The Homeless.

My first exposure to the homeless took place in the 1950's when I was about six years of age, my family lived in Evanston Illinois in what would be considered a middle to upper middle class neighborhood. Our neighbors were Professors at Northwestern University, Doctors, Insurance executives, Accountants (I am sorry Guido, for putting your profession next to lawyers), the compulsory Lawyers and Business owners (And Chuck I apologize for placing you next to lawyers, also). One evening an old woman knocked on the door and asked for some food, my mother brought the old woman into our home, fed her and let her sleep on the living room couch as there were no beds available. When I got up in the morning the old woman was gone, I don't remember the conversation I had with her while she sat on the couch but I remember her covered with a good blanket sleeping there. I had no more real contact with any homeless after that for almost another twenty years. To qualify myself, I did not make a career of service to my fellow man, did not attend divinity school and would not have been viewed as a model citizen during that time. I would call what I did during that twenty years, experiencing everything that the smorgasbord of life has to offer without leaving any crumbs behind and putting it mildly, I was full. Soooooo in 1974 I fell in with a different group of people who's company I chose to make. I cleaned up my act, so to speak, and was introduced to a slightly different way of living. Part of that new way of living was serving not taking, listening and not talking and compassion not disdain. The way I learned these things was from a man whom I held in high regard who from the beginning of our friendship suggested that I go with him each and every Sunday to the state institution at Elgin, Illinois. We would meet with different groups and had the opportunity to observe the many people who were residents at "Elgin". By residents I mean they had the ability to come and go during the day but were housed there in ward rooms, had their meals there and were given the necessary medication and care necessary to live a dignified semi supervised life, where they would not be taken advantage of or mistreated. There were facilities for alcohol and drug treatment that were locked wards and all in all were effective in the treatment of those individuals. Then came the Regan administration and this closest to a perfect world for those less fortunate than I came to a screeching halt.

The government slashed funding to mental health and the facilities for these different groups ended almost overnight. The addicted were forced to find other avenues, and the residents most of whom were incapable of living on their own were literally tossed out on to the streets. The administration in Washington put the burden of care onto the backs of the American people. Organizations sprung up to develop sources of housing, church groups joined in providing nightly rest stops and a hot meal, but, nothing could replace what had worked for America for so long and so well and in reality for so little.

I went to work in Chicago shortly after Elgin basically closed and had the occasion the drive up and down Sheridan Rd and Broadway in Chicago on a regular basis. During the first year after the shutdown old residential hotels on these streets began taking in the former residents of the various facilities in the state and went from seedy flop houses to something worse than the mental images one envisions after reading a Dickens novel. I wish most of our current batch of Politicians and the ever wrongly informed conservative and liberal commentators could be forced pend time in some of these hell holes and how could I forget the perpetrator Mr. Regan and his henchmen, but they got lucky, Mr. Regan lost his mind and most of his guy's have died and most of the flop houses are gone so today's politicians and commentators can continue down the path of obliviousness as to what goes on outside of their office windows. It is impossible to wash the image of old hotel lobbies packed with shoeless people in dirty nightgowns standing in front of old cloudy smoke stained picture windows staring blankly out over the street. And knowing that they have had their government checks taken to cover their housing and meals by some scum bag who hovers lower than the worst slum lord. Most closed up over the next ten years due to urban renewal because the owners saw even more lucrative avenues for their property, so the residents were once again put to the streets. At that time the burden was passed to the churches and charitable organizations to come up with some kind of a solution for the housing and care of those less fortunate.

Now the way this works in the area I live in, is this. I will call it my local church (Please don't ask or get me started on that subject)acts as a host on Wednesday nights. The people are allowed to come in starting at 6:00PM, are fed dinner and then assigned a sleeping pad in a curtained off area. They have enough room to place their belongings next to them. In the morning they are fed breakfast and leave promptly at 7:00AM. So as not to confuse anyone, there are churches all around the area that I live and each night of the week is covered by several churches. There is a master organization that sets up and schedules the churches, trains volunteers (of which many are needed), solicits volunteers for preparing hot meals and cleaning up the following morning. It is a very large undertaking and provides an invaluable service. My qualifications are that I have been exposed to the homeless and addicted for quite a few years and believe I have a handle on their overall makeup.

I am going to leave the addicted out of this today and will cover them in another blog. There are extenuating circumstances that need to be covered with regards to this issue and I do not want to dilute the subject at hand other than to say that this group makes up about only 10% of the homeless in America today.

Stating that, the balance of the homeless are essentially those who are incapable of taking proper care of themselves in the modern world. In the area I live the programs run from October through the end of April. Ever thought about sleeping in the park in late September or early May in the Midwest, if the park won't work how bout under an overpass or in the forest preserve, not a very inviting proposition is it! One of the most reprehensible byproducts of closing the residential portions of the state institutions is that these people are now victimized at every turn by the lowest forms of predators. They are often taken for what little they get from the government for subsistence, and the amount is generally very little.



The sad fact is that the government will probably never react to this issue as these individuals have little that the government wants. They have no strategic resources, are not much, if any importance as a voting block and cannot be relied upon for cash donations, therefore they are expendable in the eyes of government. This is not something that is exclusive to the mid-west, it is a national problem that the various administrations in Washington have tossed on to the backs of the citizenry of our country and washed their hands of the responsibility for providing even the most minimal care for those who are unable to care for themselves.