Chicago’s Lawndale Christian Health Center provides care and community to the some of the city’s most underserved.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lawndale Christian Health Center opened Hotel 166 in downtown Chicago, where for five months they housed 259 persons experiencing homelessness who were at high-risk of dying of COVID-19 due to their age or medical conditions. “No one at the hotel died of COVID-19, and we showed in this model that fewer people contracted COVID-19,” shares Dr. Thomas Huggett, the organization’s medical director of mobile health. “Furthermore, in this setting, people showed better control of their high blood pressure, diabetes, substance use disorder, and mental health conditions.”
What LCHC accomplished with Hotel 166 would not have been possible without partnerships including the Chicago Departments of Public Health, Family and Support Services, Housing, and other city departments, as well as academic institutions like Rush, UIC, and Northwestern. Other partners included shelter providers, housing providers, methadone clinics, and generous donors, such as the McGowan Fund.
LCHC was first started back in 1984 by a group of local high school students who were interested in addressing the pressing needs they were witnessing within their neighborhood. Right from the beginning, LCHC was built though partnership, as the students pooled resources and gathered community members to work together to purchase a building for the new organization. That small initial facility included some laundry machines for unhoused people to clean their clothing, as well as a small gym for weightlifting. “The founders knew that the long-term goal, as the number of people they were serving began to grow, needed to address healthcare needs. And so, they worked together, did some fundraising, and were able to buy the building that we still use today on Alexander Avenue,” explains Andrew Koetz, external relations director at Lawndale Christian Health Center. “They wanted a place where community members could meet and gather for church, better their lives and heath, but they also wanted to a space where they could have a few exam rooms.”
Now, 40 years later LCHC sees almost 60,000 patients a year, or approximately 170,000 visits in seven clinic locations. “We’ve got more than a hundred healthcare providers,” says Koetz, “but we’ve also worked hard to retain that focus on community. All of our clinics are located on the west or southwest side of Chicago.” In 2022, the organization also added a mobile health team, which visits an additional 13 shelters all over the Chicago area. “The city of Chicago sees a fair number of immigrants seeking asylum, and our mobile health team also goes to the eight new arrival shelters that the city has set up.”
Lawndale Christian Health Center knows firsthand that true healthcare must take mental health into account, and whether its serving immigrants new the city who are without community, patients who needed to quarantine during COVID, or people experiencing homelessness, the effects of a lack of connection are clear. “During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, people were very isolated from each other, including those experiencing homelessness,” Dr. Huggett explains. “In-person support groups were cancelled, and we had more patients die of opioid overdoses because they weren’t getting the medications or the support they needed in their recovery. But recovery is more than stopping substances—it involves creating positive connections and partnerships to examine the pain or trauma that a person has experienced or is going through and look toward the possibility of purpose. Creating those possibilities of purpose, through reuniting with family members, having a new job, moving into a new apartment with the supports a person needs to sustain it, and deepening spiritual life, will help all of us to create a beloved community and society where all are loved, appreciated, and given a chance to live the life they see for themselves. Seeing examples of this actually happening for our patients is inspiring.”
As Lawndale Christian Health Center continues to grow and serve more people, their impact in the community and city is felt by many. Since their success with Hotel 166, they’ve been officially designated as the lead coordinating organization for all shelters on the west side of Chicago, where they’re in charge of addressing any sort of health needs that arise. “We’re setting the standard of care,” Koetz says. “Dr. Huggett has been doing this work, caring for folks on the west side for almost 30 years, almost entirely for unhoused folks. Seeing his passion for this work is an inspiration to all of us. He’s a tireless advocate and a true representation of the best of what our organization give back to the community.”