Homeless in Chicago: Still Not in the Know

This past week, even with all the hustle and bustle of work and school, I made it a point to pause at times and look around. Though what I saw didn’t surprise me, it surely amazed me nonetheless. I noticed passersby not only avoiding beggars on the street, but acting as if this underprivileged population didn’t even exist. “Acting” might be giving these players in society more credit than they deserve. A more realistic interpretation would suggest that the privileged have been conditioned by society to Photoshop the needy out at every encounter. I am no exception. I’ve been editing my line of vision for a long time. However, this past week, I actively curbed this process at times. Below are two photographs of this phenomenon, both taken outside Loyola University Chicago’s Water Tower Campus.

You might think securing help from the plethora of civic-minded, volunteer-oriented millennials walking around this area would be easy; however, you would be wrong. After all, there’s no reward in reaching out to the homeless on your own. College students need that gold star – they need affirmation. I people-watched these two homeless people for over an hour (Is that weird? It’s for journalism... It’s kind of weird, right?) and nobody stopped to help them. Nobody stopped to talk to them. Nobody even acknowledged their presence. The man in the picture above was clearly on a mission and it was hard for me to even keep up with him at times; however, as I sat and watched the man in the photo below, I spent some time thinking how things would be were I in his shoes. I honestly couldn’t get a feel for it. I eventually got up from the stoop I had perched myself on and made my way to a nearby McDonalds. I returned a short while later and offered him some food. He accepted. Further conversation was rebutted, however; but I didn’t mind.

This past Thursday, I once again found myself walking along Michigan Avenue with the guys from Labre Ministry. As you may recall, the Labre Ministry is a student-led organization through Loyola University Chicago. Their purpose is not so much to feed the homeless (though they do), as it is to converse with them – to hear their stories. Most conversations don’t last more than a few minutes; however, one homeless man, who we’ll call Anthony, was in a very talkative mood that night, discussing at length his state of homelessness. He even touched on a drug problem he used to have. I’m sure if Jennifer had come along with us, this exchange would have only reinforced her preconceived beliefs about homeless people. As we started walking back towards Loyola, I asked Jason, one of the group leaders, if he had ever come across any homeless children before. He answered, “Only once. A father was with his two sons. We gave them some hygiene products and some food, but we never saw them again. That was the only time.” This sort of surprised me. I would have thought, given there are roughly 10,000 unaccompanied youth in Chicago, needy kids would be all over the place. I’m kind of inclined to believe there are some spots in Chicago where Lord of the Flies is the norm.

According to “Services to Homeless Students and Families: The McKinney-Vento Act and Its Implications for School Social Work Practice”, an article written by Debra M. Hernandez Jozefowicz-Simheni and Nathaniel Israel and published in Children & Schools in 2006, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act is an outreach initiative meant to curb homelessness among the nation’s children by providing them with the means to acquire an education. Hernandez Jozefowicz-Simheni and Israel contend that children are the focus of this piece of legislation because this demographic is most likely to be turned away from shelters as well as distance themselves from programs already put in place for the homeless. Also, in recognizing this as such a crucial age of development in a person’s life, the framers behind the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act felt protecting this subculture of the homeless was society’s responsibility (p. 38). You can read an abridged version of The McKinney-Vento Act by clicking here.

While I'm still taking the steps needed in order to get to know this culture, I feel I have not made much headway. I have read about homelessness and I have gone on a few outings to give homeless people food and hear their stories, but I am still left wondering what it truly means to be a person from this culture. Over the next couple of days, some serious thinking is in order. I also feel some serious risk-taking will be needed if I am to succeed in getting to know this population as well as I would like. Please feel free to leave your thoughts and comments below.

Some articles I found interesting:

“Homeless College Students On The Rise, Advocates Say” is an interesting article. I wonder if Loyola University Chicago or Middle Tennessee State University (my undergrad) has a food closet.

“Supporting Panhandling is the Least You Can Do,” is an article whose author advocates for donating money to agencies, not in the cups of homeless men and women.

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