Tag: Homeless

Get Creative to Help the Homeless

You know, for many of us our only real exposure to homelessness may be the people outside the Ogilvie Transportation Center in downtown Chicago begging for change or folks selling Streetwise before a concert at Millennium Park. You may reach in your pocket and drop a dollar in the cup, or you may recall something you’ve read about such donations being spent for alcohol or cigarettes and opt to keep walking.

We all agree that homelessness is a societal problem and most of us would like to help, but it’s tough to identify how to provide assistance most effectively. You want to be part of the solution to homelessness in general, but there’s a person in front of you that you literally know nothing about asking for your money. There are two easy reactions: keep walking and ignore that person, or hand him a few coins or a buck. There’s another approach, though, that may have a greater impact and, even better, is more creative and fun.

We’ve recently read about the college student who’s providing free socks, a crucial clothing component for homeless folks who are constantly on the move. There are artists in Boston who create professional-looking signage to replace handmade signs and a charitable organization called Project Night-Night that distributes tote-bags to homeless families filled with a children’s book, a security blanket, and stuffed animal. Many other individuals and groups are developing their own unique approaches. In fact, there’s a whole section on Pinterest devoted to ways to help the homeless.

The point is that if you feel you need to help, there are lots of ways to do it. For those of us who are working and have limited time to try anything that may take time, you can support your local non-profit like Northwest Compass by writing a check to support its efforts (learn more about how NWC helps neighbors facing a housing crisis or food insecurity). However, we also have many groups to which we belong or otherwise have access to, such as church groups, work teams, boy/girl scouts, student groups, clubs, quilting groups, and so forth that occasionally have the capacity to do discretionary projects. Why not put on your thinking cap and propose an effort that would benefit your local homeless population? Check out some of the ideas on the Pinterest page—there are literally dozens that hold potential for collaborative development by a group of like minded individuals.

Other individuals may have a specific skill or own a business, for instance the artists mentioned above who created signage for homeless beggars, that can be leveraged if they are able to donate time and materials. The homeless have the same basic needs as the rest of us. The only limit in how to help them is your imagination.

OK, say you have a creative idea on how to support the homeless—how do you actually connect with such a mobile population that’s largely transparent to most of us? We can help. Contact Northwest Compass at 847-392-2344.

So, drop a buck in the cup, or put your thinking cap on, get creative and do something that’ll benefit a broader audience (or both!). If you truly want to help, there’s nothing stopping you!

Coordinated Entry: How It Works

The Coordinated Entry process is a laudable attempt by our government to make things easier both for people experiencing homelessness and for the agencies that provide services to them. In many cases, these folks reach out to social services organizations via phone, a personal visit, or by using a shelter in an effort to find a way out of their situation. Northwest Compass has been named the designated ‘Walk-In’ center for our part of the Chicago suburbs, which means we have the training, resources, and expertise to work with members of the community who drop by (or call) our facility to address their problem and explain how Coordinated Entry works.

We realize that walking through our doors for the first time can be a little intimidating, though. You don’t know what awaits you and whether you have what you need to get help and whether there’s someone inside who can understand your situation. Those who are on the verge of losing their housing or are already homeless are struggling to find a way out of their predicament and the last thing they need is additional uncertainty. We’re here to help, so we’ll try to take some of the mystery out of how it works and what happens next as you reach out to us.

What You’ll Need
To make the process move as quickly for you as possible, our best recommendation is to come prepared. Bring as much paperwork as you can find that might help us assess what’s going on in your life. If you’re in the process of being evicted, bring notices and letters. Your lease document would be helpful, and the basics like recent pay stubs, social security cards, drivers license, insurance information, car repair estimates (if appropriate) and so on will be useful. In other words, you want to bring as much along with you as you can to avoid having to go back for it later if needed.

As you enter the Northwest Compass building you’ll be greeted by a representative who will ask you to sign in. They’ll determine the reason for your visit and will direct you to a seat in our waiting area for a program specialist to meet with you. Once that person arrives you’ll be escorted to an office where they’ll walk you through what’s known as the Intake form. It’s a lot of information that gives the specialist a basic understanding of your problem. We’ll need to know the basics about you, your family, your housing situation, insurance status, and so on.

