Integrated Chicago

H.O.M.E. is born of a philosophy of community, of inviting all people in all their precious individuality to dwell under one tent

Human beings are social beings. We are born to love and connect with others.

Community is the natural outgrowth of our need for one another. It is a need that might change at each stage of our lives, but it is one that remains constant from birth to old age.

H.O.M.E. is born of a philosophy of community, of inviting all people in all their precious individuality to dwell under one tent.

This is H.O.M.E.’s vision for the City of Chicago: Beloved Community.

We are not there yet. Over 102,000 senior households have to make ends meet on less than $30,000 a year. Nearly 4 of 5 older Chicagoans who rent and more than 1 in 3 homeowners can barely afford food, medicine and other necessities.

If the older adult is a woman of color, she is even more likely to live alone, with an income that makes it challenging to meet her housing and health care needs.

H.O.M.E.’s effort to help end racial inequity and social isolation is to promote and support age-inclusive and interracial housing opportunities.

 

 H.O.M.E. uses community itself to effect the change we wish to see in Chicago:

  • H.O.M.E. creates intentionally integrated residences -- not only by age, but race, gender identity, sexual orientation, and religion -- structured around the idea of the chosen family.

  • H.O.M.E. literally and figuratively works with low-income older people where they are. Our community programs -- home repair, moving assistance, and a shopping bus -- are intended to buttress their lives, not someone else’s prescription.

  • H.O.M.E. amplifies the voices of the diverse people it serves and joins with them in advocating for an end to public and private decisions as well as ongoing conditions that chronically disadvantages Black, Latino, Asian, and Indigene people and the neighborhoods in which they predominate.

  • H.O.M.E. believes in the wisdom of working at a small scale. A mass-produced, large scale service can be alienating and dehumanizing. When you start with the person rather than the service, you are more effective and innovative too.

  • H.O.M.E. treats all people with respect, warmth, and joy.