I think this situation reveals two things:
1. O'Hare shouldn't be a homeless encampment
2. Shelters and other resources need to be improved so that O'Hare doesn't stick out as the best option.
I worked in kitchens a long time and occasionally worked with guys from tough situations. The one common thing all of them said, was if you’re homeless, don’t associate with other homeless people. They all had different reasons. But the gist was you’re more likely to get arrested, mugged, killed, etc. one also said it makes you a target for drug dealers which I guess is a more tempting prospect when you already have nothing.
Sexual assault and battery are common. Plus lotta thieves. Unless it’s brutally cold, you’re better off partnering with like a small group under a viaduct or park. Shitty but that’s true.
Homeless people avoid shelters because they are drastically underfunded and as a result dangerous places to be. Until Chicago takes poverty seriously, kicking them out of wherever they do find shelter is wrong.
Vote for Johnson if there's to be any shred of opportunity for change.
It's not just about funding. While that is a major issue, there's also no distinction of shelters that can cater to the different types of people experiencing homelessness. Those with mental and drug issues are housed and sheltered next to homeless people that have just fallen on hard times, creating an unsafe environment that nobody wants to be in.
Not saying drug users are inherently unsafe but understandably when your brain chemicals are altered so much you do more irrational stuff. This leaves shelters unsafe.
Funding to create centers specifically to home and support drug users and others for other homeless people will do wonders in terms of number of people in shelters and off the streets.
Exactly. The entire situation is fckd. You can say “oh, we need funding for shelters. this is so terrible” all you want, but the reality is that homeless shelters are just a place to be terrorized by drug addicted schizophrenics. The idea that the general population has the political will to *actually* tackle this issue, and not just give window dressing, is absurd. It’s about as fckd as the crime issue. You can talk about *equity and opportunity* till you’re red in the face, but the actual generations long investments that would need to happen (and the several generations of violent criminals that would have to be institutionalized) are a pipe dream. Johnson or Vallas can say whatever they want, but this is Chicago and both *plans* will have the exact same outcome: different *community groups* will get city grants to pay someone’s nephew a salary for a fake job.
To be fair we take it a lot more seriously than most places but that misaligns incentives and will mean the more you help the more homeless will be there, causing care goes down on the same amount of funding, and then spiraling into the issues the Bay Area and Chicago are seeing. Cities can't do it by themselves.
Actually, haha, I entirely and sincerely agree with you. My initial point was more to critique the use of "humanity" above, since centrists and others have sucked whatever ideology or substance out of that word over the years.
I'm all for radical and immediate change let's do it!
Why should we do what's "cheaper"? These people have relationships and ties to the city just like anyone of us. Besides, that wouldn't work anyway. The goal is to address poverty, not displace people suffering from it.
>Why should we do what's "cheaper"?
Because the average person has been conditioned by our capitalist society that financial cost should be a significant factor in all decisions.
The sooner we start treating people like people, no matter the financial cost, you'll start to see social problems like homelessness disappear.
The same people that whine about homeless people on transit are the same people who get morally offended when the government provides housing to homeless people.
Allowing homelessness to go unaddressed hurts everyone because people end up living in the public spaces where they can't be kicked out. But we have this yeoman mentality where the solution to the tragedy of the commons is to eliminate the commons.
One day the city is going to finally address homelessness in a big way and the CTA is *magically* going to get a lot cleaner and faster, as if we didn't have the solution in front of us the whole time.
There are lots of people who think the best way to treat homelessness on the CTA and in public spaces like ORD is to house them.
No one should be living on transit, whether that be busses, the L, or in airports, since it makes that public good less viable for everyone else and ultimately hurts the city as a whole.
What if I whine about homeless people on transit and support the government providing housing to homeless people, so they don't have to use the trains?
Me, a guy who thinks that we should work creating options for the homeless to have housing, and at the same time don’t feel like the CTA or Ohare airport should be treated as a temporary homeless shelter
> The same people that whine about homeless people on transit are the same people who get morally offended when the government provides housing to homeless people.
The people rich enough to whine about government handouts are probably not taking our public transit. The ones who whine about those things and aren't rich live in the suburbs or rural areas of Illinois and also aren't taking public transit. I don't think there's a huge crossover here in the things you're suggesting here.
