From a distance—or from across the street—this Chicago homeless situation is perplexing, frustrating, confusing, and complex. How to solve it?
There are now two huge groups of homeless persons (including those in shelters, sleeping at grandma’s, staying at various sorts of migrant landings, crashing in cars, living in tents, dosing off in McDonalds, and stuck in hotels). One group in the media every day – as it should be – is the migrant group mostly from Venezuela but also with a few from Colombia, Haiti, South American regions, and other points of abandon. The number reported varies, but suffice it to say this group is now numbered at over 20,000.
The huge majority of the persons do not arrive with health records and do not speak English. Once persons the mayor’s administration was going to do everything possible to help, they are now considered problematic and uncooperative.
Last fall, the mayor decided they had 60 days to get out of the emergency shelters they were in, darn it, and find a place to live.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
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Calls recently from most of the aldermen have asked him to rescind that policy (Chicago alderpeople push back at 60-day shelter limit for migrants | WBEZ Chicago). He has done so.
There was also a plan to build a ghetto of temporary, policed tents. That plan is now on hold. Scrapped for good since calmer minds have prevailed?
The idea is apparently to get the migrants out and the mayor’s office is apparently hoping the migrants can become more “independent” and find places to live.
This, despite the fact that many cannot speak a word of English and have no idea how to begin negotiating the disaster called Chicago bureaucracy to get anything done.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson's Deputy Chief of Staff Cristina Pacione-Zayas actually said—where people could hear it and record it and write it down—that the Venezuelans will probably find a place to live on their own. She added they must be pretty “resilient” after all—if they can travel across six countries to get here.
Her comment might make her famous.
Channel 5 last fall reported on the current situation (in October) which shows the ever-changing policies on what to do with the new arrivals. Note this quote about what is happening, or not happening, with the Chicago homeless—not the migrants:
“Many residents of the neighborhood — which has a sizable immigrant population — sympathized with the plight of the recent arrivals, but they wondered why immigrants who have been here for years aren’t receiving the same levels of help” (Why are migrants coming to Illinois and Chicago? – NBC Chicago).
So what is involved when the average homeless person on the street has to approach the city to get a place to live, in an emergency, including during winter weather?
First, the person calls 311 and gets a referral to get services from a group called “AllChicago” (Preventing & Ending Homelessness - All Chicago).
Looking at their website, we see AllChicago ends homelessness in four ways. They tell us,
1. We provide critical financial assistance to people experiencing an emergency that could lead to homelessness or other crises.
2. We convene key stakeholders and drive collaboration to lead Chicago’s citywide response to ending homelessness through our Continuum of Care.
3. We manage a citywide database to collect and analyze data on people experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness and the services they receive.
4. We offer our trainings, tools, information and research to our partners to help us build capacity to address homelessness more effectively (How We Are Ending Homelessness - All Chicago).
So that makes it very clear what Jose’ (and his wife from Venezuela who do not speak any English and who need dependable safe housing immediately for themselves and their two children) need to do to get a place to live, fast. This is with the help of a street worker, social worker, case worker, or counselor in an agency showing them this page of the website.
Problem solved.
Okay, so how good is AllChicago at getting people off the street and into housing?
This brings us to our second huge group of homeless persons in the city.
Two years ago, we had over 58,000 homeless people in Chicago.
One year ago, we had over 59,000 homeless people in Chicago.
This year, we will have well over 60,000 homeless people in Chicago.
The growth in the homeless population in Chicago seems to be outpacing the number of people being placed into housing by AllChicago—or by its contractors who help get people into housing.
Perhaps they are short-handed. They currently have over a dozen jobs open (All Chicago Making Homelessness History - Job Opportunities (paylocity.com)).
Are there other forces at work? Is it really the mayor’s fault there is not a clear plan? No English classes? Nobody out there telling the migrants about the English classes? No real interest in getting the over 60,000 Chicago residents off the streets?
It makes a person wonder, does it not? …how so many people can live on the sidewalk, sleep on the train, and plead for cash on the corner year after year with nobody doing much to intervene.
How welcome are homeless people in Chicago? When you get down to the nitty gritty in the old neighborhoods?
The “News-Star,” a neighborhood newspaper in Chicago has a front page article (January 24-January 30, 2024) explaining how members of the Uptown Church are not sure they want a bunch of homeless people living in a shelter to be opened in a building they own.
The previous issue of the "News-Star" featured a front-page story showing the latest (do they happen 7 days a week???) fire under the viaduct... ...and how the fires "weaken the bridges on Lake Shore Drive..." I am not sure the author of that newspaper article supports homeless rights. What I am pretty sure about is that Lake Shore Drive is not going to collapse because of a barbecue grill burning underneath it. But it does make the homeless sound more like out-of-control criminals to think of that image—thousands of cars falling thousands of feet down onto the street below, with thousands of Chicago drivers being trapped and killed in their automobiles.
Rather than coming up with more imaginary problems and issues, why not work harder to help? Why not use resources to help coordinate responses, food, dollars, rides, and education as needed?
There are about a dozen groups helping coordinate—as best they can, given an administration that fights coordination—a response to the overall issues at hand. Policies, laws, budgets, pleas to the governor, fundraising, and policy papers are constant topics for some of the more analytical and insightful and educated members of the Chicago scene.
There are also countless numbers of volunteers out there—out on the street—with their degrees in social work and their creds in street smarts who are on a daily basis helping feed, counsel, transport, and encourage the homeless.
StreetSense is determined to help those assisting the unhoused and unroofed to get information on services, vaccinations, food, and other items to the persons who need them. We report on books, films, research, on-the-street accounts, and more. There are coalitions, councils, aid societies, churches, MSW programs, and retired teachers in Chicago.
We will continue to work to help you get services to the homeless…
Wherever they are from.
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Watch for more articles on this topic to be coming out soon…