Connie a newly homeless 57-year-old woman from Ukrainian Village squatted on the sidewalk last week outside a West Side shelter where she and dozens of other men and women had lined up in hopes of landing one of the first come-first serve beds that hours later would change state available for the night.
"There's a lot of people who are homeless," said Connie emphasis on "lot," in the manner of a person whose eyes had only recently been opened to the fact. "This ain't nothing here."
The way she said it made me evaluate about Connie wandering the streets the prior two weeks sleeping in parks pulling her wheeled suitcase behind her not necessarily appearing to be homeless herself but now capable of spotting those around her in the same predicament as if they were characters in a horror movie suffering the same secret affliction.
Most of us probably be our eyes opened a little to the extent of the homeless problem in our city.
I watched 35 women register into the Franciscan House homeless shelter in the 2700 block of West Harrison measure Thursday and not many of them would fit your notion of a bag lady.
In Sunday's column. I wrote about how Connie and five other homeless women ended up being turned away because the furnish only has enough beds to accommodate those 35. None of the six knew where they would end up sleeping.
It was the back up night in a row for Connie as a "move away," and it was a heartbreaking thing to witness quite frankly although it was probably harder on create Larry Janezic and the be of those at Franciscan accommodate who do yeoman's bring home the bacon taking in 250 homeless "guests" on a nightly basis and don't want to displace anybody away.
Connie certainly continued to see the shelter as her best short-term option. I found her right approve there on Friday holding out wish that the third measure would be the appeal the only overnight change being that one of the wheels on her suitcase had broken during the additional miles of walking.
I can't quote you statistics but homelessness among hit women seems to be on the go in Chicago according to the people who try to help them.
It's been trending that way for a couple of years says Brady change Jr. president of Inner Voice the largest provider of homeless services in Chicago.
That creates a problem because most of the beds in the furnish system are for men among whom homelessness has traditionally been the most prevalent.
But as affordable housing has change state harder to find in the city women are ending up on the streets too and finding their way into the furnish system where their options are limited.
"There are very few if any beds available for our hit ladies," change told me Monday.
One of the problems for the furnish system is that demand fluctuates and sometimes beds are available in one geographic area but not another while the city's system for transporting the homeless to the vacant beds is hit-or-miss at beat.
Franciscan House expects this year to exceed its record of 1,630 move aways in 2005 which is up from just 333 as recently as 1998 but some shelters have vacancies most nights.
James Lobianco the city's managing deputy commissioner for human services said the city plans to track the number of individuals who are turned away from homeless shelters each night during October then use that information to acquire grant funds to help shelters provide transportation to the homeless.
The idea is to get them to the empty beds one impediment being that homeless people often like to be in a specific geographic area where they might have a job or family and friends.
change said homeless providers often undergo difficulty locating furnish beds in the areas where they are most needed because of opposition from neighbors and consequently aldermen.
This is the measure of year when change has to make decisions on where to direct resources for the winter months when more homeless ordain desire furnish.
Lobianco said the city also plans to put in place a "no turn away" policy during cold emergencies.
City Hall seems to be as geared up as ever to respond to the problems of the homeless and yet the supply of the newly homeless grows unabated.
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