The Business of Homelessness in Evanston

There’s an unspoken economy thriving in Evanston, Illinois—one built not on innovation or integrity, but on the suffering and survival of the unhoused. At the center of this local web is an organization called Connections for the Homeless. Their name implies benevolence. Their brand projects progress. But the reality behind the staged photos and well-lit fundraisers lies something far more insidious: a GRIFT with a mission statement.

I know, because I’ve seen it firsthand.

The Nonprofit That Needs Homelessness to Survive

In my view, Connections for the Homeless is not living up to its stated mission. Based on my firsthand experience and what I’ve observed, much of the public perception around the organization is shaped more by branding than by outcomes. Connections for the Homeless is not a “service provider”. It is a gatekeeper. It is a career pipeline for many college educated elite who claim they are altruistic, and other well connected professionals in Evanston area whose livelihoods depend on keeping the homeless crisis alive, not solving it. Solving homelessness would mean they are out of business and are out of enormous income streams via federal and state provided grant money.

This I implore you all to ask yourselves: If an organization is truly aimed at ending homelessness, would it:

• Hire people with lived experience only if they fit a curated narrative and can be used to serve the organization's image rather than its mission?
• Operate in near-secrecy with virtually no public accountability for outcomes?
• Accept millions in public and private grants while excluding the very people it claims to serve from employment or place them in roles where effective decision-making is barred?
• Prioritize appearances over the safety and well-being of staff, placing them in toxic and potentially dangerous situations with little training, support, or resources?

That has been my personal experience with Connections for the Homeless. I’ve lived it, and I’ve observed others face similar barriers and patterns.

The Business of Suffering

The deeper truth people seem averse to accepting is this: Homelessness has become an industry. It is referred to as “The Homelessness Industrial Complex” Research this. There are tons of articles and evidence by the way of convictions and dissolving of such non-profits and current organizations being charged with these types of egregious offenses. Proper research will reflect with metrics, annual reports, and massive grant cycles—but without meaningful results.

People in Evanston love to feel like they’re helping. Who doesn’t? That’s unfortunately only what Connections for the Homeless offers: A feel-good brand of charity that maintains the illusion of justice while doing nothing to shift the root causes of homelessness: income inequality, housing injustice, racism, and systemic exclusion. They simply are not interested in solutions, but only in maintaining the crisis so they can continue to profit greatly from participants of their program.

They’ll throw a gala before they’ll throw someone fairness and due process. They’ll hold a fundraiser before they hold themselves accountable. They will demonize critics before they take a hard look at themselves and their behaviors. They will continue to exploit the uninformed and vulnerable population who strives to do more for themselves.

Exploitation Disguised as Inclusion

Connections for the Homeless does hire people with lived experience; but not out of a genuine commitment to the empowerment of marginalized. I know this firsthand. I’ve seen how they selectively bring in program participants and other specifically selected individuals to serve as symbolic hires. These roles often come with little support, low pay, and no real decision-making power. Meanwhile, other individuals with similar or even greater lived experience are systematically excluded from these opportunities. This isn’t about equity. It's about optics.

These lived-experience hires are used to enforce compliance within the unhoused community, often tasked with managing or policing their peers, while Connections maintains a public image of inclusivity. It’s not just tokenism. It is akin to exploitation, repackaged as progress.

There have been longstanding community concerns and observations suggesting that some voucher-holding tenants may be placed in properties with personal or organizational ties to those involved in Connections. If true, this raises serious questions of ethics and transparency. This could indicate quietly turning state-funded housing subsidies into a closed-loop revenue stream. The people they claim to help become assets on a balance sheet.

Who Really Benefits?

Connections for the Homeless is deeply entrenched in political and social networks across Evanston and Chicagoland. Their leadership rubs shoulders with city officials, school board members, consultants, and wealthy donors. They're insiders in every sense of the word.

But being well-connected does not mean being just. It does not equate to being “on the right side of humanity”. Full stop. It means being protected. It means you can ignore community complaints, refuse fair and equitable employment practices, and silence dissent. This is because their image is bulletproof. Because their friends run the local paper. Because their organization has all the right buzzwords and banners. Because their proximity to wealth shields them from scrutiny.

In my experience, Connections for the Homeless operates more like a system that manages homelessness rather than one seeking to end it. The structure itself appears built to sustain the crisis, not resolve it. So are they really part of the solution? Or are they a manifestation of something darker?

A Culture of Control, Not Care

My personal experience with Connections reflects what whistleblowers, community members, and other unhoused individuals have shared privately for years: a culture of control and careerism masquerading as compassion. Others who try to speak publicly get shadow banned and censored. I am one of those said outspoken people.

While Connections claims to serve the community, in my experience, their actions have often resulted in the silencing of dissenting voices. They say they offer support, but what they offer is bureaucracy, blame, and more barriers. They’re not building bridges. They’re building a moat between themselves and the people they claim to represent.

Who Will Speak Up? I Will!

So who is really going speak up and out about such a powerful organization in Evanston? I will because most won’t and those who should, don’t. Because in Evanston, Connections for the Homeless is apparently sacred. To criticize senior leadership or raise concerns about how programs like the Margarita Inn are managed is to risk being labeled ungrateful, unstable, or angry. In my experience, the culture discourages open critique. And while it may read as though I am angry; that anger is earned. Please read my other accounts and essays written about Connections for the Homeless posted here on PATCH, if you can locate them. If they haven’t been removed and censored by the powerful network that surrounds Connections for the Homeless.

I’ve spent years trying to claw my way out of poverty.

I’ve asked for a chance—not a handout. I’ve written, applied, showed up, followed up, and have been met with unjust indifference or outright exclusion when I called them out on their failures and misguided procedures. I was seen as a person to manage, not to uplift. All while watching a small circle of so-called college educated elitists and misinformed and misguided nonprofit professionals climb the social ladder using poverty as their rung. To me, this doesn’t feel like charity or equity. It feels like exploitation dressed as progress.

The System Protects Itself

Just like in Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Chicago, the homeless services sector in Evanston is not broken. It is operating exactly as designed. It operates as a permanent crisis economy. Real solutions could threaten job security and funding streams for those working within this entrenched system; especially when status and comfort are tied to the crisis continuing.

Connections for the Homeless is not a solution. It is a symptom of a system that rewards appearances over outcomes. A system that feeds off the poor while pretending to care for them.

A system that will crucify anyone who threatens its comfort or challenges its corruption. I am a prime example of that.

We Deserve Better

If you want to end homelessness, you have to stop worshipping the institutions that depend on its existence. People have to start hiring and protecting those with lived experience, not exploit them as I believe Connections does. Those in regulatory bodies must start listening to whistleblowers. Grant holders and donors need to start defunding the nonprofits that don’t deliver actual results but instead present nicely crafted reports that only support their claims of progress; while intentionally leaving out their failures. You never hear about the people they don’t help or from those they refuse to support, or those they have failed by not implementing proper processes and procedures. That is by design and it is very intentional. Just another loop-hole for them to utilize to continue operating an exploitative organization. People need to start supporting direct action. You need to focus on building real affordable housing. The creation of mutual aid networks is necessary, not just a fallacy or pipe-dream.

People have to stop assuming that "well-connected" means well-intentioned.

Because sometimes, the most connected are in fact the most compromised.

Signed,

A once hopeful, now awake member of the community you failed to uplift.

This essay reflects the author’s personal experiences and observations. The views expressed are opinion-based and should not be interpreted as legal claims or definitive statements of fact.