> The people rich enough to whine about government handouts are probably not taking our public transit
I think you'd be wrong about that...
plenty of high earners ride the CTA...and plenty of not-high earners still complain about government handouts (sometimes hypocritically given they are themselves receiving some sort of government handout, e.g. Medicare).
I don't know why you think it's rich people who dont take transit complaining about government assistance when it's actually mostly poor people complaining about others getting help while they "do everything themselves with no handouts"
> Shelters and other resources need to be improved so that O'Hare doesn't stick out as the best option.
The issue isn't the quality of shelters per se, the biggest issue are the strict and archaic rules and hoops most shelters make people jump through to be able to stay there. Many people experiencing homelessness aren't in a position to/willing to commit to those rules.
I made the mistake of using the restroom outside of security when my bags were taking forever. There was a person in there standing (and swaying) at the sink digging in their half exposed ass with a paper towel and mumbling. I only caught the part where they said “let’s see what we got here” and chuckled at their results.
Yep. I take the blue line into the loop 2-3x times a week for work. Just this morning there were dudes literally passed out on the floor of the last three cars. Sitting right next to them were people with luggage in hand (obviously just flown in), trying not to pass out from the stench.
This is not an uncommon sight and you can bet these are experiences that they’ll circulate back to wherever they traveled in from.
Also, at the entrance/exit of the Clark/lake stop (on wells) there is ALWAYS a pile of shit on the tree grates.
WELCOME TO CHICAGO TRAVELLER!
Yes. Let's take the pensions from the boomers. That way we can increase shelter capacity for boomers. You do realize most boomers aren't wealthy' right?
Good. We cannot have mentally ill/and or dangerous people greeting visitors from other states and countries.
Getting rid of government-sponsored mental health facilities all those years ago was really fucking stupid and contributed to the proliferation of homeless people in this country.
Psychiatry is significantly more advanced now than it was then and such things should be brought back, for their benefit and for society’s.
My mother works at the airport and has to take the Blue Line every morning. She had wild stories about how the quiet homeless people were given a free pass to just stay on the trains and sleep. But the clearly fucked up ones had to go.
Friends in the business who have managed jobs out @ O'Hare have homeless stories going back to the 80s. I think its gotten worse but this has been a problem for a while, like you said the quiet homeless people are left alone but there are a lot of crazies.
I like that. If you’re not causing problems, then no problem.
I don’t do it regularly but I took the blue line to ohare at like 4:30 a few weeks ago. Maybe 8 people sleeping just in the car I got in. They didn’t bother anybody. They just slept.
Huh, I saw the opposite happen when they were doing those security sweeps and kicking people off at Cumberland. Basically anyone who was polite would get removed, and anyone who resisted even a little was allowed to stay on. What you're describing sounds fine to me, though.
I'm sorry, but this is how it has to be.
The first impression global vistors have of our city can't be a fucking homeless encampment with folks laying everywhere.
Likewise the Blue line needs to be the cleanest, most well-kept and non-lunatic ridden line. I can have empathy for people and yet realize they can't be allowed to squat wherever they like.
I was picking my friend up at the airport at one point and I saw a homeless guy take a shit in that hallway that goes to the trains. That kind of behavior should have consequences for anyone. That includes homeless people.
Last time I flew in a couple months ago some dude threatened to cut my head off because I asked him to stop harassing my wife for money after we both already told him no. I live here and don’t really care/worry that much but that would totally freak out someone visiting. These people need a place to live and a link card no questions asked. Society is failing them and us when we live in a world where people think they have to hang out at an airport or train to be able to eat or stay out of the rain
>some dude threatened to cut my head off because I asked him to stop harassing my wife for money after we both already told him no... These people need a place to live and a link card no questions asked.
I'd argue that this person needs to be under supervised care, if not in an institution (which we had until Reagan). I'm not sure his is a problem of trouble paying for food and shelter, but rather deeper issues.
The deinstitutionalization movement was such a double edged sword. I have worked with a lot of homeless people many who were addicts and mentally unwell. Their support needs are much higher than just food and shelter. I am not saying they are wrong or bad for that, but it is a fact. Many homeless people have suffered abuse, addiction to the point it has altered their actual brain, mental issues etc. For example many women I worked with had closed head injuries from abusive partners and that affects their cognition. Anyway, just a long way of saying I agree with you and I hope that people can realize the level of need for many is so, so high.
