Profile of a Homeless Person: Connie

Connie is a nursing student who needs to keep studying for her state test leading to full-time employment.  She must pass the test for the sort of job she needs.  She had started nursing school and was working part-time only, not making much money.  Her husband, who is considerably older, was supporting her financially and was encouraging her to complete her studies and sit for the exam.  Things seemed to be hunky dory.

But then, about two years ago, they came to a parting of the ways.  There were big arguments, she shares.  “It was pretty obvious he was cheating on me and when I pressed him on it, he didn’t deny it.”  While she does not go into details, she makes it clear the divorce was a “good idea” because of “the other kinds of things” her husband had gotten involved in.

Connie is now homeless – and has been since the end of September, 2020.

Without her husband’s contribution to the rent, Connie got evicted from the apartment she and her husband had been living in for six years.  Going two months without paying any rent at all – it made no sense to give any money to the landlord since that would have taken every dime she had – she was suddenly sleeping at friends’ apartments, on the bus, and anywhere else that was safe enough to let down her guard.

Connie is one of the lucky homeless.  She even calls herself “part-time homeless.”  She has an elderly grandmother who owns her home and lives nearby in a small town.  Connie can get there on the train.  She sings near the train station and gets enough money to buy her ticket each Thursday to go “take care of her grandmother.”

Helping out her grandma gives her a place to sleep Thursday through Sunday nights.  She comes back into Chicago early Monday morning for classes.  She works nights after class a couple nights a week, sleeps wherever, and then gets to class again each morning, with no classes on Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

Her grandma is showing signs of Alzheimer’s Disease.  Connie adores her grandma, loves working with older persons, and hopes to specialize in helping them.  She has top grades and would love to get her master degree (MSN), once she has gotten to that point.

So in the meantime, Connie has to: stay safe and sound (and alive), survive long enough to meet her immediate needs like food, finish her undergraduate degree, get a job, find and fund an apartment, pay off bills, pay back some friends, and then apply to graduate school.

Will all this happen?  Connie says she is a nervous wreck – but she does not show any signs of it.  Each time I see her and talk to her, she is wearing the same lavender scrubs with the little flowers on the collar.  She loves working in the nursing home where she does very basic work but also plans to apply for a job somewhere.

She loves her job.  “The pay there is terrible,” she says.  “But it is in my field and the recommendations can count for so much!”  She smiles and takes a sip of her coffee.

She says people do not know she is homeless.  She does not think she looks homeless, “whatever that is,” she laughs.  She and I know each other because she is a friend – maybe more? – with a good buddy of mine who left Chicago recently to take a job in another state.  I do not know her well, but I have always said hello to her or waved. 

People have a stereotypic image of what homeless people look like.  They do not think homeless people have goals, look presentable, have college degrees, help other people, focus on careers to help other people, and all of the other myriad range of things individuals do and believe and hope for.

Connie is hard working, attractive, hopeful about her future.  She has had a challenge come up – divorce and then following eviction.  She has not given up.  She hopes to get her degree, pass her test, have a place to live, and study even more.

I ask her if anyone knows she is homeless.  She thinks a moment, then replies, “One of my professors knows… she figured it out when overhearing a conversation I was having on my phone…”  Connie laughs, and then frowns, “I think my grandma knows too… but she has not said anything.”

Connie insists she will not tell her grandmother.  She will focus on other things and will deny it if the old woman asks.

I ask why she would do that.

She replies, “I wouldn’t want to worry her and she has enough to deal with… her forgetfulness is starting to be a big problem.”

She does not want people, in general, to know she is homeless.  Certainly she does not want readers who are total strangers to know it.  She does not want me to use her real name when I tell her story.

Connie wants to achieve her goals, protect her grandma, and keep moving forward.   

I wonder if Connie can make it.  “Do you need anything?” I ask her.

“No, not really… I am fine,” she responds. 

When asked if she could live at her grandma’s house, she says no, that there simply isn’t enough room.  In addition, taking the train would require a weekly or monthly train pass, and that gets into money.

While some social service agencies are providing more train/bus passes right now because of more attention to the dire situations encountered by homeless and other individuals right now – and there is COVID19 relief money currently – most do not offer travel cards on a regular basis.  Further, most the travel passes provide one or two rides – hardly enough to travel out to her grandmother’s town.

I ask her about money, and she responds she has little, needs food and clothing and money.  I give her the name of a food pantry that has a “clothing closet” available and mention I have seen many pastel scrubs there (guessing they are for women to wear), in addition to a lot of paper products for women.  Given her classes and job, she could wear scrubs all day long.  She has her laptop with her, so I show her how to connect with the pantry.

I also show her the Illinois page where she can connect with the LINK card people – SNAP dollars recently increased because of emergency funds coming from COVID19 relief.

Connie is tall, blond, Caucasian, and determined.  She is one of the many Chicago homeless persons working hard all day, saving their money, and sleeping wherever they can.

She feels she is actually very lucky.  She has her strong faith in God, her grandma to care for and to stay with part-time, and friends and co-workers who she says “are very cool.”

I pray Connie makes it.  She will be a good example for other people who need help and encouragement.  She is in a helping profession.  She says she has everything covered and is getting more resources every day.

She just needs a place to live.