Tag: homeless
Shelter/Homelessness/Other Things That Are Wrong
This will be a long one, and I will start with my recent visit to the ODS.
When I was there last time, someone who shopped for dinner ingredients bought a jar of spread instead of real butter, and the moment I learned about it, I realized that Chicken Alfredo wouldn’t turn out as it should. Another, and more serious thing, was that when I came, all the residents were gone, since it was one of the first nice days! I do not think that was planned; it’s just that J., who had been my kitchen helper for many months, was gone, and she was the one who had asked for Chicken Alfredo. I knew that if she were still around, she would’ve stayed to wait for me, probably with a couple of her friends.
I left the dinner for the staff (they said that when the kids are back, they’ll eat everything), and, for the hundredth time, thought about whether it is worth coming so irregularly. Then N., a staff member who really cares about me, texted me asking when I was coming next time.
This next time was last Tuesday. Several days earlier, I asked her if she would mind asking the residents what they wanted, but I already knew that she wanted my baked salmon, and I knew I would end up making it. I also promised I would bring a Finnish berry pie (I promised to bake it there in May, but since there was nobody and no butter, I didn’t.)
Then, on Tuesday morning, I fell off the bike and hurt my hand. There was absolutely no way for me to cancel, but I texted N. and told her I would need help cutting and peeling potatoes. When I arrived, another volunteer had organized two kids to peel potatoes and actually taught them how to do it right (it was day one of my injury, and I couldn’t even demonstrate the techniques). With that, it could be an amazing experience, because the kids actually figured that out, and three people ended up peeling enough potatoes (just a little bit less than I would do if I weren’t incapacitated). Unfortunately, it was almost for nothing, because there was not a single drop of milk in either the kitchen fridge or the big storage fridge, and I only found it out when all the potatoes were cooked and mashed. It didn’t even occur to me to check, because milk was on the shopping list, and because we made mashed potatoes so many times that it was not even a question that someone wouldn’t know. Besides, milk has always been in the kitchen fridge, just because it has to be.
One of the staff members said they would go to the nearest Jewel-Osco to get some milk. It would be great if I could figure out the absence of milk right away, but … unfortunately, that was not the only problem. Instead of our usual half-fish “never frozen” salmon from ALDI, there was a large bag of frozen portions. When I opened the bag, I saw that they were indeed frozen and that individual pieces were of very different quality. I tried my best to make something with what I had, but when we took the salmon out of the oven, it was absolutely not what we expected. Well, it was edible, and that’s all I can say. The trip to Jewel Osco took 30 minutes, and I was even able to reheat mashed potatoes with milk, but once again, there was spread instead of butter.
I didn’t even announce that the dinner was ready because the results were miserable. I left my berry pie for everyone to eat, and went home. N. texted me several times the next day asking about my hand, so I gave her the full report, but I also knew it was not just about my hand. I knew she felt bad about the mix-up and was afraid I wouldn’t come again. I could have said that the ODS staff should have paid more attention to the shopping list, and I probably could even feel hurt, if not for one thing.
The thing was, while N and I were texting that morning, she accidentally replied to me with something she meant for someone else, and because of that, I knew there were some problems at the ODS that day. When I arrived, I still could tell that “something was going on.” All the staff waved off my concerns, but I could tell that dinner was definitely not their top priority that day. And that day was not an exception.
The ODS staff solved bigger problems every day, with more and more uncertainties coming up every day. And in general, homelessness in Chicago rises at an alarming rate, with fewer people trying to solve it.
A couple of weeks ago, I saw a man hiding in our recycling bin (he made an effort to hide when he saw me approaching, and I pretended I didn’t see him). Afterward, however, I saw him, and it was visible that he had just gotten out of the dumpster by the way he was brushing himself. His shoes were bright red and very memorable, which is why I noticed him around Jarvis Square several times. Then, I saw him sleeping under the overpass on one of my early morning bike rides (once again, because I noticed these shoes sticking out of the black cover). That was one of those moments when you feel incredibly guilty for having any problems at all, or worrying about anything at all, while one of your neighbors has no place to sleep. I thought that the next time I saw him, I would ask if I could help him in any way (he was not asking passersby for change), but I stopped seeing him immediately after that.