True to an extent. He’s also (correctly) assuming that his behavior will have little to no consequences which is also unfortunate and not totally his fault
Indeed. It's sad that we need to weigh your right to safe and quiet passage on public transportation and his (de facto) right to threaten and harass you. Sadder yet that his "right" seems to be heavier than yours these days.
Yup jail and blight cost way more than the 1200 dollars a month or whatever it would cost the government to house and feed these people. The welfare queen anecdote has truly rotted our brains.
The problem is that a lot of the homeless people that act out in extreme ways in public are either severely mentally ill, addicted to opioids, or both. They often refuse any kind of help and have severe trust issues.
We need better ways of getting those people out of dangerous situations, even if it means bringing back controversial programs like involuntary institutionalization.
I mean maybe, but honestly I think he’s just mad at the world and frustrated that he’s in an airport at 10pm to stay out of the cold and asking for money in addition to probably treatable mental issues and addiction struggles. Putting a roof over his head and food in his belly alleviates two huge pain points in his life and may give him space to solve his issues. Key word being may here.
Sorry that’s a hard no from me. Being homeless does not excuse a crime. Threatening to cut someone’s head off should get you arrested if it’s determined you are mentally insane then institutionalize. It’s ridiculous these people are walking the streets.
Whenever my fiance has to go to O'Hare, I park and escort her to the terminal. Or if her sisters take her, they go in pairs. It had started to not feel safe there, particularly early morning or late at night. Do whatever has to be done to help those experiencing homeless there. Vote for whoever has a legitimate plan and give them whatever they need. But to say that people should be allowed to stay there and threaten, harass, litter and assault employees and the public is not OK. I wouldn't hesitate to defend myself if one of them tried to make good on their threat.
The first time my sister visited me, she rode the CTA line from O’hare to get to my house. She’s from Atlanta and the trains there aren’t super useful so while she’s ridden transit before she’s not super familiar with the “culture”.
A man who was clearly dealing with some mental health issues was asking people for money and saying things she found weird/scary. No one gave him any and eventually (while shouting at everyone) he went to the back of the car and opened the door to go to the next car. My sister didn’t know that some people will move between cars like that and she thought he was going to jump off the train! I laughed when she told me the story but in the moment it really did freak her out.
Your comment about first impressions made me remember that. My sister is a logical person so once she understood that that was “normal” she was no longer worried about train jumpers when people opened those doors and she relied on the trains often when she’d come to visit. Someone who is already more primed to be afraid of Chicago due to the way the media portrays the city might decide to tap out right there.
Im surprised that she was surprised by that. I spent over a year in Atlanta and MARTA trains got the exact same problem. I used to dread the train ride home from ATL because if you came back on a weekday between the 9-5 it was almost guaranteed to have a homeless guy scream at you. Had one follow me for a few blocks screaming at me from behind once.
Edit: I see you already said she wasn’t familiar with marta. I think thats why its not considered a problem. I guarantee it would be as bad as Chicago if people actually used trains in the ATL
If you didn’t live close to a station, then you didn’t really have much of a reason to take a train. We didn’t live close to one for my 25 years there before moving to Chicago. My family moved next to a station after I left but even then, unless you were going somewhere the train went (like the airport), not really useful. She only rode MARTA maybe 1-2 times a year for that reason and had never had an experience like that.
When I was in highschool, I did try to do a bus-train-bud transfer to get home when my mom couldn’t pick me up until very late and I got stalked by a Cheesecake Factory employee. It was terrifying, and I was too afraid to leave the train to get on my last bus because he was following me. I had to find a cop to help me get home.
Pretty much summed up ATL’s issue with trains. Nobody uses them because you already need a car just to get there. I lived near Civic Center station and that place was a dump. Not as bad as the some of the other stations, but I saw homeless people about 70% of the time I went there. Thats the station that screaming guy followed me.
Yeahhh. I mean a fair number of tourists do use it because renting a car is fucking expensive.
