We just added 30 new opportunities for housing, support, and achievement.
We kicked off 2026 with an exciting announcement: we are adding thirty apartments to our caseload with the establishment of the Audrey Thomas Permanent Housing Program—and we’re doing this without putting up a single wall.
The Audrey Thomas Permanent Housing Program will be part of our existing roster of scattered-site units, through which women are connected to Deborah’s Place while living across the city of Chicago. In fact, Deborah’s Place serves more women elsewhere in the community than within the walls of our own buildings: last year, over 200 women participated in these scattered-site programs.
This model expands our capacity beyond what would be possible if we were limited to buildings owned and operated by our organization. By making independent property owners our partners in providing the housing itself, we’re better able to focus on what really makes Deborah’s Place special: supportive services that meet women where they’re at and help them achieve stability. Scattered-site supportive housing also means that the impact becomes real immediately—rather than waiting years for a new building to be developed, built, inspected, and filled, existing apartments become near-instant solutions to homelessness for dozens of women.
Of course, both on-site and scattered-site supportive housing are valuable parts of our model. We believe that each woman’s journey and needs are uniquely her own as she recovers from homelessness. For one woman, the Rebecca Johnson or Patty Crowley Apartments provide the support she needs, where she can live and grow among women who deeply understand her experience of homelessness. For another, the opportunity to live closer to her job, family, or church can provide a life-changing sense of healing through community and independence.
Audrey Thomas worked at Deborah’s Place for thirty-seven years, serving as Chief Executive Officer for eighteen of those years. In that time, she was a fierce advocate for Permanent Supportive Housing as one of the most essential and effective tools in ending homelessness, and oversaw a period of immense growth in the organization’s impact. It’s only fitting that this new program be named for her and honor those contributions.
You can help make these apartments into homes for the thirty participants in the new Audrey Thomas Permanent Housing Program by donating essential home goods.