There are more and more homeless people around. The encampments along the lake are growing. At the same time, I see many businesses taking measures to keep the homeless away. Not only businesses, for that matter. For example, the so-often-mentioned lack of public restrooms is also rooted in the same issues. Recently, I stepped into the Target on State, which used to be one of the guaranteed places with public restrooms. I saw they were doing major remodeling, and when I walked to the bathrooms, I noticed the access code panel had been freshly installed. And do not take me wrong, I understand that the number of homeless people using these bathrooms for pretty much anything was alarming, and I understand that Target must have heard numerous customers’ complaints. I understand why so many people want “all this mess” to be out of sight – out of mind, but the problem does not disappear because of all these measures. I saw people sleeping on Michigan Avenue. I saw people sleeping in the grass, not even in the tents, along the lakefront. It does not look pretty. But how it looks is not the root cause of the problem.
Egg Coloring At ODS
Same as the Christmas cookie decoration, the Easter egg coloring is an activity I do with ODS residents every year, and every year, we have tons of fun.
The most popular decorating kits are the ones with faces and hair, and also, the “golden” eggs appeared to be a hit!
ODS
ODS dinner on Wednesday – first time after two and a half months of absence. My emails remained unanswered, or the dates were confirmed when it was already too late, or something else. I thought for a hundredth time that I need to put my ODS volunteering on pause, but two weeks ago, when I was coming home on the Red Line, somebody called me from the seat facing me, and I saw J., one of the residents. It took me a couple of seconds to connect her face to a different environment, but both she and I were equally happy to see each other! There was a whole group of ODS residents, and I knew two others – at least their faces were familiar; and J. happily explained about the other two that “they were new.” And then she started to explain to them that I come and cook. I told her that I am finally scheduled to come on February 25, and I knew that I had to stick with this date no matter what.
When I checked in the day before, I was informed that they only have ground beef, rice, and frozen vegetables, and it’s up to me what to make. I took a celiac and some dark pink farmers’ carrots from home, and stopped at Target on theway to ODS to pick up frozen peas and brussels sprouts. I hoped they had potatoes (they always had!), but it was the end of the month, and I was told there would be no potatoes until Tuesday.
I sighed and started making my signature vegetable soup, using ground beef instead of turkey and rice instead of potatoes. I brought a jar of Vegeta with me, which helped! By some miracle (mostly me promptly removing the grease from the soup’s surface), it ended up being surprisingly good. Another miracle was that not only J. hung out in the dining area with me, but also several “new” boys and even girls were ready to socialize. They asked lots of questions about me and my cooking, came for seconds, and thanked me for the soup multiple times. And they didn’t get back to their rooms for a while, so we chatted for another hour.
N. (my favorite staff) was very sympathetic and told me to text her if I have scheduling problems again 🙂
Christmas Cookies At ODS
On Tuesday, I took a whole box of non-decorated cookies, along with several tubes of icing and multiple containers of sprinkles, to the ODS for our traditional cookie-decorating session.
As I already mentioned, this year was not smooth, and I was not sure how many residents would be there, and how many would be interested (because there is always this balance between these teens being teens and being “too cool” for cookie decorating and not having enough fun when they were kids). So I started decorating with one of the girls, J., who is always ready to cook with me. Then one of the male residents joined and decorated a cookie, and said he was going to eat it. I asked to take a picture first:).
Then one staff member, J.L., joined, and she was not even trying to hide her excitement and enthusiasm :). And all of a sudden, the rest of the residents pulled up to the kitchen island, eager to participate. Some of them did a rather clumsy job, some – a very neat one, but everyone was creative:).
One of the relatively new residents, M, asked J.L.: if you could get anything in the world for Christmas, what would you wish for? And J.L., who is young, energetic and anything but sentimental, replied: If I could have anything in the world, I would want my grandma back! M. looked at her and said: You know, that’s what I would want, too! I would want my grandma back!
It struck me, since one more time, it reminded me about the life expectancy gap which everyone is talking about…
I said, that if I could get anything for Chirstmas, I would want the war i Ukraine stop, and Russians being out and never come back. They nodded: yes, they kill people, even children!
