Report details homelessness in the Southland

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Courtney Suchor, South Suburban Family Shelter, listens Thursday afternoon November 16, 2011 during the meeting to discuss homelessness in the south suburbs at Catholic Charities in South Holland, Illinois. | Art Vassy~Sun-Times Media

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Updated: December 28, 2011 8:04AM

The 29-year-old mother of two was evicted from her Riverdale apartment, her car was repossessed, she lost her job as a certified nurse assistant and she was pregnant with her second set of twins.

“I felt like giving up,” Monique Williams said. “I lost my support system. I felt like there was no hope.”

Even when she was working, it was never enough to cover her bills. Some social service agencies “slammed the door” on her, but Williams found hope — and shelter — at South Suburban Public Action to Deliver Shelter in Chicago Heights.

“It was very challenging,” she said of life in a homeless shelter. “You have to sleep on a pad in one big room with all these people. I told my kids it was one big slumber party.”

Here, her case worker also helped her get child care, job training and another job. Her second set of twins were born prematurely and remain hospitalized. She is now in transitional housing, plans to get her own apartment and is determined to make a better life for her children, who have already been in three different preschools.

“I got up off my pad, got my kids dressed and got myself dressed. I took two buses and walked four blocks to work until I was six months pregnant,” said Williams, who has a bachelor’s degree in art. “When I hear people say the homeless are lazy, it hurts. It is simply not true.”

‘I wanted to keep the job’

For one year, Khalif Burks tried to keep his warehouse job in Bolingbrook, commuting from Richton Park several hours a day by train, el and several buses at a cost of more than $240 per month. He and his mother moved to Richton Park from Bolingbrook to live with his grandmother after his mom lost her job.

“I wanted to keep the job I had,” said Burks, now 23. “The fact that I did not finish high school makes it hard to find another job.”

When his grandmother died, they became homeless. Burks and his mom are also living in the South Suburban PADS shelter. And through PADS, he has just completed classes at Prairie State College for General Education Development — GED — to earn a high school equivalency diploma and learned job skills, such as resume writing and interviewing skills.

Burks is now applying for jobs “everywhere I can.”

What kind of work is he looking for? “Anything,” he said.

But he really wants to be a cross-country truck driver like his grandfather.

Williams and Burks are among 380 homeless persons in the Southland — according to the Alliance to End Homelessness. That doesn’t include those who have “doubled up” and moved in with relatives.

Regional differences

Their stories underscore the issues that perpetuate homelessness here — lack of education, affordable housing, living wages, job opportunities and transportation. All of these — and more — are addressed in a report out earlier this month dubbed “Our Regional Challenge.”

Homelessness in the south and southwest suburbs is not a new problem but is a growing problem. Those who have been combating it for decades in the south suburbs say it wasn’t until recent years, when northern suburbs started to experience these same problems, that people began to take notice.

In a 17-page report, they detailed why this problem is so much worse in the Southland, why additional resources are needed here and they have launched a new effort to tackle this beast on a regional level.

Williams and Burks hope the report will create an awareness of all these issues that have plagued the area long before this current recession.

Here’s what the report found:

Greater disparity between the number of households and the number of jobs from north to south. In 2000, there were 1.8 jobs per household in northern Cook County and 0.99 jobs per household in south Cook County.

Difficulty in getting to jobs via public transportation, causing Southland residents to spend more time and money commuting.

More foreclosures in the Southland. In 2005, the south and southwest suburbs saw 4,249 foreclosures; In 2010, that number rose to 7,670 foreclosures.

Many more “rent-burdened” residents — meaning they pay more than 30 percent of their income for rent, which pushes them into homelessness.

Twice as many homeless students in south Cook County than any other region in the eight-county metropolitan area — 1,934 homeless students in 2020.

High mobility rates in the schools. In 2010, Riverdale School District 133 — which has a high percentage of apartment buildings — had a mobility rate of 87.5 percent, followed by Matteson School District 162 with 25.9 percent, South Holland District 150 with 25.1 percent, Dolton/Riverdale District 148 with 24 percent and Glenwood District 167 with 22.5 percent.

Lack of a regional perspective and community cohesiveness among the 158 local governing units and 23 state lawmakers. Attempts at cooperation have been inconsistent, all of which undermines an ability to end homelessness.

“I hope people realize how serious this is,” Williams said after the report was unveiled at the Catholic Charities office in South Holland. “People should stop being embarrassed about it and talk about it often. People have to come together to fix it.”

And that’s exactly the goal of this “regional challenge.” Organizations such as South Suburban PADS, the South Suburban Council on Homelessness, the Alliance to End Homelessness in Suburban Cook County, Together We Cope, Respond Now, and Catholic Charities came together to announce the report.

But they also said they have to bring together the leaders of all Southland municipalities and townships, as well as businessmen, school officials, philanthropists and politicians. That in itself, they say, will be a challenge in a region that historically has not collaborated.

“We need to bring everyone together again,” said Mike Wasserberg, of South Suburban PADS. “The primary issue is making people realize that homelessness is a regional issue. We need to make sure Orland Park and Chicago Heights are working together.”

‘There is still a crisis’

But Southland leaders also need to persuade employers to bring jobs back, raise the economic level of these residents, help them maintain their homes and get an education, he said.

“Why people are homeless today is because 10, 15, 20 years ago people were not concerned enough about education,” Wasserberg said. “Kids fell behind in school and they are now the adults we are serving in our shelters.”

He said they have “hollered and screamed in Springfield” for years but were told it was no problem.

“We have to do something to save our children,” said Kathy Straniero, of Together We Cope. “It is our responsibility to make sure our kids have stable housing, jobs for their parents, and safe neighborhoods. We are so severely lacking in this.”

Wasserberg hopes to meet with all the “stakeholders” early next year, show them the numbers in this report and get them to commit to working with area social service agencies.

The community “poured out of the woodwork” to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, he said. “We need to do that in our own neighborhoods. There may not be a hurricane, but there is still a crisis.”