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March 19, 2004
BY FRANK MAIN Staff Reporter
On Election Day, the storefront at 50th and Ashland was crowded with signs for Senate candidates Barack Obama and Blair Hull, but the woman snoring in the doorway under a filthy coat and blanket was oblivious to the political race and the cars zipping past.
No one really knows how many people are like her, trying to survive another night in the cold.
That is why the city is preparing to launch a massive count of homeless people as part of a goal to eliminate the chronic problem in 10 years.
"It is a big, big undertaking," said a spokeswoman for the city's Department of Human Services, who would not comment on details of the count.
Forty-five Chicago Police officers will assist the Department of Human Services and other agencies in the citywide survey scheduled for the wee hours of this coming Wednesday, said Chicago Police Lt. Jonathan Lewin.
The count will not include people in homeless shelters. They already have been counted in a 2001 University of Illinois at Chicago survey that showed 6,100 people were served within Chicago's homeless system each day.
The Department of Human Services survey will account for homeless people living in the public way: under viaducts, on the street, in parks and other places, Lewin said. The city plans to conduct the count annually, he said.
Samir Goswami of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless is skeptical about the undertaking.
"We would like to be supportive, but we are very cautious about how accurate the numbers will be," Goswami said.
He pointed out that the coalition's definition of homelessness is much broader.
The homeless live in jails, mental health and substance-abuse facilities. They also illegally squat in public or private housing or visit relatives and friends, Goswami said.
"This is something I think the city is doing for the first time," he said. "But it's a starting point, that's all it is. This is a very minimal count. It does not include everyone who is homeless in Chicago. I hope that caveat is written in their report in bold type."
The Chicago Transit Authority, the Chicago Park District and the Chicago Housing Authority will assist the police and the Department of Human Services in the count, which will be held from midnight to 3 a.m., Lewin said.
"DHS will do a majority of the city and we will help in areas they will not count themselves," he said.
Surveyors will visit six CHA buildings and use those findings to estimate homelessness in public housing for the rest of the city, Lewin said.
The 45 officers selected for the duty were trained Thursday morning at the police academy.
"They will use their knowledge of the neighborhoods to identify homeless people," Lewin said. "We have contact cards to hand out to the people with lists of detox facilities, mental health facilities, etc."
Greg Bella of the Fraternal Order of Police wondered why the officers are performing jobs normally handled by social workers.
"It seems there's better things to do with our manpower," the union official said.
The city is committed to ending homelessness in a decade, according to a mission statement on the Department of Human Services Web site.
Goswami
said the coalition fully supports the 10-year plan, but he said funding for the
program is "way behind schedule."
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