Why Being Homeless In Naperville Is No April Fool
I was a bit worried when I saw the date on the email. "Can you come and help serve breakfast to homeless people in Naperville at 6 a.m. on April 1st?"
Was it an April Fool? First of all the e mail was from my synagogue, it's Passover and I'd be required to make toast. Secondly, homeless people in Naperville? Does that mean anyone living in a house worth less than $500,000?
The temperatures are forecast to be nearly 80 degrees today (unless the meteorologists are having a joke too) so I thought getting up so early wouldn't be such a terrible thing. I wasn't required to eat the toast myself, and unfortunately I know that there are indeed homeless people in the area who rely on charities like Du Page PADs to help them.
The homeless people of the county are required to register, which then gives them the right to shelter in various churches over night. What this means is they turn up at 6 p.m. in the evening for an evening meal, spend the night sleeping on mattress pads on the floor, get up at 6 a.m. for breakfast and a shower and are then off on their way by 7 a.m.
The problem is the shelter is held at a different church every evening, so clients spend their days traveling from one to another.
Today was a quiet one, only 25 people, both men and a couple of women. Apparently same days the figure increases to 40 including little children.
"Where are you from?" one man asked me.
"London," I replied.
"You came here all the way from London to do this?" he joked.
"Sure, and they paid my fare specially," I said.
One woman, who I first thought was a volunteer, was beautifully made up, but had spent the night on the floor herself. I did hear a few complaints that there wasn't any crispy bacon this morning, but in the circumstances they were lucky to get toast!
Was it an April Fool? First of all the e mail was from my synagogue, it's Passover and I'd be required to make toast. Secondly, homeless people in Naperville? Does that mean anyone living in a house worth less than $500,000?
The temperatures are forecast to be nearly 80 degrees today (unless the meteorologists are having a joke too) so I thought getting up so early wouldn't be such a terrible thing. I wasn't required to eat the toast myself, and unfortunately I know that there are indeed homeless people in the area who rely on charities like Du Page PADs to help them.
The homeless people of the county are required to register, which then gives them the right to shelter in various churches over night. What this means is they turn up at 6 p.m. in the evening for an evening meal, spend the night sleeping on mattress pads on the floor, get up at 6 a.m. for breakfast and a shower and are then off on their way by 7 a.m.
The problem is the shelter is held at a different church every evening, so clients spend their days traveling from one to another.
Today was a quiet one, only 25 people, both men and a couple of women. Apparently same days the figure increases to 40 including little children.
"Where are you from?" one man asked me.
"London," I replied.
"You came here all the way from London to do this?" he joked.
"Sure, and they paid my fare specially," I said.
One woman, who I first thought was a volunteer, was beautifully made up, but had spent the night on the floor herself. I did hear a few complaints that there wasn't any crispy bacon this morning, but in the circumstances they were lucky to get toast!
posted by Hilary at
7:52 AM
1 Comments:
Would it be possible to set up a more permanent overnight shelter, utilising somewhere like the long- empty old KMart building (corner of Jefferson/Ogden) - different groups could still be responsible for serving meals, laundry, etc.
Stephanie
By
Anonymous, at 9:30 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home