FAQ #2 - Where do homeless people live?
What is a "tent city"?
The real term is an encampment. There are sanctioned and unsanctioned encampments. Sanctioned ones are protected from local governments from being destroyed or cleared out by public works employees or police. These benefit from services like donations of food from local restaurants and more effective social work and medical services because followup is much easier. Since these last longer, the people who live in them develop a sense of community. People look out for each other. There isn't a constant fear of eviction hanging over their heads, so they feel more settled.
Unsanctioned encampments are in somewhat secluded areas where people have been able to live undisturbed for some time. The vast majority of them are unsanctioned. The better they're camouflaged and the cleaner they're kept, the longer they are tolerated.
Where are tent cities?
Two sanctioned encampments in Chicago are located on Belmont and 90/94, and on DesPlaines Ave. between Taylor and Roosevelt Rd. They're on little slivers of land that separate the highway from city streets.
Around some highways and railroads the property is owned by a patchwork of entities (the county, the city, private owners). Sometimes people get lucky if the boundaries are unclear and it's hard for the owners to agree whose responsibility it is to clean up or kick people out of an area.
There's a raised abandoned railroad track that people stay in and around too. It's not patrolled or owned by anyone, so a lot of people live there.
Do tent cities have names?
Usually we just refer to them by their location i.e. Fullerton and 90/94 or Foster and Pulaski. We use these names to find them and also to plan our routes for the day.
Do different types people live in different encampments?
Encampments tend to have their own personalities: like one group will be made up of mostly alcoholics, or another will be more into harder drugs. Sometimes different drugs are more popular in different pockets of the city. For instance, crack is still popular in some areas. But also you can find a few sober people in the encampments.
If someone isn't living in an encampment, where do they live?
There is safety in numbers, so many people live in small clusters, OR they live completely alone. People can tuck themselves into the small spaces between the I-beams underneath bridges. A lot of folks will go to pretty extreme lengths to dissuade visitors and go completely unseen- they feel safest living completely isolated.
So how do you find the solo-people?
Sometimes you catch them panhandling, or you can ask around. "Do you know anyone around here who needs anything?" and someone will say, "Yeah, there's a guy who lives over there..." Other times we just look around. If we see a cut in a fence, or clothes hanging up somewhere weird, or a trash pile- we'll explore around areas like that. Sometimes we can see their tents.
The real term is an encampment. There are sanctioned and unsanctioned encampments. Sanctioned ones are protected from local governments from being destroyed or cleared out by public works employees or police. These benefit from services like donations of food from local restaurants and more effective social work and medical services because followup is much easier. Since these last longer, the people who live in them develop a sense of community. People look out for each other. There isn't a constant fear of eviction hanging over their heads, so they feel more settled.
Unsanctioned encampments are in somewhat secluded areas where people have been able to live undisturbed for some time. The vast majority of them are unsanctioned. The better they're camouflaged and the cleaner they're kept, the longer they are tolerated.
Where are tent cities?
Two sanctioned encampments in Chicago are located on Belmont and 90/94, and on DesPlaines Ave. between Taylor and Roosevelt Rd. They're on little slivers of land that separate the highway from city streets.
Around some highways and railroads the property is owned by a patchwork of entities (the county, the city, private owners). Sometimes people get lucky if the boundaries are unclear and it's hard for the owners to agree whose responsibility it is to clean up or kick people out of an area.
There's a raised abandoned railroad track that people stay in and around too. It's not patrolled or owned by anyone, so a lot of people live there.
Do tent cities have names?
Usually we just refer to them by their location i.e. Fullerton and 90/94 or Foster and Pulaski. We use these names to find them and also to plan our routes for the day.
Do different types people live in different encampments?
Encampments tend to have their own personalities: like one group will be made up of mostly alcoholics, or another will be more into harder drugs. Sometimes different drugs are more popular in different pockets of the city. For instance, crack is still popular in some areas. But also you can find a few sober people in the encampments.
If someone isn't living in an encampment, where do they live?
There is safety in numbers, so many people live in small clusters, OR they live completely alone. People can tuck themselves into the small spaces between the I-beams underneath bridges. A lot of folks will go to pretty extreme lengths to dissuade visitors and go completely unseen- they feel safest living completely isolated.
So how do you find the solo-people?
Sometimes you catch them panhandling, or you can ask around. "Do you know anyone around here who needs anything?" and someone will say, "Yeah, there's a guy who lives over there..." Other times we just look around. If we see a cut in a fence, or clothes hanging up somewhere weird, or a trash pile- we'll explore around areas like that. Sometimes we can see their tents.
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