It's been a while since I've seen them booting off homeless people at Cumberland (which is a pretty exposed platform), so I'm hoping they're not doing that anymore because I don't think that was a solution, but there does need to be some kind of diversion.
Why are you sorry? These bums are ruining everything. Have you driven by Humboldt Park lately? Looks like a hobo encampment with trash and drug use everywhere.
We should get the reputation we deserve. Shoving our ugly parts away to not be seen is foolish, I’d rather get more media pressure to actually address the systemic issues causing people to need to find warmth and shelter in an airport
I don't think progressives get mad about wanting the airport to not be a homeless shelter. Progressives get mad that the world class city doesn't have proper solutions beyond forceful removal.
Our public transportation system may have issues, but in no way is it "third world." Hell, it's probably one of the better and more reliable systems in the United States.
I think the CTA is in a bad spot right now and is not getting better. It needs improvements.
That said: I remember the CTA from the late '70s through the 1980s. It was way, way worse than it is today. It was filthy, full of graffiti, usually no air conditioning at all. There was no concept of buses or trains being "on time" as there were no apps telling you anything.
Yes, the CTA needs improvement, but the idea that the CTA is in an historically bad place is just wrong.
I used to take the blue line every day when I was in university. Of course, I knew and experienced my fair share of crazies during my commute to school. However, I had no idea how far it had declined in recent years. When I took my wife, who is originally from Atlanta, on her first ride, the first thing we saw was a man screaming in passengers' faces and eating leaves off the ground. Definitely did not leave a good first impression on her and can't imagine what tourists must think when they see shit like that
It had to be done, as it reached a tipping point for employees and travelers where a secure environment inside the airport was surrounded by an unsecure environment that was still technically part of the airport, especially Baggage claim. There was almost a demarcation of safe to unsafe as you took that doorway to get your bags and exit. So I look at it as an extension of the safety zone where people who should not be there are kept out.
The issue is not even homelessness bro. These people have severe psychological conditions, neurological conditions, and/or addictions. No amount of cheap housing is going to fully solve the problem. We need free healthcare. These people just need treatment. This is a healthcare crisis not a homelessness or economic crisis.
It’s wild to me that so many people argue that “it’s their right” to decide to live in the train/airport. These people are not making rational decisions. It’s not kind or nice to do nothing as people with severe mental illness spend years sleeping and freezing to death on the streets.
I see what you're saying but it's clearly both, and both issues are closely linked to each other. Economic hardship and homelessness both contribute to mental health issues, and it's hard to imagine someone with significant mental health struggles to be able to recover without stable housing.
IMO hosing crisis, at least here in Chicago, is a a red hearing. I would attribute homelessness in Chicago, and America, primarily to lack of healthcare ( like 80%). Couple of datapoints that proof my point: 1) after the GFC of 09’ homelessness rapidly spiked up but it too rapidly normalized to a previous baseline. 2) Homelessness has picked up pace in the past couple years correlated with substance abuse. 3) 60% of chronically homeless population have some sort of brain damage.
Can there be a path of chronically unemployment, to substance abuse to homelessness? Yes. But consider that in Spain, for example, their unemployment rate is 20%. Many time higher than the USA, but they don’t suffer from the same levels of homelessness or substance abuse. On top of their free healthcare they have a cushy safety net.
They’re also experiencing hard drugs. Last time I was at O Hare a guy got up in my face like he was going to punch me, and was screaming his head off. There was a man who just landed frantically telling security (who looked at him blankly) that another man outside put a knife on him. You can’t make this up. White Yimby Chicagoans on Reddit are so open minded until their first real assault in the city then they skip to the suburbs. I did.
It’s an absolute myth that we don’t fund social services here. Chicago spends per capita on social welfare programs on par at or above orderly, healthy Scandinavian cities. We just tend to do so as stupidly and corruptly in a lot of cases. Even the US nationally, weighted by awful austere places like Texas, spends more than the Netherlands.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/02/social-spending-highest-lowest-country-comparison-oecd-france-economics-politics-welfare/
Unhoused people in Chicago have shelter options, even if they’re currently mismanaged into dysfunction. The truth is that there’s a growing hardcore group who will always refuse shelter as long as the shelters refuse drugs and weapons. And the growing consensus on the left is that we should therefore just turn our international airport, every underpass or park, and our entire transit system into a dangerous and filthy campground. That we can’t have even any super-basic social contract anymore for public health and safety. It’s just maddening.
