By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – The people addressing the homeless situation these days are throwing around the phrase “functional zero.”

“When we say, ‘end homelessness,’ that really means that we have a system that when people come into a homelessness situation, there is a resource for them on the other side and that we are very quickly able to connect them to said resource to stabilize their housing situation,” said Christine Haley, the state’s new homelessness chief.

She spoke to the first meeting of the Illinois House Housing Committee since Gov. JB Pritzker’s State of the State message included a “Home Illinois” program to tackle homelessness.

Describing one strategy, Haley said, “Rapid rehousing is a housing model where a family is usually provided with a short-term rental subsidy and then intensive wraparound support. It’s really focused on employment or income support, so that, over a two-year period, that family is able to take over the lease they are living in on their own.”

Rockford’s homeless prevention program is viewed as being the closest to “functional zero” in the state.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected].