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.