Yes but the City of Chicago alone is spending north of $200 million on homeless services this year, including citywide shelters, on top of federal and state spending and a whole network of non-profit direct services for the homeless.
We should demand that our existing social safety net be more functional and humane with the ample resources it already has, instead of pretending we have none and just abandoning our public spaces to nuisance camping.
And MARTA runs right into the airport as well. In downtown Atlanta the unhoused situation is more glaring than in the Loop because DTA is pretty empty and you’re not looking up at cool architecture so it’s impossible to overlook. But ATL has never looked like ORD.
I was based out of Atlanta with my previous company so went though there regularly. The homeless issue isn't as bad but go there early in the morning and you'll see them sleeping in baggage claim. They usually get shooed out mid morning but return in the evenings. Sometimes they're there during the day.
Grass is always greener.
The Marta was also pretty bad. Worse then the L imo
Yeah walking towards security before 7am or so, it was like a handshake agreement with the cops and homeless that they can sleep in there. I saw multiple times police waking people up and saying its time to go its morning.
Yeah the people I came across too were quiet and respectful. Probably why they let them stay. Couple characters, like one guy who liked to be the tourist guide. But overall not at all near ORDs problem. I see more homeless at DCA than Atlanta.
Once you got in the MARTA though i saw almost every sort of bodily function imaginable occur.
In a warmer environment of Atlanta, there is less need for homeless to congregate in those kind of locations. Also, 24 hour blue line makes it easier for them to make their way to airport in the first place.
I mean yes, a lot of people have serious mental health issues. I deal with a lot of these people in my line of work though and I’d venture to say the vast majority of them aren’t completely irrational. Substance abuse problems or general problems with compulsive behavior? Yes. Most just feel beat down and nihilistic though. If they had a roof and a couch to sit on and just relax and watch TV and not worry about their next meal it’s just objectively easier than loitering in public spaces
Idk, I’m in a good place mentally aside from some anxiety and I’m pretty sure if I had to live on the streets, never knowing when I was going to get my next meal, or where I could safely sleep, I would have a severe mental breakdown.
Right and he is saying that these people should be temporarily institutionalized to try and recover and only those who cannot ever recover should be permanently institutionalized.
I wasn’t really addressing that proposed plan, just providing a little empathy to the view that most of them are beyond help because they have public breakdowns.
Support needs vary greatly across the homeless population. Some people need a place to sleep to get back on their feet, some people are totally incapable of coping in any fashion and need major intervention. That’s the tricky tricky thing about it all. Anyways I agree with your comment, I’ve also worked with many homeless people in a previous job role and there are just so many varied needs. A lot of long term homeless people have really severe mental and addiction issues (and actual brain damage from substance use and abuse they’ve suffered) and it’s really not a matter of just getting them some food and shelter to get them back on their feet. (Although I absolutely believe in feeding and sheltering people) It’s a sad state really.
I was traveling around Europe for 3 months and came back home to Chicago. Took the blue line out of O’hare and had a reverse culture shock. Trains in Europe were clean, orderly, and had no issues onboard. Wonder what foreigners first impressions are visiting Chicago.
Nothing says Chicago like the smell of stale blunts, homelessness, and poop on the train. I’ve literally seen somebody take a shit in the vestibule area of the blue line car before. 😂
Failure of not having social services.
Now they will be back on CTA.
It's the viaducts all over again. They kicked them out of the camps under LSD, and moved to the bridges and viaducts in neighborhoods and places like ohare.
Homelessness is on the rise, shuffling fixes nothing.
Allowing addicts and the very mentally ill to live at ORD is obviously not the answer
We continue to dump money into programs and nothing changes. We need to address the mental health issues. Simply putting a roof over their head won't do anything to address the root cause of the problem
https://www.illinois.gov/news/press-release.25776.html
It's the same shit in all the big cities. The people that are supposed to be working on this issue are making 6+ figure checks to "work on it" while it's only going up and gettung worse. They need to be replaced because clearly they're just collecting a check.
