{"id":23967,"date":"2016-01-14T15:58:17","date_gmt":"2016-01-14T21:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=23967"},"modified":"2016-01-14T15:58:17","modified_gmt":"2016-01-14T21:58:17","slug":"peta-distributes-fur-coats-to-bronzeville-homeless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/peta-distributes-fur-coats-to-bronzeville-homeless\/","title":{"rendered":"PETA distributes fur coats to Bronzeville homeless"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Harry Huggins<\/strong><\/p>\n

The animal rights group, PETA, helped distribute fur coats to homeless women at a Chicago nonprofit women Thursday morning. The coats came from a series of fur donation drives across America and were distributed to the clients of Matthew House in Bronzeville.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cold hurts in Chicago, you know,\u201d Robin Powell said, twirling in her new brown, striped mink. \u201cI just feel so special and loved right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthew House helped Powell and her husband find an apartment on the South Side, but it burned down, leaving them homeless again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is gonna keep me warm and protected until Matthew House helps us find a new place,\u201d Powell said.
\n
\nMattie Dabbs received a sleek black mink. \u201cThis is simply awesome for someone to even donate this to the homeless people,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s warm, it\u2019s cozy, it is great. It means that people care about people, and they certainly do here.\u201d<\/p>\n

PETA donated the coats as part of their efforts to promote animal rights. In the past, PETA has donated vegan food to soup kitchens and shelters, as well as wool and leather items that people clean out of their closets when they decide to stop wearing animal products.<\/p>\n

Ashley Byrne, a PETA campaign specialist, said that the goals of an organization known for animal rights activism can intersect with the interests of people. Whether it be leather or livestock, \u201cyou can trace most of these issues back to the fact that they\u2019re not just impacting animals, they\u2019re impacting humans,\u201d Byrne said.<\/p>\n

\"Matthew
Matthew House residents show off their new fur coats from PETA’s donation Thursday morning. (Harry Huggins\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Byrne said she chose Matthew House to receive the coats because they provide a valuable service to Chicagoans.<\/p>\n

Matthew House started serving homeless Bronzeville residents in 1992. They provide daytime shelter, breakfast, lunch, counseling and case management to get people into housing. They typically serve 50 to 80 people daily, but that can almost double on frigid days like this past week.<\/p>\n

Cynthia Milsap is the director of development at Matthew House. She said the coats help the homeless women most with layering.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know in Chicago the wind can be quite biting,\u201d Milsap said, \u201cso the better they\u2019re able to layer themselves the warmer they’re able to stay.\u201d
\nWith the fur coats acquired, Milsap said the next greatest need for Matthew House is warm boots. She said most of their clients wear gym shoes, which get wet and don\u2019t prevent frostbite well. So Matthew House is running a donation drive for new or gently used boots.<\/p>\n

This year, Illinois\u2019 budget woes have left Matthew House wanting for more than just donated goods.<\/p>\n

