HB3761 104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB104 11105 KTG 21187 b

104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2025 and 2026
HB3761

Introduced 2/18/2025, by Rep. Lindsey LaPointe

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

New Act

Creates the Hospitals and Homelessness Support Act. Requires the Office to Prevent and End Homelessness within the Department of Human Services to maintain on its publicly accessible website information on how a hospital or healthcare system may connect a patient experiencing homelessness or otherwise in a vulnerable housing situation with shelter and homeless support services for each continuum of care in the State. Requires the Department to ensure that the information required includes, for each continuum of care, any phone number, email address, physical address, primary agencies, or any other information that may be necessary for a person in that continuum of care territory to begin accessing shelter or other homelessness services. Requires the Department to include, where possible, a specific phone number that a hospital or health care facility may call and specific language to use. Requires the Department to also include on its website a way for the hospital or healthcare system to determine which continuum of care applies based on the physical location of the hospital or healthcare system. Requires other information, all of which must be added to the Department's website by October 31, 2025. Contains provisions concerning annual audits.

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning State government.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Hospitals and Homelessness Support Act.

Section 5. Legislative findings.

(a) The General Assembly finds that there is a significant number of people experiencing homelessness in Illinois who are discharged or transferred from hospitals without adequate support or information pertaining to shelter and homeless support services. Too often, these Illinois residents are put back on the street with little connection to critical transitional care or support, including basic shelter. These Illinois residents who are experiencing homelessness frequently experience severe adverse health consequences, including death. According to a report prepared by the University of Illinois at Chicago and published by the Department of Public Health in July 2024, there were approximately 10,000 people experiencing "literal homelessness" in Illinois between 2017 and 2022, meaning that they were living in shelters, on the street, or in other places not meant for human habitation. Further, research demonstrates that people experiencing homelessness are at an increased risk and severity for many acute and chronic health conditions, experiencing the effects of these health conditions 10 to 20 years earlier than the general population, often resulting in premature death.

(b) The General Assembly further finds that, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increase of 36.6% in deaths of people experiencing homelessness, compared to a 6.1% increase in deaths for the general population over the same time period. Between 2017 and 2022, a total of 1,428,984 visits from people experiencing homelessness were recorded in statewide hospital records. Approximately 15-20% of these visits were due to injuries, 28,860 of these visits were related to assaults, and 15,578 of these visits followed suicide attempts. The majority of people experiencing homelessness were discharged to "home" or "self-care," which includes a discharge to the streets, which can result in further negative health outcomes. According to the 2024 annual Point-in-Time Count and Survey Report conducted by the City of Chicago as directed by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), 18,836 Chicago residents were experiencing homelessness on January 25, 2024. Of this count, 17,202 were residing in a shelter, while 1,634 were in an unsheltered location. According to the Office to Prevent and End Homelessness within the Department of Human Services, on any given night in Illinois, an estimated 25,806 people are experiencing literal homelessness - that is, living in shelters and transitional housing programs, in parks and abandoned buildings, in cars and in barns. The 2024-2026 plan developed by the Illinois Interagency Task Force on Homelessness, led by the Office to Prevent and End Homelessness, estimates that 26,004 additional shelter, transitional, and permanent housing units are needed to make adequate shelter space and homeless support services available to every person experiencing homelessness. Accomplishing this goal would mean homelessness has been measurably "ended", or that homelessness would have reached "functional zero". It is clear that more capacity for shelter and housing, both transitional and permanent, is needed. It is also clear that more efficient and effective connections to existing shelter and homeless support services are needed.

(c) Research shows that there are persistent adverse health effects that individuals often endure after experiencing homelessness even for a short period of time. Research also shows that there are opportunities to improve systems of homelessness care in Illinois, in particular with hospitals due to the frequency of hospital visits for people experiencing homelessness. The healthcare system, the shelter and homeless support services system, housing providers, local governments, and the State all have a role to play in crafting solutions. Hospitals, homeless shelter and service providers, Medicaid managed care organizations, State agencies, and others, are all critical partners. It is paramount to ensure that vulnerable populations, like those experiencing homelessness, are regularly and reliably connected to the services that they need, both in health care settings and afterward.

Section 10. Centralized information on continuum of care access.

(a) The Office to Prevent and End Homelessness within the Department of Human Services shall maintain on its publicly accessible website information on how a hospital or healthcare system may connect a patient experiencing homelessness or otherwise in a vulnerable housing situation with shelter and homeless support services for each continuum of care in the State. As used in this Section, "continuum of care" refers to the regional or local planning bodies mandated by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that coordinate housing and services funding for homeless families and individuals.

(b) The Department shall ensure that the information required by subsection (a) of this Section includes, for each continuum of care, any phone number, email address, physical address, primary agencies, or any other information that may be necessary for a person in that continuum of care territory to begin accessing shelter or other homelessness services. Where possible, the Department shall include a specific phone number that a hospital or health care facility may call and specific language to use.

(c) The Department shall also include on its website a way for the hospital or healthcare system to determine which continuum of care applies based on the physical location of the hospital or healthcare system.

(d) The information required by this Section shall be added to the Department's website no later than October 31, 2025. During the month of January 2026, and every January thereafter, the information required by this Section shall be audited, with any necessary updates made no later than the 31st of that month. During the month of July 2026, and every July thereafter, the information required by this Section shall be audited, with any necessary updates made no later than the 31st of that month.