Monday Disaster

I am finally in a relatively calm state of mind to describe what happened on Monday.

I took Monday off because my many years of cookie shipping taught me that there is not enough time to pack and ship, especially when it comes to international shipping, and I end up having several sleepless nights and late shipments. This year, I decided to face reality:)

There was one more thing I planned to do on that day: as usual, I bought several gifts for the families in the transitional living program at the Night Ministry, but this year, there were multiple heavy items, so my plan was to Uber them to the Night Ministry in the middle of the day. Then I realized that I am running out of time to be able to do both mailing and Ubering to the Night Ministry, and besides, there were so many so heavy things that I started to doubt whether I would be able to load them into Uber. So I emailed a person with whom I coordinated the donations and asked her whether possibly someone from the office would be driving in my direction. She replied that she can pick up things and that she will message when she is close to me.

About five minutes before her arrival, I started moving things down because I realised I needed at least four trips.

I made two trips down with the heaviest things, met my neighbor, who was picking up her grocery delivery, and I helped her move her packages up, took the next portions, and went down. And then I could not believe my eyes: everything I had already moved to the vestibule was gone!

I rushed out of the door – there was obviously nobody! I asked the Amazon driver, who was taking things out of his car to deliver to the other side of the street, whether he saw somebody walking out of our door, but he obviously didn’t pay attention. And just then, a person who was picking up my donations showed up.

Even though I had a suspicion since my stolen cookies episode two years ago that someone had our master key, and suggested rekeying both buildings, my idea was rejected, and we were advised not to buzz in anyone we don’t know. This time, I am sure nobody was buzzed in, because the buzzing sound is always audible on the stairs, so I would have heard.

That’s it. I didn’t go to the Knox Holiday party at the Steppenwolf that night because I felt in the wrong mood for a party. It was only yesterday that I realized that if I went, I wouldn’t be able to talk about anything except for these stolen donations. Now, I am sort of-kind of-not so horribly upset.

The Night Ministry was able to replace my gifts, but the household items I donated were gone. The worst was not even the monetary value (the Night Ministry always asks to keep the costs low) but the fact that this episode almost destroyed my trust in my community. I will try to get over , but the words of encouragement will be appreciated!

Matching Donations

My firm has a charitable contributions portal where you can pledge to one of the tens of thousands of charities directly from your paycheck, and in addition, you can also upload your donation receipts to be matched.

Last time I did it, it was only $500 match annually, which was very little, but at least something, so I uploaded a couple of the Night Ministry receipts, but I didn’t bother matching the monthly donations.

And I completely missed the moment when the matching amount for a year was tripled, and only saw it when the firm announced an additional $500 matching for two weeks of giving in November.

If you recall, for the past two weeks, I was under a lot of pressure at work and had absolutely no time to upload the receipts. Finally, last Friday, when HR reminded us about the last day of additional matching, I realized I did not want this money to be lost and needed to act fast.

Fortunately, my big project was on track, and I planned to leave early, so I spent the last hour and a half of my Friday workday uploading receipts. I was delighted to see that somebody had already submitted the Ukraine Trustchain to the list of approved charities, so our firm matches donations to them.

Most of my receipts are coming at the end of the year, so to speed things up, I chose from my one-time donations, which were already in my “taxes” list, but it was more than enough to use all of these 2K matching money, and I was so proud of myself that I didn’t let them go!

Homeless in Chicago

Last night, when my neighbor and I were returning from a Christmas show in the Auditorium Theater, we passed a long row of cardboard boxes that homeless people used to protect themselves from brutal overnight temperature. Nobody was panhandling. They were just trying to survive till morning.

When we got on the L-train, the first thing I saw in the new was this WBEZ article. Full text below.

As cold weather hits Chicago, Trump’s new policies on homelessness criticized

Feds said they plan to shift $3.9 billion from long-term housing to housing that requires work and addiction treatment. More than 7,500 Illinoisans could lose their permanent housing.

By Michael PuenteDec 3, 2025, 8:48am CST

For people experiencing homelessness like Ivan Patterson, Monday night’s snow was another reminder to get out of the cold and into a shelter.

“It beats staying under a bridge. It’s too cold to do that,” 52-year-old Patterson said outside the Shelter Placement and Resource Center at 2241 S. Halsted in Pilsen.

The Memphis native said he’s been staying at the shelter for a week even though he holds a job at a nearby Jewel-Osco supermarket.

“I’m trying to get my apartment again, but it’s been tough. It’s too expensive,” Patterson said.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced plans to shift $3.9 billion in long-term housing funding to transitional housing requiring work and addiction treatment.

Just as temperatures drop and the city digs out from under record snowfall, housing advocates say that the new policies could put people at risk of losing long-term shelter.

“We believe that over 7,500 people in Illinois are at risk of losing their permanent housing,” Christine Haley, chief homeless officer for the Illinois Department of Human Services, said Tuesday.

“The Trump administration is moving away from housing first. We’ve seen that this was on the horizon … in a few different ways,” she said. “Through the president’s executive order to fight crime, it talked about moving away from housing first. It talked about utilizing grants as a way to implement this new piece of really criminalizing homelessness.”