Sanja Stinson is their executive director. She said that while Springfield argues over the budget, Matthew House has had to cut back services and staff. Their learning center and job service center have decreased their hours. \u201cRight now probably every staff member is doing three to five jobs at one time,\u201d Stinson said, \u201cincluding me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Matthew House remains committed to serving the homeless residents of Bronzeville.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a relationship with the community,\u201d Milsap said. \u201cWe know our elected officials, our aldermen, our state representatives. We have conversations and we\u2019re constantly pressing for the issues of the homeless with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Matthew House Executive Director Sanja Stinson presents the fur coats donated by PETA for homeless women in Bronzeville. (Harry Huggins\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Harry Huggins The animal rights group, PETA, helped distribute fur coats to homeless women at a Chicago nonprofit women Thursday morning. The coats came from a series of fur donation drives across America and were distributed to the clients of Matthew House in Bronzeville. \u201cThe cold hurts in Chicago, you know,\u201d Robin Powell said, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":231,"featured_media":23980,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[675,585],"tags":[61,696,694,695],"class_list":["post-23967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-justice","category-winter-2016","tag-chicago","tag-fur","tag-homelessness","tag-peta"],"yoast_head":"\nPETA distributes fur coats to Bronzeville homeless - 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\/peta-distributes-fur-coats-to-bronzeville-homeless\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PETA distributes fur coats to Bronzeville homeless - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Harry Huggins The animal rights group, PETA, helped distribute fur coats to homeless women at a Chicago nonprofit women Thursday morning. The coats came from a series of fur donation drives across America and were distributed to the clients of Matthew House in Bronzeville. \u201cThe cold hurts in Chicago, you know,\u201d Robin Powell said, […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/peta-distributes-fur-coats-to-bronzeville-homeless\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-14T21:58:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/01\/PETA-furs-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"825\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"harryhuggins\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"harryhuggins\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/peta-distributes-fur-coats-to-bronzeville-homeless\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/peta-distributes-fur-coats-to-bronzeville-homeless\/\",\"name\":\"PETA distributes fur coats to Bronzeville homeless - Medill Reports Chicago\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/peta-distributes-fur-coats-to-bronzeville-homeless\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/peta-distributes-fur-coats-to-bronzeville-homeless\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/01\/PETA-furs-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-14T21:58:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/3477654691a1e8a4297876489c4e1b10\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/peta-distributes-fur-coats-to-bronzeville-homeless\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/peta-distributes-fur-coats-to-bronzeville-homeless\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/peta-distributes-fur-coats-to-bronzeville-homeless\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/01\/PETA-furs-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/01\/PETA-furs-1.jpg\",\"width\":1100,\"height\":825,\"caption\":\"Matthew House Executive Director Sanja Stinson presents the fur coats donated by PETA for homeless women in Bronzeville. (Harry Huggins\/MEDILL)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/peta-distributes-fur-coats-to-bronzeville-homeless\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"PETA distributes fur coats to Bronzeville homeless\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/\",\"name\":\"Medill Reports Chicago\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/3477654691a1e8a4297876489c4e1b10\",\"name\":\"harryhuggins\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2f60bd181827e661acd4ff55ee1765de85e45f6347d331f2c25a6064ba5a2b85?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2f60bd181827e661acd4ff55ee1765de85e45f6347d331f2c25a6064ba5a2b85?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"harryhuggins\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/author\/harryhuggins\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"PETA distributes fur coats to Bronzeville homeless - Medill Reports Chicago","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/peta-distributes-fur-coats-to-bronzeville-homeless\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"PETA distributes fur coats to Bronzeville homeless - Medill Reports Chicago","og_description":"By Harry Huggins The animal rights group, PETA, helped distribute fur coats to homeless women at a Chicago nonprofit women Thursday morning. The coats came from a series of fur donation drives across America and were distributed to the clients of Matthew House in Bronzeville. \u201cThe cold hurts in Chicago, you know,\u201d Robin Powell said, […]","og_url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/peta-distributes-fur-coats-to-bronzeville-homeless\/","og_site_name":"Medill Reports Chicago","article_published_time":"2016-01-14T21:58:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1100,"height":825,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/01\/PETA-furs-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"harryhuggins","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"harryhuggins","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/peta-distributes-fur-coats-to-bronzeville-homeless\/","url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/peta-distributes-fur-coats-to-bronzeville-homeless\/","name":"PETA distributes fur coats to Bronzeville homeless - Medill Reports Chicago","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/peta-distributes-fur-coats-to-bronzeville-homeless\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/peta-distributes-fur-coats-to-bronzeville-homeless\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/01\/PETA-furs-1.jpg","datePublished":"2016-01-14T21:58:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/3477654691a1e8a4297876489c4e1b10"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/peta-distributes-fur-coats-to-bronzeville-homeless\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/peta-distributes-fur-coats-to-bronzeville-homeless\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/peta-distributes-fur-coats-to-bronzeville-homeless\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/01\/PETA-furs-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/01\/PETA-furs-1.jpg","width":1100,"height":825,"caption":"Matthew House Executive Director Sanja Stinson presents the fur coats donated by PETA for homeless women in Bronzeville. (Harry Huggins\/MEDILL)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/peta-distributes-fur-coats-to-bronzeville-homeless\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"PETA distributes fur coats to Bronzeville homeless"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website","url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/","name":"Medill Reports Chicago","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/3477654691a1e8a4297876489c4e1b10","name":"harryhuggins","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2f60bd181827e661acd4ff55ee1765de85e45f6347d331f2c25a6064ba5a2b85?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2f60bd181827e661acd4ff55ee1765de85e45f6347d331f2c25a6064ba5a2b85?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"harryhuggins"},"url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/author\/harryhuggins\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/231"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}