THE QUESTION
The question “What’s happening with your apartment?” is probably shorthand for something like “What is happening in the process of you getting a good job, some money saved, and a place to live rented?”
However, to a homeless person who wants very much to have an apartment of their own—or any decent place to live—it is a demeaning and demoralizing insult. People on the street often ask homeless people stupid things—like why the person does not just go home. Or why the person does not want to live indoors. Or why the person likes sleeping on the sidewalk.
The unhoused person might have dreams about that elusive apartment every single night. Or maybe nightmares.
Being homeless means having to find a way to respond to crazy, insulting, embarrassing, and just plain foolish questions often. Why are the rich housed persons—who dwell indoors—so terribly clueless about what it means to be outdoors so much? Live outdoors? Sleep outdoors?
Is living outdoors so “other” or “other-worldly” or “alien” or “bizarre” that your average rich indoor-dwelling Chicagoan feels it is not important to be polite to people living in the rough? Not important to be decent to their fellow man? Or woman? Or entire family who lives in, on, or behind a dumpster?
LIVING—INDOORS—IN DENIAL
Perhaps many people have grown up in a society full of denial. We know there are over 10,000 homeless families in Chicago, but sometimes we act like there aren’t really that many (Family homelessness in Chicago: 10,000 families, almost 80% doubled-up - Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (chicagohomeless.org)). At least that was the figure a couple years ago.
The figure is probably much higher now because of all of the chaos wrought by COVID-19. In fact, the Chicago Coalition for the homeless says that even higher numbers of homeless will be seen now because of the pandemic. The poorest in the city face the biggest challenges, and Blacks will see the greatest increase in dwelling without a roof (Homeless-Estimate-2021_FINAL.pdf (chicagohomeless.org)).
Many people think there are a few people under a viaduct who are non-housed and that they represent the sum total of that population. 32 people? 14? Others think there are a few un-roofed people in the Chicago shelters—and that number probably represents 50 or 100 more people. However, in reality the number of persons in shelters has been well over 20,000 annually for several years now (2018-Fact-Sheet.pdf (pcdn.co)).
We know that no-roof dwellers wish to be indoors. That is factual. The literature on home-challenged individuals and families is full of this information. A simple search on this topic will give you many, many “hits” proving this.
FOOLISH THINGS PEOPLE SAY
Despite most people knowing that homeless people do not want to be homeless, sometimes people say foolish things. Even Alderman James Cappleman of Chicago’s Ward 46 was confused on this topic. Recently, some homeless turned down housing they were given—apparently for a variety of reasons—and that drew the following response from Patricia Nix-Hodes, Director of the Law Project of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.
Nix-Hodes stated very clearly, “People experiencing homelessness want and need permanent housing. It is simply false to claim otherwise. The city needs to create significant dedicated funding for permanent housing for Chicagoans who lack housing, including those living in the street…” (Ald. Cappleman discusses 46th Ward walk/bike projects, and the LSD viaduct issue – Streetsblog Chicago).
What seems to have happened was that some individuals from the tents under the viaduct were presented with housing, but without enough support to help the non-housed actually succeed in a tradition to living indoors.
SOME NEEDED RESOURCES
What seems to be needed in the case of the non-roofed moving indoors is a good system of “wrap-around services" or consistent and wide-reaching support services that provide whatever assistance is needed by the homeless. There are definitely resources available for helping. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) gives grants aimed at codifying the services needed, writing down the ideas on how to help, designing curriculum to teach counselors what is needed, and how to access such information—plus share it with other communities and service providers nationwide.
One such example is the curriculum developed through a HUD grant (Transition to Permanent Housing (hudexchange.info)). “Making the Transition to Permanent Housing,” gives examples of a wide range of support needed to make the move successful. There are many models and approaches, including the highly-successful “Housing First” system of getting homeless persons indoors and giving them all the support they should need to be successful in that transition.
HOUSING FIRST
The National Alliance to End Homelessness uses Housing First for the big transition. “Housing First is a homeless assistance approach that prioritizes providing permanent housing to people experiencing homelessness, thus ending their homelessness and serving as a platform from which they can pursue personal goals and improve their quality of life. This approach is guided by the belief that people need basic necessities like food and a place to live before attending to anything less critical, such as getting a job, budgeting properly, or attending to substance use issues…” (Housing First - National Alliance to End Homelessness). Housing First is based on the idea that giving the individual some choice is valuable in housing selection and supportive service participation, and that making such choices might be a good way to make the non-housed individual a client more successful in remaining housed and improving their life.
