Deborah’s Place opens doors of opportunity for women who are homeless in Chicago. Supportive housing and services offer women their key to healing, achieving their goals and moving on from the experience of homelessness.
We seek to fulfill our mission through the expression of our core values:
- We believe that safe, clean and affordable housing is a right.
- We believe that every woman has the potential to achieve her goals and determine her future.
- We believe that women heal from life traumas through healthy relationships and a caring, supportive community.
- We believe we must seek to affirm diversity, strive to be inclusive of individual identities and experiences, and work to create an intentional and equitable community of residents, staff, volunteers, and donors
- We believe in striving for continual growth, development and excellence in the supportive housing and services we provide.
- We believe that our impact is greatest when we work in collaboration with individuals, organizations and the community at large.
Our History
We were founded by a group of women with means and connections to address what they saw as a great need in the Chicago community, a need to serve unaccompanied women experiencing homelessness. Deborah’s Place started out humbly as an overnight shelter in a church basement. Over the years, the organization evolved as the needs of the population changed.
With two program locations and more than 200 units of housing across the city, Deborah’s Place is now the largest provider of permanent supportive housing in Chicago exclusively for unaccompanied women. We serve more than 500 women a year with the goal that once a woman comes to Deborah’s Place, she will never be homeless again.
After 35 years of service, there is still a great need for Deborah’s Place. Unaccompanied women experiencing homelessness are still an underserved population that is growing, despite declines in homelessness overall. Without the support of our donors, we could not face the future with hope that we can continue to make a difference in the lives of women and help them achieve their goals and greater self-determination.