On any given day in Chicago, more than 1,300 people are unsheltered, according to a snapshot taken earlier this year by the city.

In a statement, HUD said its new policies restore “accountability to homelessness programs and promote self-sufficiency among vulnerable Americans.”

But Haley said the lack of affordable housing is what is driving homelessness.

“That is the true cause of homelessness, our lack of affordable housing, lack of income to be able to afford market-rate rent,” she said.

Mark Ishaug, head of Chicago-based Thresholds, said the change in federal housing policies could force many to the streets, even during cold weather. He said that includes people of color, older adults and people with disabilities, including those with mental illness and substance abuse issues.

“We are already in a housing and homeless crisis in Chicago. If this policy were to go into effect, it would take us from crisis to catastrophe,” Ishaug said. “There are thousands of people living on the streets today. … So if we have a problem now, which we do, and a crisis now, we are moving to catastrophe.”

La Casa Norte clients, who stay in La Casa Norte shelters and requested that their name be kept private, interact at La Casa Norte’s North Avenue drop-in center in Humboldt Park, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times — La Casa Norte clients go over paperwork at the agency’s North Avenue drop-in center in Humboldt Park.

Jonah Storr, associate director of programs for La Casa Norte in Humboldt Park, said it’s been an especially difficult time finding shelter for young people who are homeless.

“We see teenagers or young people who have been kicked out of their homes, or maybe have gone through the foster system and have aged out at 18. People end up here through all sorts of reasons, including young people who are trying to make it on their own,” said Storr, whose agency assists people ages 16 to 24.

Julian Martinez was standing outside the shelter placement center Tuesday afternoon smoking a cigarette. He’s been homeless for three years.

“It’s definitely hard if you ain’t got nobody out here and helping with your family,” Martinez, 23, said.

The father of a 4-year-old daughter, Martinez said he holds down a job as a landscaper, but the $200 a week he makes isn’t enough to pay rent. He’d been staying at the center for nine days.

“I usually sleep outside,” he said.

Kenyatta Mays, 56, who uses a wheelchair, said many people think he’s panhandling when he’s sitting outside the shelter on a smoking break.

Kenyatta Mays, 56, smokes a cigarette outside the Shelter Placement and Resource Center in Pilsen.

“I’m just here to get off the street. It’s too cold,” Mays said.

Communal Fridge

We have a communal fridge near Rogers Park Metra station. Actually, it’s a little pantry with two blocks of shelves and a fridge in the middle (I believe, I posted the pictures earlier). Local stores sometimes drop off some produce there, but mostly it’s people who have some extras, or leftovers, or just want to share. Anyone can drop stuff on the shelves or in the fridge (labeling containers, if they are not industrially packaged). And anyone who passes by, can take anything out.

Yesterday, although I didn’t need to take a train, I walked there to drop off several unused cans of vegetables, a bag of green beans which we decided not to cook after all, and plastic box with roasted vegetables (we had a lot left, and I forgot to give a box to Anna & Family when they were leaving).

There were several people around when I approached to drop these items off, and the pantry was far from being empty, but the way they reacted at my offering made me regret I didn’t bring all of our leftovers there: oh, they are already cooked? Just warm them up? God bless you!

I recently read about one behavioral experiment: theology students where asked to deliver a talk on Good Samaritan, and half of them were notified right before they were ready to leave, that the talk time was changed and they were late. Then, in the way to their talk all of them were presented with a situation when a stranger was in a distress and needed help. While a substantial part of not-in-a-rush students stopped and tried to help, none of the those who thought they were late, stopped.

Unfortunately, being in a hurry is a major reason for not helping those in need. So many times I would plant to bring my leftovers to the communal fridge, but was in a hurry to catch a train, and knew that I would walk a bit slower with the leftovers, and all these minutes would accumulate, and I can always freeze what I didn’t eat, and in any case, what difference a pint of soup can make? I am nit saying “never more,” but ai will try very hard. I won’t forget the faces of those with whom I talked yesterday by the communal fridge, with their gray wrinkled skin and missing teeth.

We all are Rogers Park. Please forgive me. I will try to be better.

Things I Always Notice In Helsinki

My local friends do not pay attention to many things that I marvel at each time I come. For them, it’s a part of their daily life, and for me all these things are a never-ending source of a “good envy,” things I hope to see in Chicago one day.

Seven-year-olds taking public transportation by themselves with confidence.
An abundance of family-style buffets pretty much everywhere; the ability to choose what exactly and how much you put on your plate
Absence of homeless people. I know that I do not see them, not because they are artificially “hidden” from other people’s sight, but because it’s almost impossible to become homeless in Finland.
Stainless steel public toilets everywhere. I can write a large blog post just about these toilets, their perfect design, their unbreakability, their convenience, and ease of cleaning. And yes, I saw them being used for different purposes, same as in Chicago, but still.
The widest network of bike paths, which allows you to get by bike anywhere and safely.
An abundance of public spaces that are used by everyone.
And one more time about unhoused people, because the housing crisis in Chicago is becoming worse every day. In Helsinki, people do not need to use bus stops for living, do not need to pull around the city all their possessions in a grocery cart, and do not need to use library bathrooms to wash themselves or take a nap in a safe space. And just to be clear, I see poor people in Helsinki. I see people scavenging the garbage cans. An antique shop next to Boris’ house in Helsinki distributes stale buns (unsure from where) every morning, and I see people lining up two hours ahead of the distribution time.

