Good Work Being Done - Sarah's Circle

Some estimates are that women make up 34% of the homeless population.

In Chicago, I was introduced to and visited Sarah's Circle.  I was very impressed.

According to their materials:

Sarah's Circle is a non-profit organization with a mission of serving women who are homeless or in need of a safe space. Located in Chicago's, Sarah's Circle has provided support for thousands of women since 1979.

Today Sarah's Circle has a Daytime Support Center open to any woman in need, a 50-bed interim housing (shelter) program for women who are currently homeless, and permanent supportive housing for women who have a disabling condition and have been chronically homeless. 

The programs have three overarching goals:

• Welcome all women with safety, respect, and community.
• Support women's growth in all aspects of wellness: physical, emotional, life skills, economic, and realizing their unique potential.
• Help each woman find her home.

Sarah's Circle is getting results. They helped place 385 women into permanent housing since 2012.  They are on track to place 200 women into permanent housing in 2016 and have set a goal to place 1,000 women into housing in five years.  

It's Everywhere

I started studying homelessness in Chicago because I saw people everyday on the streets in need.  But homelessness is everywhere.

It is estimated that on any given night in Los Angeles County there are 47,000 homeless individuals and only 11,000 shelter beds.  On the average,  1 out of every 7 Californians does not know where their next meal will come from.

In Santa Ana, California a new emergency shelter was recently opened by the Midnight Mission @LATMM.  Expecting 100 people a night, they quickly found themselves providing shelter to 300 people per night and serving over 750 meals a day.

The need is everywhere I look.

Sleeping in the Chicago Cold

A few weeks ago, I interviewed Marzine about what it's like to live on the street. You can find that interview in the previous posts on this blog (original Marzine post). One of the things we talked about was sleeping in the cold.

Marzine last fall

As I was walking to the store tonight, I passed the location where I had originally met Marzine. The weather in Chicago has changed significantly over the last few days and tonight it was 14 degrees F with even colder temperatures coming.  You can see in the photo that there's still snow on the ground.  You can also see all Marzine's possessions (the chair and the shopping cart) are there.  He's not clearly visible but he is curled up on a cement ledge huddled under the blanket. This is where he will spend the entire night tonight and most likely every night this winter.

When I spoke with him the next day, I asked him what was keeping him from going to the shelter.  His concern was that he had several blankets that he knew people worse off than him could use.  He didn't want to go to the shleter until he could find a way to get his blankets into the hands of people less fortunate than him.  Several times during our conversation he told me that I shouldn't worry about him and that he would be ok.

Eric

Meet Eric.  I spoke to him a few weeks ago during a warm fall day.  Eric sits on the corner of Michigan Ave and Chicago Ave.   You can see the famous Water Tower in the background.  It's within 100 yards of the most exclusive highrise buildings in the city.

Living on the street presents some real health challenges.  Eric suffers from CA-MRSA (Community-associated (or acquired) methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus) or MRSA for short.  It's basically a staph infection that wont go away, some call it a “superbug.”   Research on MRSA indicates higher risk for individuals with histories of homelessness.  Many people living on the streets suffer from this.  I believe this is one of the factors that causes the reduced life expectancy for people living on the street.
#homelessness #Chicago