When staff at an Evanston-based shelter learned of Monday’s Blue Line shooting, they were horrified — not only by the brutality of the attack but that one of the victims was a former resident who they thought was in housing.
Margaret Miller Johnson, 64, was one of four people fatally shot early Monday on the CTA Blue Line. Three of the victims were sleeping on the train.
“One of the unknowns for us right now is why was Margaret on that train,” Connections for the Homeless CEO Betty Bogg told the Sun-Times. “We kept in touch with her. She had not indicated to us that she was unhoused.”
“People keep asking me if I’m OK … nobody’s really OK,” Bogg added.
Connections started 40 years ago in a church basement as an overnight shelter. It has since expanded to offer a range of shelter and housing services, along with eviction prevention and rental assistance.
Bogg met Johnson and her husband Nick around 2019 when they first came to Connections. At the time the couple was living out of their truck and needed a more permanent housing solution.
“There’s people that are just a delight to work with and Margaret was one of those people,” Bogg said.
When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Connections opened a hotel-based shelter. Bogg walked out of the hotel one day and spotted the Johnsons.
“I went over to them, and was like, ‘Tell me you’re staying here,’” Bogg recalled with excitement. “And they were, and it was so great. It was just such an illustration on of … when we devote the correct resources to a problem.”
Through pandemic relief funding, the couple secured housing in Des Plaines in December of 2020. By 2022, the apartment was converted to a Housing Authority of Cook County unit and the couple stayed through a housing voucher.
Unfortunately, Johnson’s husband died that same year. She returned to Connections for a memorial and kept in contact with staff. As far as everyone knew, she hadn’t lost her home.
“People feel the stigma and shame that gets heaped on them when they become unhoused, and it makes it hard for them to ask for help,” Bogg said. “Margaret might just not have been able to do that right then.”
Johnson’s death weighs heavily on those who worked with her and others like her.
The unfortunate reality is tragedies are common in their work, Bogg said, and they have lost many participants to chronic illness, suicide or overdose.
“This is a horrible loss, but this is the loss that we see every day in our work,” Bogg said.
Connections also engages in policy work at the state and local levels, fighting for greater access to affordable housing.
“We also are an organization that understands that these solutions that we’re providing would be much less necessary if we were able to change the policies that make them more likely in the first place,” Bogg said.
While the organization does not know what led to Johnson or others sleeping on that train Monday, they do know transit is often the only “safe” option for those who are unhoused and that “our society can and should do better.”
“These are human beings, and they’re part of a series of system failures,” Bogg said. “The education system fails people, the criminal justice system fails people, the health care system fails people, and the housing system fails people.”