{"id":10824,"date":"2015-03-17T10:26:59","date_gmt":"2015-03-17T15:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=10824"},"modified":"2015-03-31T15:18:06","modified_gmt":"2015-03-31T20:18:06","slug":"homeless-chicago-couple-chooses-streets-over-shelters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/homeless-chicago-couple-chooses-streets-over-shelters\/","title":{"rendered":"Homeless Chicago couple chooses streets over shelters"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Adrienne Hurst<\/p>\n

Geronimo Lightfoot has a home. It\u2019s between two concrete pillars underneath the Illinois Center on Michigan Avenue; a cozy nest of blankets, paper bags and empty cans of Natural Light.<\/p>\n

The 54-year-old endures Chicago\u2019s biting winters in the wind-sheltered underpass of Lower Michigan Avenue. Though this one\u2019s coming to an end, he’s\u00a0kept warm using the few amenities his monthly disability check affords him\u2014a result of kidney failure that happened two years ago\u2014and the occasional hand warmers donated by volunteers and passersby.<\/p>\n

And another thing: love.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I came out here for my boyfriend,\u201d Joyce Wiggins, 62, said with a grin.<\/p>\n

Wiggins and Lightfoot met 10 months ago at Four Winds Casino in Michigan, where Lightfoot was spending an evening away from the elements and Wiggins was enjoying a night of gambling. She didn\u2019t live on the streets at the time, but she \u201cwasn\u2019t doing much\u201d back home in Ann Arbor, either. \u201cI was living with my cousin, babysitting and house-sitting,\u201d she said. \u201cI followed [Lightfoot] here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple is in good company beneath Chicago\u2019s bustling shopping district. Their echoing underpass is sprinkled with tents and piles of blankets sheltering dozens of the city\u2019s homeless. It\u2019s warmer here than on the streets above, where winds faster than the speed limit can make wool coats feel almost futile. It\u2019s an area volunteers and employees at the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services<\/a> (DFSS) know to scrutinize during their biennial point-in-time (PIT) count of the city\u2019s homeless population.<\/p>\n

\"geronimo\"<\/a>
Lightfoot, left, and Wiggins relax in the underpass they call home. Adrienne Hurst\/MEDILL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lightfoot and Wiggins weren’t\u00a0around for this year\u2019s count. They were resting on the Red Line, sleepily following its path from Howard to 95th Street and back again. \u201cThe train\u2019s got heat, so that\u2019s better than being out here,\u201d Lightfoot told me, rubbing a leather-gloved hand on his knee. \u201cYou just gotta stay alert for pickpockets.\u201d<\/p>\n

On just one night in winter 2014, city employees and volunteers counted 6,294 homeless individuals while scouring the streets and city-funded homeless shelters. Nearly one thousand were sleeping outdoors that night in around zero degree weather.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0five-month-long winter<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Cook County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office measures the beginning and end of winter by a grim criterion: hypothermia body count. It\u2019s a season flanked by the first and last cold-related deaths. This winter began on Nov. 20 when 52-year-old David Powells, a homeless man, was found unconscious on Chicago Avenue. The combination of acute alcohol poisoning, hypertensive cardiovascular disease and cold exposure proved fatal.<\/p>\n

By the medical examiner’s standards, last\u00a0winter didn’t end until April 3, 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe interesting thing is that we usually see most of our hypothermic patients in the emergency room during October, and then during April, May,\u201dsaid Dr. Jeffrey Schaider, chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Cook County Health and Hospital System. \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t expect it, but think about it: It\u2019s early May, late April, fairly warm out. You lie down on a park bench, dressed in a t-shirt. You have too much to drink and you fall asleep. It starts to drizzle; it gets down to the 40s. Your body temperature will drop pretty quickly in that situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

I wondered why many displaced people continue to sleep on Chicago\u2019s trains and underpasses even with shelters available. On Thursday, Jan. 22, a week before I met Lightfoot, I followed DFSS employees for this year\u2019s federally mandated PIT count.<\/p>\n

Tallying\u00a0the displaced<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chicago is one of 414 U.S. Continuums of Care (CoC)<\/a>\u2014regional or local planning bodies in charge of directing homeless services\u2014that conduct a biennial PIT count. According to an August 2014 analysis by the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, the number of Chicagoans without permanent housing could be as high as 138,575 when those living temporarily with family or friends are included.<\/p>\n

From 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. that Thursday, I watched as John Pfeiffer, DFSS First Deputy Commissioner, knelt with a pen and clipboard before men and women wrapped in layers of blankets. He asked if they would be willing to answer a few survey questions: how long they had been homeless, whether they dealt with substance abuse or mental illness, and other questions. The questions are intended to capture a \u201csnapshot\u201d of Chicago’s homeless population, which will ultimately help direct federal funding when the data is released this summer.<\/p>\n

Many were asleep in tattered tents along the fringes of Lower Wacker and Lower Columbus Drive. DFSS employees tapped at the tarps of their residences in an attempt to wake them up, many times apologizing and explaining the purpose of their visit. Some of those residents became audibly upset; others were either too intoxicated or delirious to provide coherent answers. Irritated by the crowd of reporters and city employees, one man agreed to speak only if someone purchased a copy of \u201cStreetWise\u201d from him.<\/p>\n

Disturbing some of Chicago\u2019s most vulnerable residents to ask about their lives felt tense. Despite their good intentions, DFSS workers were dismissed by some who were trying to sleep or otherwise maintain privacy.<\/p>\n

