Healthcare Alternative Systems

About Healthcare Alternative Systems

Healthcare Alternative Systems in Chicago, Illinois, is a recovery residence operator and behavioral health provider with two men's houses in Cook County.

Fifty Years of Bilingual Behavioral Health

Healthcare Alternative Systems began in 1974 as a response to health disparities among Chicago's Hispanic community and has served the city for more than fifty years. It delivers affordable, culturally appropriate and bilingual behavioral health services. Bilingual delivery is not a courtesy in a city this size; for a resident whose first language is Spanish it decides whether the support attached to the housing is usable at all.

Programs Beyond the Housing

The organization's programs span community services, mental health, substance use, domestic violence and anger management alongside its residential arm. A resident of one of its houses is inside an organization that can also supply clinical and social services, so a need that surfaces after a man moves in does not automatically send him to a new provider.

Healthcare Alternative Systems Recovery Homes

Two of the organization's sites are residential. The men's residential program is at 1949 North Humboldt Boulevard and the transitional housing program for men is at 1866 North Milwaukee Avenue. Both stand on the Northwest Side of Chicago.

Housing First as Operating Policy

The organization works on a housing-first basis, with no preconditions or program-completion requirements before someone can be housed. Recovery coaches, housing specialists and peer mentors staff that work. A housing specialist on the payroll is the sign of an organization treating the next address as its own responsibility rather than as something a resident sorts out on his way out the door.

Certification and Standing

IAEC lists Healthcare Alternative Systems among Illinois' certified recovery residence providers, which holds the residential arm to recovery housing standards and not only to clinical licensing.

A Chicago and Suburban Footprint

Headquartered at 4734 West Chicago Avenue, the organization reaches across the city and into DuPage and suburban Cook counties, with service locations in Wheaton, Broadview, Melrose Park and Bellwood. Wheaton is the DuPage County seat, and Broadview, Melrose Park and Bellwood are neighboring villages in western Cook County. Both residences sit on the Northwest Side.