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.