Tuesday, August 11, 2009

A New Shelter in Uptown

A reader writes in:

"This morning when I was about to walk my dog, I found a homeless man sleeping on my front porch. The door slammed behind me as I exited the building. He then complained about the noise and me waking him up. I found that pretty bold, but I'm not totally heartless and I feel bad for people that have no home. At the same time, I don't think he should be setting up camp on my front porch so I reported it to an officer that was driving by. The officer said he got a call about it and asked specifically which building. I gave him my address and the police escorted him off the premises.

I'm just wondering if I did the right thing. It's the first time this has happened in the 2 1/2 years that I've lived in Uptown. Is there something more I could do in this situation? I'm not a homeless shelter, so I know I am not supposed to provide room and food to this person. At the same time, should I be pointing him in the direction of a shelter or other social services in our ward? Or is that up to the police? I'm just wondering if any readers on Uptown Update have any advice."

19 comments:

  1. I had a similar issue last year when a man had passed out in front of my garage door (bottle in hand). I never know how someone like that will react so I beeped my horn. He did not move but rolled over. I ended up having to call 911 to get him on his feet. I didn't feel safe approaching/waking him. I felt bad but the more I gave it some thought I realized he had far better options than laying in an alley.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You sure did the right thing. I support your compassionate stance, and once I took one, too, towards a man who had camped out under my back porch, but by accident he set the stairs on fire trying to keep warm! That was not cool. And since many homeless do have mental health problems, you don't know what you might be getting into. You have to look out for yourself and just pray for the best for these unfortunate folks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The police station is a good place to send folks of this nature, they are a contact point to get them in to the Chicago system. Most of the shelters can't take walk-in's, they need to go through the cop shop or another supporting agency.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Be careful out there. I know someone who saw someone who appeared to be passed out and blocking entrance to her garage. She got out of the car to help him up, and he filed battery charges against her.

    In that situation, the problem stemmed from local restaurants giving out food to the homeless and then they would camp out near the restaurant. Luckily, it was in Gene Schulter's ward and he was able to get the restaurants to stop giving food to these guys and instead encourage them to get food at the nearby soup kitchen.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You for sure did the right thing. I would have done alot more then what you did for sure. No-one has rights to your property unless you allow it. I think uptown is getting worse with the homeless population. As I drive around the city I do not see this problem as much as here in Uptown. Why does not our famous alderman address these problems. She cannot help but see it right our her office front window all day long.....

    ReplyDelete
  6. If somebody is unconscious on your property it's best to at least do a well-being check. I generally call 311 whenever I see somebody passed out on public property near our home. 311 usually kicks me over to 911 and in all instances lately the individuals have been too intoxicated to walk, in which case EMS takes them.

    However on Sunday I was walking the 4700 block of Winthrop with my son around 9am and we discovered a man unconscious, shoes and shirt off, his wallet in the grass. I recognized him and realized this was in fact his own front yard. Rough night.

    In response to Holy Moley's comment about restaurants feeding the homeless -- I have been watching for two years as some individuals camp on the loading docks behind 4821 Broadway. Leaving behind trash and urinating in the bushes next to the building, and even the building itself. Last week an employee came out with broom in hand, cleaning up the night's assorted refuse as the people still slept. Literally sweeping right beneath them. Strange.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Don't be such a bleeding heart goofball! Of course you did the right thing. He is trespassing on private property (and made obnoxious self-entitled comments about you distrbing his precious black out).
    The homeless are a much more concentrated problem in Uptown than other wards - and we all know why that is.

    I recently had the misfortune to watch my local crack head deficate on the sidewalk outside of Jewel (the same woman who was previously shown on UU doing the same thing in a parking lot).

    ReplyDelete
  8. You didn't do the wrong thing. You should have just told him this is private property, it's where you live and that you're sorry if he doesn't have a place to sleep other than your porch but if he wants, you could direct him to a shelter. But the bottom line is you have no obligation to be nice to someone, homeless or not, who is rude to you. Seriously, if he was sleeping on my stairs and was pissed at me for waking him up, I probably would have lost it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. barryfishing, Helen would see the homeless outside her office if she was ever AT her office. One big reason she does little to nothing about the homeless is because without their presence, she cannot use the staple argument: 'You just want to get rid of all the poor people' against Uptown's gainfully-employed residents and 'evil condo owners'.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Better be safe than sorry. Remember the homeless woman in Wrigleyville a couple years back I believe right off of Addison and Freemont? The neighbors felt bad for her and didn't ask her to leave the hallway between the first entrance and the second entrance and she ended up burning the place down because she was lighting dollar bills on fire to keep warm. She killed a young mother who lived in the building.

    It may sound harsh- but directing these individuals to shelters where trained people can help them is the best thing you could do.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I'm sure he was just getting in line early to fill out an application for all of the jobs at the Wilson Yard fish farm. Must have gotten the wrong address.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Christopher J has a good point about 4821 N. Broadway. Anyone who uses the Lawrence red line stop around 6:45-7:30AM can see this group of people and their morning routine. Just walk to the northern-most quarter of the train platform and looks west. I didn't realize they were using the loading dock of a functioning building, I assumed the building (or at least the dock) was abandoned. I can't believe the owners allow this, especially if the building is home to food production / distribution as it appears to be.

    ReplyDelete
  13. You did the right thing in confirming to this man that you are not comfortable with strange men hanging out on your property. Then did the right thing again when you allowed the police to handle it.

    Don't ever hesitate to call 911 for this type of situation!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Pepper spray would be an ideal motivator for him to move along. Keep that in mind for the next time the shiftless drunk decides to pass out on your front porch.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Pepper spray would be an ideal motivator for him to move along.


    Umm, wouldn't that be assault?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Yep, it would be an assault. I would call the police if someone wouldn't leave my private property.

    ReplyDelete
  17. You would be long gone before the police got there. Do you really think the police are going to take the word of some passed out, drunken crackhead? Doubtful.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I get the frustration with someone sleeping on my doorstep and the person refusing help because he doesn't want to deal with his addiction. I get all the frustration that goes with that. I'm frustrated myself.

    It just isn't right to treat people disrespectfully, period, even if they might deserve it. The disrespect Helen and her staff show me and others gets on my nerves. I don't want to become like them. I want a different standard to live my life by. In the end, our charcter is defined by our actions.

    ReplyDelete
  19. If it becomes a problem, put a small sign up somewhere stating "no trespassing." If they continue, call the police and say "I want to sign complaints against a trespasser on my porch." A police officer will be there shortly.

    Now stop with the dramatics. The police coming by and escorting him off, just means he is going to sleep on another persons porch. If you think this person doesn't already know about shelters, you're kidding yourself. They sleep on the streets because they don't want to abide by the lenient rules those shelters have. When you have a family with kids on your porch, then you can turn the drama back on.

    ReplyDelete