We kept talking about Christmas, and I mentioned Finland, and it turned out that most of them knew about Finland, and the “real Santa living there.” I told them about the snow that falls quietly, and about the granite crumbs used instead of salt on the roads, and mentioned how many people in the US don’t even know that Finland is a country. M stared at me in disbelief: Even I know! If many people don’t, I am seriously concerned!
Everyone loved how the cookies turned out. At some point, I thought I should have brought more cookies (I had more), but in the end, it was just the right number. Here is what was not eaten by the time I was ready to leave (as “too pretty to eat”):
.. and it was one of the best nights in the shelter I had this year!
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.”
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.
“I’m just here to get off the street. It’s too cold,” Mays said.
ODS
As I keep saying, there are more misses than hits with ODS dinners, but it was really good today. First, I met a resident who had been there for a while, and we had several in-depth conversations over the past few months. Also, I know that these conversations are important for him, and even if it’s a small part of his life, it’s a positive part :).
There were just a few people when I arrived, so at first I thought that we would have to make pizzas only with the staff helping me, but then the residents started to appear, and a couple of late arrivals expressed interest in making their own pizza. I started the oven again, and helped with the process, and it was a very good new connection.
The kids in the shelter continue to surprise me. It so often happens that some of the residents have previous experience in catering or hospitality, and often are more comfortable cooking for a large number of people than I am. Today, one of the boys told me that he worked in the pizzeria before, and I could tell by watching his professional pizza slicing. I ended up asking for his recommendations on how long to keep pizza in the oven (the ODS oven functionality has always been imperfect, to put it mildly).
ODS Dinners
On a local front: on Wednesday, I rehabilitated my cooking skills at the ODS. Last time I was there (at the beginning of April), I tried to cook the Boudin Balls, which I had no idea about! How they should look, how they should taste – nothing! Yes, I said – ask the residents what they want, but now I know better – “want” should be a subset of what I “can.”
After my attempt was declared an experience rather than a success, we decided that next time we should make a baked salmon, but then I had to cancel my volunteer shift because I had to go to Helsinki, and I was only able to come this Wednesday.
Baked salmon was a smashing success, and homemade mashed potatoes too, but they are always a success. One of the residents asked me to put aside some boiled potatoes before I mash the rest because “he didn’t like how mashed potatoes are soggy.” I put several pieces aside, but told him: just you wait! In a little bit, he was telling everyone that I proved him wrong 🙂
I am glad that I had a couple of people who actually participated in the process, and even suggested the spices, and that I could share the love :). And I forgot to take pictures again!
Pizza With ODS
I’ve been to the ODS twice in the past two weeks, which is a record, especially considering everything that has happened in the past year. Both times, it was pizza-making, and I have no idea whether we will ever graduate to something more advanced, as we used to cook for years. But again, that’s progress.
There is better staff in the shelter than we have had for years, and even when the youth are not actively participating, I feel that my presence is important to them. I receive more thanks than I deserve. Last week, I said I would be able to come on Tuesday, forgetting that my meetup was scheduled for Tuesday, not for Wednesday. When I realized this mistake, I messaged the volunteer coordinator, who said it was fine. They had the kitchen ceiling painted, so it was not exactly fine. I had to bake upstairs (in the kitchen of the long-term program), so the kids were assembling the pizzas without me – all not ideal, but yay, better than nothing!
Last week was way more fun because we did everything together, but the downside was that we had unbaked dough, so we had to half-bake the crusts and then the pizzas, which took a very long time!
… I am glad I kept trying 🙂
Cookie Decorating With ODS
A week earlier, we made Gingerbread houses, and it was a surprisingly delightful activity, as I mentioned in this post. On Thursday, I brought two boxes of plain cookies to decorate, and once again, it was a hit! One of the boxes contained gluten-free cookies, which was very much appreciated by one of the residents.
As it happens these days, there is a sigh: oh, you are leaving already? when I tried to leave around 8 PM. I stayed for a little bit longer, but I had a workday ahead and a relatively long way home, even when I took Uber (which I did).
Now, I need to figure out how I can appear at the ODS more consistently, even when I travel and have other conflicts. Overall, though, I am happy with how this year ends at ODS – way better than it looked three months ago.
Hettie's Reflections 