Housing First involves some amount of work, and some cost, to be effective. However, the plan is to get ahold of the non-housed person and move them directly indoors. “Rather than moving homeless individuals through different "levels" of housing, whereby each level moves them closer to "independent housing" (for example: from the streets to a public shelter, and from a public shelter to a transitional housing program, and from there to their own apartment in the community), Housing First moves the homeless individual or household immediately from the streets or homeless shelters into their own accommodation (Housing First - Wikipedia). This model is used in different cities and towns all over the nation.
Although a homeless-person-moved-indoors might not need every single form of support a counselor can imagine providing, they need some help and of course some respect. It is important to extend those various choices to the person being assisted. The National Alliance materials remind us that “The Housing First approach views housing as the foundation for life improvement and enables access to permanent housing without prerequisites or conditions beyond those of a typical renter” (Housing First - National Alliance to End Homelessness).
LIVING INDOORS—IN REALITY
It is important to explain to rich persons living indoors what a few of the barriers to getting inside in fact are. First, money is needed…not just for the deposit and the rent, but also for household supplies, deposits for utilities, and furnishings, food, utensils, and dry goods. Gotta have towels, gotta have sheets. Once that fortune is amassed, all should be well.’
Seriously, given the right support, the roofless person may be able to “make a go of it.” There are several agencies in Chicago that provide free furniture to families, free food (see other articles on StreetSense about pantries and other resources) and other items. Some agencies can help with deposits for utilities, others can help get you a sandwich, some grapes, a bottle of water, or maybe some chocolate chip muffins! Help is out there.
SOME MYTHS ABOUT SERVICES
Sometimes indoor-sleepers think it is easy as pie for homeless people to actually get to the services they need and receive costly items. Some things take time. Here are some items a person may not be able to get their hands on the same day they go to an agency for assistance:
--Weekly CTA pass
--Motel room or apartment
--Furniture or household items
--Travel money home (out of town or out of state)
--Legal fees for custody or divorce issues
--Free government telephone
--Food stamp card/LINK/SNAP
--State ID or driver’s license
Some of these will arrive in the mail in a couple days—or weeks. If in doubt, persons should ask the counselor assisting the visitor. Other items may take time to “kick in” or take time for the dollars to be “loaded onto the card,” as examples.
So what can people do to help? They can volunteer for a dozen different roles at pantries, at church, in agencies providing counseling, rides, and CTA passes, plus many other ways—giving money, donating slightly-used clothing, and handing over those old bath towels that can still be used for a while.
THERE IS HOPE
There is indeed hope for the clueless person who asks somebody questions like “What’s happening with your apartment?” They can volunteer, give money, recycle cans, donate those old unmatched tumbler and dish sets, and provide moral support to people who, yes, desperately want to get indoors to sleep and eat and relax and just plain “dwell” like most people do.
There are many ways to help non-housed residents all over Chicago—from the Loop outward. One example is the Chicago Loop Alliance (How to help the homeless (loopchicago.com)). Another way to help is with the Wednesday dinners—and more—provided the Chicago Help Initiative (Wednesday Dinners | The Chicago Help Initiative).
All food and clothing pantries need volunteers for everything from planning to sorting to helping clients understand food labels. One pantry known for its helpful treatment of the non-housed is Care For Real, with food, clothing, and even a pet pantry. Yes, some non-roof residents do have a cat or dog being helped somewhere while the person is homeless—the animal still needs to eat while the guardian is temporarily dwelling outside! (Volunteer – CareForReal).
Many churches have “soup kitchens” though not all still call the meal program that anymore, and there are a variety of agencies helping to provide housing, rides, health insurance, and other forms of support. There is no shortage of places to volunteer time and money, donate goods and services, and offer prayer, encouragement, enthusiasm, charity, and friendship. Good karma is good karma.
A NEW AND BETTER QUESTION
“What’s happening with your plan to help others” might be a new and pointed question being asked up and down the street as indoor-dwellers go about their daily duties.
Great article!