And I am not even mentioning the healthcare, eldery care, and many other things. I do not think I will see it all happen in Chicago during my lifetime. But I will do what I can to make it happen.

Chicago Is Ready To Resist

Chicago Sun-Times:

Mayor Brandon Johnson urged Chicagoans to “rise up in this moment” against President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort, even as he acknowledged Wednesday that the deployment of the military to help carry out immigration raids in Los Angeles could happen here.

Johnson refused to say precisely what he would do if mass demonstrations in Chicago — perhaps as soon as Saturday’s “No Kings Day of Defiance” protests — provoke an L.A.-style federal response.

The mayor would only say that he is concerned enough to have spoken directly with Gov. JB Pritzker and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle about the possibility that Trump might activate the Illinois National Guard to protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents making arrests.

“This is a necessary fight for all of us to be able to push back. Whether we use the courts or whether we continue to protest and raise our voices, dissent matters in this moment,” the mayor said at his weekly City Hall news conference.

“It’s a war on our culture. It’s a war on our democracy. It’s a war on our humanity. I am counting on all of Chicago to resist in this moment because, whatever particular vulnerable group is being targeted today, another group will be next. … None of us are immune from this disease.”

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, shown here at a public appearance June 4, used some of his strongest rhetoric yet Wednesday against President Donald Trump and the White House’s deportation-raid efforts. Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Saturday’s protests have the potential to be even larger than Tuesday’s demonstrations in the Loop.

Johnson said the Chicago Police Department will preserve the right of demonstrators to peacefully assemble and protest, just as it did during the Democratic National Convention, but lawbreaking will not be tolerated.

“Our first responsibility is to ensure that we keep everyone safe. That is my No. 1 responsibility. It’s what I think about every day, all day. Our approach won’t be that much different on Saturday,” Johnson said. “The right to assemble peacefully is a constitutional right. We have to protect that. There are some actors that, unfortunately, act outside of their constitutional protection. If that were to take place, those individuals will be held responsible and accountable.”

Apparently referring to the violence and vandalism that occurred in parts of Los Angeles during anti-ICE demonstrations there, Johnson said when a “small number of protesters set things on fire, it plays into the hand of authoritarians like Donald Trump, who take advantage to ultimately suppress all protesters.

“What we have seen in Los Angeles is really not about immigration. This is not about policy. It’s about power. We have a tyrant in the White House who has a complete disregard for our Constitution and the dismissing of our democracy,” the mayor said. “This is a terrible moment in our nation’s history. … He continues to show how low he will stoop. … It is sick and demented. I didn’t know you could look worse than George Wallace.”

Johnson’s chief of staff, Cristina Pacione-Zayas, warned that the escalatory tactics the Trump administration has used in Los Angeles could happen in Chicago.

“Yesterday, the notice was given … to federal agents that they have 48 hours to stand by and be ready to deploy — that there will be five cities that are targeted. Democratic-led cities,” Pacione-Zayas said. “Chicago being one of them for sure, and that they were going to be targeting workplaces in terms of the raids.”

Pacione-Zayas added: “There will be tactical teams. There will be mini-tanks. There will be other tools that they use in which they plan to do raids, as we saw in Los Angeles. That information is actually pretty public. It has been out there and, in fact, on official channels.”

Johnson’s deputy mayor for community safety, Garien Gatewood, was among those out on the street monitoring demonstrations in the Loop on Tuesday against Trump’s immigration raids. During the protests, a motorist drove toward a group of protesters and struck one of the demonstrators.

“Nobody, obviously, expects someone to do what they did yesterday. So we’ll make improvements on that,” Gatewood said. “We already had a meeting this morning with some of our team on additional resources we’ll need in place. We’ve been in contact directly with the governor’s office about some of the support they can provide, as well.”

Johnson said he is grateful that “in the midst of this effort by the Trump administration to create chaos, that we were able to get through yesterday without mass arrests or life-altering harm” to police or demonstrators.

The mayor’s remarks signaled some of his strongest rhetoric yet denouncing the president’s stepped-up immigration raids. Johnson added that he considers it “grotesque” that Trump is using the armed forces to celebrate his 79th birthday by holding a military parade Saturday, which also is the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army.

Today, there were way more people on the streets than it was anticipated; I had a commitment close to home and could not join them, but I already changed my escorting shift on Saturday so that I could join the rally on the Daley Plaza.

	rmichaelroman on Can We Put Them To Work?
	Hettie D. on Monday Disaster
	chit74 on Monday Disaster
	Hettie D. on Monday Disaster
	rmichaelroman on Monday Disaster

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As cold weather hits Chicago, Trump’s new policies on homelessness criticized

Feds said they plan to shift $3.9 billion from long-term housing to housing that requires work and addiction treatment. More than 7,500 Illinoisans could lose their permanent housing.

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