and non-recurring. We strive to maintain a system where the number of people experiencing homelessness at any given time does not exceed the community’s capacity to ensure positive exits.

Lived & Living Experiences

Engaging people with lived and living experience of homelessness better shapes solutions and addresses gaps in service needs.

Centering Equity

Any individual can find themselves unhoused. All services should be provided through a lens centered on equity while being accessible, culturally responsive and trauma informed.

Goal 1. Prevent Homelessness Before it Occurs

Preventing homelessness begins with keeping people housed and addressing their immediate needs before they escalate. Emergency rental assistance and rapid re-housing provide critical short- and medium-term support, helping individuals maintain stability during times of crisis. At the same time, tenant advocacy services offer legal guidance and resources to address eviction risks, unsafe living conditions, and other housing disputes that can lead to homelessness. Taken together, these strategies make a substantial difference in helping households maintain stable housing while making meaningful progress toward a better quality of life

Objective 1.1. Identify Tenant Advocacy Services Partnerships

• Identify ways to partner or support tenant advocacy services that provide opportunities for residents to access resources designed to assist in maintaining quality housing, resolving disputes with landlords, receive appropriate legal services and empower tenants with "know your rights" educational training.

Objective 1.2. Increase Emergency Rental Assistance

• Continue to use Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) money to provide funding for the City of Champaign Township's Emergency Rental Assistance Program.
• Provide additional funds for rental assistance, aiming to increase the number of individuals and impact for those who need these services.

Objective 1.3. Expand Rapid Re-Housing Funding for Short Term and Medium-Term Support Up to 24 Months

• Provide additional funding to community partners to increase prevention options for eligible RRH participants, allowing more households to be served, and providing flexibility to adjust support levels as needs change (i.e., moving short-term participants to medium-term as needed).

Goal 2. Strengthen Crisis Response & Emergency Services

Strengthening crisis response and emergency services ensures individuals and families facing serious hardship can access immediate, appropriate support. This includes addressing substance use, mental health crises, and the loss of shelter or access to basic hygiene facilities. Key efforts include expanding street outreach to proactively provide support to wherever individuals are, partnering to provide a multi-use day center, and expanding shelter options to meet diverse needs of households.

Objective 2.1. Enhance Crisis Response and Emergency Services related to Substance Use

• The City’s Equity and Engagement Department will provide immediate response to individuals facing a substance use crisis which may include treatment, harm reduction, prevention, and support services.
• Collaborate with community partners who provide services related to immediate intervention of overdoses, recovery and treatment bed options, and emergency shelter options.

Objective 2.2. Research the Feasibility of a Day Center for Unhoused Residents

• Identify service providers and possible funding to support a day center that offers essential services such as laundry, showers, and programs; while also allowing access to supportive services.
• Locate space that could have multi-use capability to serve as an overflow emergency shelter during extreme weather conditions.

Objective 2.3. Explore a Multi-Jurisdictional, Public-Private, Financially Sustainable Emergency Shelter Model

• Work with Strides and other partners to identify the operating and financial needs to continue an emergency shelter.
• Explore the possibility of creating a multi-jurisdictional fund to support an emergency shelter with the purpose of creating a county-wide, year-round response managed by a third-party fiscal agent.
• Provide financial support to the City of Champaign Township for the continuation of operating Strides during the exploration period.

Objective 2.4. Expand Street Outreach Services

• Examine the City's Co-Responder Team’s capacity to provide street outreach.
• Seek out partner organizations to provide street outreach staff, helping address gaps in coverage and ensuring an expanded community-wide reach.

Goal 3. Expand Access to Safe, Affordable, & Permanent Housing

It is critical that we provide a housing supply and options beyond emergency shelter. Having a healthy supply of safe, affordable and permanent housing not only creates opportunities for those experiencing homelessness to eventually move into permanent housing, but it helps prevent many from slipping into homelessness. We must ensure this supply includes a combination of preserving existing housing, promoting the construction of additional housing units, and providing support services and programming that allow residents to obtain and maintain long-term housing.

Objective 3.1. Preserve the Existing Affordable Housing Stock

• Continue to use Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds to support owner-occupied housing rehabilitation for low- to moderate-income households, focusing on safety repairs and accessibility improvements.
• Design an exterior home repair program aimed at extending the life of affordable homes, including possible flexible local funding sources such as Tax Increment Financing (TIF).
• Create a rental rehabilitation program which provides incentive for landlords to make repairs in exchange for maintaining affordable rents over a set time period.

Objective 3.2. Foster the Development of Additional Affordable Housing Units

• Coordinate with developers pursuing Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) funding through the application process.
• Seek Community Revitalization Area designations to receive a competitive advantage in funding.
• Identify potential City-owned properties that could be marketed for new LIHTC development.
• Support Housing Authority of Champaign County (HACC) development initiatives through HOME Consortium funding and provide knowledge of land disposition, infrastructure, and development processes.

Objective 3.3. Support the Creation of Additional Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH)

• Identify partnerships to seek funding opportunities in facilitating the development of new permanent supportive housing and service delivery.

Objective 3.4. Provide Resources for Both Landlords and Tenants to Maintain Affordable Housing

• Seek out partners to form a Landlord Mitigation Program and Fund to provide rent payment assurance and damage insurance to encourage landlords to rent to those experiencing or who are at risk of homelessness (i.e., poor credit, past eviction, legal challenges, criminal history).
• Work with local partners to develop a comprehensive tenant education toolkit that outlines rights and responsibilities, repair processes, access to assistance, and financial literacy.

Goal 4. Collaborate with Partners on Shared Solutions

A key goal for addressing homelessness will be based on the intentional collaboration with community partners and governmental entities. This collaboration will include strong coordination with the local Continuum of Service Providers to the Homeless (CSPH) which leads efforts to address homelessness for Champaign County. The Continuum collects data, identifies gaps in service, and works to streamline processes to ensure the needs of our most vulnerable are met.

Objective 4.1. Collaborate with the University of Illinois Campus-Community Compact to Design and Establish a Place-Based Center that Responds to Community Needs

• Partner with University and service providers to research and develop a plan for a Center that would be a focal point in assessing needs and delivering services for homeless people, as well as other community members needing diverse services through coordinated service provision and innovative service development.

Objective 4.2. Create a Flexible Barrier Reduction Fund to Address Unmet Needs

• Create a Barrier Reduction Fund with flexible financial use to enhance services by addressing unmet needs that can continue to emerge and hinder progress towards stability of many individuals currently unhoused or at risk of becoming homeless.

Objective 4.3. Partner with the Continuum of Service Providers to the Homeless (CSPH) in the Implementation of its Strategic Plan

• Partner with identified service providers to assist in securing support for, and implementation of strategies identified in CSPH's strategic plan and are aligned with our Blueprint's vision.