Cunningham Township approves grants and MOUs to expand homelessness services, reports clean audit
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Summary
Cunningham Township accepted a clean FY2025 audit and approved three measures: fiscal sponsorship for a Continuum of Service Providers grant, an MOU with a mobile community health provider, and MOUs for a workforce placements program to support people exiting homelessness.
Cunningham Township Supervisor Danielle Chenoweth told the township board on Jan. 12 that the township received a clean audit for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, and that the board should authorize a set of contracts and memoranda that expand housing, health and workforce supports for people experiencing homelessness.
The auditor, Jamie Wilkie of Lotterback & Ammon LLP, said the township’s financial statements earned an unmodified (clean) opinion and that auditors found no material adjusting journal entries or reportable internal-control deficiencies. Wilkie noted a management recommendation about continuing IT/cybersecurity awareness and highlighted grant-reporting sections in the packet.
After the audit presentation, the board moved three agenda items. First, the township approved Resolution T2026-01-001R authorizing the supervisor to sign a contract designating Cunningham Township as fiscal sponsor for a continuum-of-care grant (identified in materials as an IDHS collaboration grant) that the board described as about $80,800. Supervisor Chenoweth said the award will fund capacity building and strategic planning across the region’s continuum of service providers; the contractor selected through a competitive process will lead community meetings, surveys and focus groups with stipends for people with lived experience.
The board next approved Resolution T2026-01-002R, authorizing an MOU with Community Health Partnership of Illinois to provide on-site and mobile clinical services for program participants. Chenoweth said Community Health Partnership takes Medicaid and most insurance, provides a sliding fee and agreed to waive the first-visit fee for uninsured clients; the township would cover up to $25 for that first visit and would be invoiced for those subsidized appointments.
Finally, the board approved Resolution T2026-01-003R to authorize MOUs with host worksites for the “Careers in Motion” workforce program. Supervisor Chenoweth and guests Bonnie Miller (workforce development coordinator) and a University of Illinois researcher described a model that trains and places up to 20 participants in 20-hour-per-week host-site placements paid at or near minimum wage, with a completion bonus. Program staff said participants receive training (including ethics and human-subjects protocol training where applicable) and that the initiative aims to create a pipeline from shelter or supportive services into employment.
Each resolution passed on roll call. The supervisor and board members emphasized the regional nature of homelessness response and said the grants and MOUs are intended to build coordinated capacity across municipalities and service providers.
The auditor’s management letter and the audit packet, Wilkie said, also include required state grant reporting (GATA) schedules and notice of forthcoming GASB pronouncements; the township will work with staff to implement recommended accounting updates.
The township presentation concluded with an offer from staff to provide more detailed charts and analysis once interns and consultants compile additional data.
What’s next: the township will finalize contracts and begin the capacity-building timeline described in the packet, with community engagement planned through the spring.