Since you’re probably looking for immediate help, all this data collection may seem to be time consuming and too detailed, but it’s absolutely necessary in order for us to identify appropriate resources and may also be required by agencies that provide funding to support our program and our clients. There are several options to help people who make use of our walk-in center and we need to be able to select the one that’ll provide the most benefit. To do that, we need information. Whatever you give us will be kept confidential and will only be passed along to any agency outside of Northwest Compass when required.

So, that’s the first step in how the Coordinated Entry process works. Show up at our building during business hours, bring along whatever paperwork you have to explain your situation to us, provide the information we need on the Intake form, and be prepared to work with our program specialist to move ahead. Let’s get started!

Discover more about the Coordinated Entry program.

Zoning Out the Homeless People

Approximately 1% of the United States population is homeless. Do you see them? Fundamentally, the causes of homelessness are financial insufficiency or physical and mental disabilities. 300 million people go about their day, paying little or no attention to the suffering and injustice all around them, and trust the government would handle the situation.

Locally, citywide bans on things that homeless people do are on the rise. Laws placing restrictions on loitering, panhandling, resting or sleeping in public have increased nationwide since 2009. One in ten cities nationwide have passed laws prohibiting residents from handing homeless people food, 53% of American cities prohibit sitting or lying down in certain public places, and 43% of cities prohibit someone from sleeping in their car. Initially we ignore homelessness, and now more and more cities are making it illegal. Is this a long-term resolution? Do cities have the manpower to enforce these new laws?

Tampa has “zoned out” homeless people with a zero-tolerance decree by the city officials. Zoned out human beings? It turned out that homeless people were considered “bad for business” and presented a negative image. An inviting downtown park recently spent $32,784 of the taxpayer’s money to put up a tall metal fence with pad locks on every gate and a sign warning “NO TRESPASSING KEEP OUT.” That same week, volunteers who after years of feeding homeless people in another park were arrested for it.

A handful of cities have tried setting up “safe zones” or sanctioned homeless encampments that provide access to sanitary facilities, social services and security, but it’s unusual and costly for a state to do so. Phoenix and Utah gave free homes to a limited number of homeless families in 2005. Now the programs are going bankrupt and the locations are condemned. The pace of new affordable housing development is not keeping up with demand. An important question remains unanswered, “Where should people go while the number of homeless people outstrips the number of homes and shelter beds?”

Portland, Oregon, and Seattle allowed legal camping, but struggled with safety issues, just as Honolulu did when it set up a camp in the early ’90s that had to be shut down by police. Honolulu is currently considering passing a law to criminalize homelessness. Zero tolerance of homelessness and suffering? The bustling business areas of Miami have designated “No Panhandling Zones,” arresting offenders. A town in Connecticut passed a regulation banning homeless people from occupying local motels which served as emergency shelters.

Exclusionary zoning policies have played their part in limiting housing opportunities for our neighbors with no permanent housing. By restricting property uses, zoning incidentally impedes low-income housing opportunities and, thus, stands in the way of a solution to homelessness. Zoning regulations are enacted by the local legislative body and enforced by local officials. A city’s zoning power is derived from a grant of power through an enabling act commonly found in state statures, which transfers these powers to the municipality. Zoning is a function of the state’s police power, created to protect the health, safety, morals and general welfare of its citizens.

When economic regulations thwart the operation of free persons to produce and control property, prices rise and quality usually falls. Without freedom to pursue economic opportunities, poor Americans are resigned to live at the tax payers expense, and the taxpayers must support the poor at a higher cost because the regulations have caused prices to rise. It’s a vicious cycle.

The homelessness issues are complicated. We need to: impact litigation, increase policy advocacy, and continue public education. Zoning is a governmental function, carried out through boards made up of elected officials. To help our goal to end homelessness you need to vote and write to your officials.