You are not worthless, you are not criminals, you have been marginalized by a society that completely ignores your needs, you deserve a home just as the rest of us. Chicago is home to one of the largest homeless populations in the world. Walking down the streets of downtown is where you can find a huge community of homeless people in Chicago. This is where they spend most of their days, sitting on street corners collecting any loose change they can get. But most of us have no problem walking by and ignoring their requests. Most of us just assume they are asking for money to pay for their next vice, but that’s not always the case.
UIC’s Alternative Spring Break Club hosted one of it’s Street views volunteer events Friday, February 17th where students gathered at UIC’s campus to collect coats for a coat drive distribution. We then headed to the loop where a good portion of the homeless stay. We walked with purpose down these streets as we tried to find any homeless person to offer a jacket as well as our company.
Photo courtesy of deposit photos
The first man we approached was wearing a cast on one of his legs, sitting against a post. I wasn’t able to get his record his story but from what I remember he was quiet, just sitting there and looking around. We offered him a jacket and he was very thankful, that’s when he told us his story. He had been working as a house painter when he got hit by a car which explained his broken leg. Here he was living the consequences of needing healthcare with a minimal amount of extra money on his hands. Slammed with hospital bills and debilitated by his broken leg, this caused him to loose his job and turn to the streets for extra cash. He explained that his only hope for getting a new job was to heal and get back out there to look for one.
It is situations like these when people are faced with unfortunate life events that cause them to be homeless. Chicago has raised the price of homeless shelters to up to eighteen dollars a night. When talking to many of these homeless people they explained that they were just trying to collect enough money every day to hopefully have shelter to sleep that night. The homeless epidemic in Chicago has become a growing issue and if each of us can get involved and do something small every day we can make a huge difference. So next time you walk by a homeless person in Chicago try introducing yourself and giving them your time because they have amazing stories and they need our help. They are human too and they deserve to be treated this way.