Volunteer to Help

HELPER GROUPS WHO ASSIST THE HOMELESS

By Thomas Hansen, Ph.D.

There is something like an informal, loosely organized (but sometimes very formal) network of volunteers, social workers, college students, and everyday citizens out there on the street trying to help homeless people.  For want of a better term, I have been using the term “helper group” because it is clear enough and also general enough it can cover people coming from social service agencies, college departments, churches, and other sources to help people. 

There are many types of helper groups out there, and there is no directory of all of them—at least not yet.  Instead, there are listings by type and—like many of the services for the homeless—most information for newly homeless persons is communicated through word-of-mouth networks. 

Getting to know some of the members of the helper groups is a very interesting endeavor and very rewarding also.  The members represent a wide variety of ages, races, backgrounds, and personality types.  Not all helper group members want to be interviewed—some groups have avoided being interviewed for some time now—and still others love to talk and want to give so much information they will be contacted for future articles about not just homeless needs but also community building and political information pieces to be written in the future.  

Simply, people who are out on the street a lot to help others see and hear a great deal more than persons who are “not out there” observing Chicagoland persons and their interactions.  So are the helper group members who we meet out on the street always there or simply once in a while?          

Some helper groups send people out to assist the homeless on a regular basis.  A well-known example of this is the Night Ministry in Chicago—famous for taking much-needed food, coffee, hot chili or soup, information about healthcare and other resources, and strong moral support.  This is an example of a formal network meant specifically for helping homeless and poor persons out in the community.  They maintain a fixed schedule of trips out into the streets such that on a given night, persons in need will know where to be to get clean socks, a hot meal, snacks, and many other items and much good advice (https://www.thenightministry.org/).    

Less formal helper groups consist of persons traveling on behalf of their church congregations.  There are many of these groups, and there are also a myriad of on-site helpers.

A more formal helper group on the north side is Saint Ita Catholic Church in Chicago.  It is an on-site operation.  They deliver a variety of services, including a soup kitchen and a food pantry.  They provide hygiene products, such as toilet paper, paper towels, lotion, razors, shaving cream, deodorant, tampons, and laundry detergent.  They also distribute foods such as canned ravioli, tuna, instant coffee, sugar and creamer (https://www.saintita.org/).

There is a huge network of these on-site agencies, churches, and offices available in the Chicago area and there is a website with listings of soup kitchens, food pantries, and helper groups providing clothing also.  The Greater Chicago Food Depository maintains the listings of all such organizations (https://www.chicagosfoodbank.org/).   

  

Speaking to dozens of helpers to the homeless (and to others in need) I am privy to a great deal of information about the kinds of help available to people, the kinds of help not available to people, and the sorts of personalities of helpers out there on the street.  Some of these people like to be interviewed, some are afraid to be interviewed, and some are just too darn busy to be interviewed about how and why they try to help. 

So who are these helpers?  One of the most resourceful persons I know is Dave, whose group travels up and down Clark Street and the surrounding area on Monday (sometimes Tuesday instead) to deliver burgers and other sandwiches, good will, and snacks.  Dave and his friends met with me several times so that I could talk to them about different sorts of helper groups, where they are located, and how people find out about them. 

“Word of mouth is the number one way people find out about us,” said Sheila, Dave’s partner.  She said about herself, “I am his partner in crime and I am the one who organizes things and keeps everybody moving.”  Dave laughed and admitted she is the one in the helper group who holds things together and does all the planning.  “All I do is ride my bike and hand out food,” he said.  While this is not the case—they joke all the time and say their sense of humor has maintained them for 10 years—they obviously enjoy the work and meeting the new homeless people, especially.

“I like to get my hands on new homeless people and get information to them right away before they hear a bunch of the nonsense out there,” she stated.  She added, “I love to encourage people, give examples of persons who have come back to the real world and made it.”    

There is another group on the north side traveling to pray with homeless and other persons in need.  There are often social work students from the universities who seek homeless persons to complete surveys on needed items and on concerns of persons living on the street.  Most of the MSW students in Chicago have internships, apparently, and they sometimes take part in helper groups both formally because of school requirements and because they get interested in assisting the individuals they meet when out there doing class projects.  Although the class projects end, the students seem to be drawn naturally to the role of helper.  

Yet another helper group delivers sandwiches up and down North Broadway Street, bringing burritos, bottled water, and other items to persons in need.  Some new members have recently signed onto this helper group.  Like many helper groups, none of their members have been interviewed. 

There are many other informal groups traveling—sporadically—around with smaller items like sewing kits, snacks, vitamins, and bottled water—so essential lately in the terrible temperatures.  One does not always catch all of the names in a group, and the helpers know that.  They are not necessarily there to become famous.  Instead, they are just trying to get resources to people who need them.  Not all of them want to be known, and not all of them want to reveal any sort of personal information about themselves.

Readers should understand that many, many helpers (with various roles) often construct a sort of “firewall” when working with the homeless and other disadvantaged populations in which there may be many persons with addiction, violence, depression, and confusion issues.  

Typical examples of firewall devices are: not giving homeless persons one’s cellphone number; not letting a homeless person use that phone to call anyone, even if there is an emergency; not giving homeless persons one’s home address; not sharing personal information—such as whether the helper has a wife or children or is gay or is a full-time employee as opposed to a volunteer; not committing to any political opinion—such as ignoring and avoiding comments about the mayor or the president; not providing the homeless person with their correct name or the name of their employer or college or major or significant other’s name or even the next destination of the helper on a given evening.  

Other ways to hold back and secure the firewall are: never giving cash to the person in need; not allowing the person in need any item they need the most (e.g., aspirin, coffee) as a way to establish limits and show authority; not maintaining a consistent schedule of help offered out of fear this could make the homeless person too dependent.  Other helpers avoid discussion of their motivation for helping, avoid talking about religion, and avoid telling people “in the real world” about their volunteering.

The “firewalls” are a known phenomenon.  An expert on homeless persons in the Northeast, David Wagner talks about the reluctance of some helpers to provide too much information (No Longer Homeless: How the Ex-Homeless Get and Stay Off the Streets, 2018).  Wagner also talks about how some homeless people do not want to “look homeless” and how they shun others who do somehow.  Homeless people see themselves in those other individuals, according to Wagner.

I asked my friend Dave why these firewalls are important, and I got the answer I dreaded.  “Stalking is a major problem,” he confided.  I’ve had people camped out in front of my apartment building before …and my landlord went ballistic.”  Dave also said, “It’s one of the first rules they make you agree to when you sign on to help.”  

He explained how in the case of his helper group, the leaders tell new people to share NO information whatsoever, no real names, no addresses, no phone numbers, no nationalities or neighborhoods or alma mater.  If the people being helped don’t like this, they are referred to the leaders of the helper group.

The helper groups are not necessarily all well-oiled organizations with rigorous schedules.  Not all of the helpers are forthcoming with personal information.  Not all of the helpers are personable, and not all of them are interested in being interviewed.               

Helper groups.  Some of them are very secretive, and some of them are well organized.  Some of them are sporadic in their service to the homeless, and some of them are more spiritual in how they assist persons in need.  However, all of them share the goal of providing homeless persons and others with some relief from the hard life of living with no home.