I went back to Lower Wacker and the people sleeping on Chicago\u2019s wintry streets one morning in February, when they would be awake and more willing to talk. That\u2019s where I met Lightfoot and Wiggins.<\/p>\n

\"downtownchi\"<\/a>
During the winter months, some of Chicago’s homeless seek refuge on public transportation. Adrienne Hurst\/MEDILL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

‘I had nowhere to go’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lightfoot hasn\u2019t set foot in a shelter since last winter, he told me. He spent most of his time outdoors before becoming homeless, working in construction and eventually quitting to become a live-in caretaker for his father who had Alzheimer’s disease. When his father passed away two years ago, \u201cI had nowhere to go, so I ended up in shelters,\u201d Lightfoot said. But incidents of theft and bed bugs eventually led him back to the streets.<\/p>\n

Lightfoot is faring better this season than he did last year. Winter 2013-2014 was Chicago\u2019s coldest on record, and during one of its bitterest days, Lightfoot passed out on State Street.<\/p>\n

He asked a postman to call 9-1-1 as soon as he came to. Lightfoot knew that progressive loss of consciousness can signal severe hypothermia, a condition that contributed to the deaths of 32 people in Cook County last winter. About one-third of them were homeless, according to the medical examiner\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see them all the time in the emergency room,\u201d Schaider said.<\/p>\n

The Chicago city government funds 10 emergency shelters<\/a> with a total of 581 beds\u2014places to sleep for 12 hours or less\u2014and 41 interim shelters with 2,708 beds, places to stay for longer periods and receive housing services. That number doesn\u2019t include independently funded shelters like the Pacific Garden Mission, Chicago\u2019s largest and longest-running shelter, where more than 1,100 homeless men, women and children sleep during the winter.<\/p>\n

Despite the shelters that are in place, last year\u2019s PIT count<\/a> found 16 percent of homeless Chicagoans living on the street. DFSS employees and volunteers provided those individuals with directions to the nearest shelter as part of the count process.<\/p>\n

But \u201ceven during the polar vortex, we had people who did not want to come in,\u201d said DFSS spokesman Matt Smith during this year\u2019s count. \u201cThey might have taken blankets, they might have taken coffee, but they refused\u201d to visit a shelter.<\/p>\n

Pfeiffer listed a general distrust in institutional care as a possible factor. \u201cMental health is probably the biggest issue,\u201d he said. \u201cOr perhaps they\u2019ve been abused in a shelter before. They might have had a bad experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lightfoot put it this way: theft is unbearable when all you own is on your back. He said he experienced that on more than one occasion at the shelters. \u201cWhen you have that bad taste, you don\u2019t want to go back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I can\u2019t deal with bed bugs,\u201d Wiggins added, shaking her head in disgust. Living with Lightfoot, she\u2019s never stayed in a shelter. \u201cI can\u2019t deal with bugs of any kind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"chiflag\"<\/a>
A Chicago flag near the Illinois Center flutters in the wind. Adrienne Hurst\/MEDILL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Winter isn’t over\u2014but\u00a0this year’s ‘a cakewalk’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although Lightfoot applied for low-income housing in December, his application fell through due to high demand, he said. He\u2019ll try again soon. But until then, he and Wiggins have a routine in place for the colder days: They spend their mornings in the Harold Washington Library, afternoons in the Barnes and Noble on Jackson Boulevard, and nights on the red line.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, it was rough,\u201d Lightfoot said. \u201cI seen guys who totally lost their toes. But this year?\u201d<\/p>\n

He paused to gesture at the concrete substructure of Michigan Avenue above him, beyond which a February sky was beginning to blanket the city in more than a foot of snow. It was the first blizzard of the season and the fifth heaviest snowfall in city history. Directly above us, the city flag by the Illinois Center writhed in nearly 40 mph winds.<\/p>\n

\u201dThis is a cakewalk,\u201d Lightfoot said, cradling an unopened packet of Hot Hands in his lap. He threw his head back and laughed. Wiggins laughed, too.<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Tents equipped with brooms and fold-out chairs line the sidewalks\u00a0of Lower Wacker. Adrienne Hurst\/Medill<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adrienne Hurst Geronimo Lightfoot has a home. It\u2019s between two concrete pillars underneath the Illinois Center on Michigan Avenue; a cozy nest of blankets, paper bags and empty cans of Natural Light. The 54-year-old endures Chicago\u2019s biting winters in the wind-sheltered underpass of Lower Michigan Avenue. Though this one\u2019s coming to an end, he’s\u00a0kept […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":10825,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,29,30,243],"tags":[411,408,410,409,192],"class_list":["post-10824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-interest","category-health-and-science","category-public-affairs","category-winter-2015","tag-chicago-department-of-family-and-support-services","tag-homeless","tag-homelss-count","tag-homesless-shelters","tag-promo"],"yoast_head":"\nHomeless Chicago couple chooses streets over shelters - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/homeless-chicago-couple-chooses-streets-over-shelters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Homeless Chicago couple chooses streets over shelters - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Adrienne Hurst Geronimo Lightfoot has a home. It\u2019s between two concrete pillars underneath the Illinois Center on Michigan Avenue; a cozy nest of blankets, paper bags and empty cans of Natural Light. The 54-year-old endures Chicago\u2019s biting winters in the wind-sheltered underpass of Lower Michigan Avenue. 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