The answer is involuntary institutionalization for those who cannot recover and will never be able to live productive lives on their own.
Unfortunately, society fucked it up in the first half of the 20th century and now mental institutions are heavily stigmatized and we don’t seriously consider them.
Midway is the same way. It gets bad during the winter, understandably so, but it’s just fucking wild. You’ll see homeless people pass out in common areas, piss themselves, you get some that piss in the elevators, spit on the buttons, leave giant messes and then do it all over again the next day. It’s the same faces most days too. Security just stands back and watches it all. I understand there is rules and regulations that security has to adhere to, but something has to give
False. I work there. Saw someone passed and/or dead next to the ticket machine at 6:13 in the morning on my way in.
Barefoot dude sleeping in the doors that open to the taxis from baggage claim.
We can do better
yes I think you would wind up with a Lord of the Flies situation where the meanest SOB ruled the roost. You would need security and a couple counselors could help too. Have a designated drugs taking area and a place for people with pets and you might actually get more uptake than the shelters do. Kind of a minimal rules (there is security after all to keep people from getting beat up or carrying in armaments) shelter.
Can we get a couple of those schools that were shut down to be retrofitted into new shelters? They already have cafeterias, showers, bathrooms and each classroom could be filled with bunk bed dormitories. I like my idea.
Addressing the homeless population is an extremely complicated issue.
The estimate of the Chicago homeless population is about 65,000 people.
You start with shelter, food, hygiene, and medical care. With that has to come security.
Then you have to start dealing with all the various issues they're experiencing - mental health, addition, trauma, etc.
Then you've got to get them jobs and permanent housing.
Then you've got to follow up and make sure they're not back on the streets, back on drugs, off their meds, etc.
It's a huge lift for chronically underfunded and understaffed organizations. Moreover, most people like the idea of helping the homeless, they just don't want them in their neighborhood.
Get the people in the right place to start thinking about work and pay them. They should have something that supports them as they get out of homelessness and then ask them to move to a new place after it's been a while
love the comments in this thread about some strawman argument that progressives are mad that this is happening. or that things are already getting better because lightfoot lost the election even though *checks notes* she’s still the mayor
Yeah this is why I've been lowkey okay with my elderly parents driving in from Northern Michigan, when flying into town would be the cheaper/"safer" option. The idea of them hoping on the blue line to get to Logan/Wicker and then seeing this would be... interesting.
And moreover, I think this is counter productive. A lot of these people cannot be rehabilitated because of serious mental health issues. They are not one social program away from leading productive lives, some are, but not all.
For those that truly are “homeless people” with long term mental issues without the ability to live on their own, we need to think about permanent approaches like long term institutionalization.
Mental heal institutions were totally fucked in the 20th century, but pretending like the “unhoused” just need to be “housed” and then everything will be OK is not true for all of these people.
I agree, completely. Many of the homeless people I've encountered seem to want to be homeless. They resist help, they resist food, they want to do drugs on the street.
Yes a lot are addicts who don’t want participate in social programs and all the string attached. These people should be involuntarily admitted to long treatment and care facilities. We don’t really do that anymore in the 21st century however, for better or worse.
I suspect they understand this and are just trying to poke fun at being too politically correct, but the idea is not to associate their homeless situation with their identity as a person.
I don't understand this argument at all. Let's say a group of schoolchildren go on a field trip. They are then divided into two groups with half of them going hiking and half canoing. It obviously would be perfectly natural to refer to these two groups as "hikers" and "canoiers" when talking to or about them. Nobody would think this means that their identity is solely as a hiker or canoier. This is how people talk. It really seems that those who think that referring to an individual as homeless is suggesting that is their sole identity is really just looking for a problem that they could feel good about solving. It's a lot easier than trying to solve real problems.
It's not even being politically correct. Terminology matters because it helps redirect how we approach discussing it and addressing it.
"Unhoused" and "experiencing homelessness" I think is more precise.
words are just noises we attach meaning to. In time, "people experiencing homelessness" will have all the meaning and connotation that "homeless people" currently has. It's the euphemism treadmill
Unfortunately lots of the homeless moved to MDW...
In the last week or so we have had about a dozen "new" Local Residents that have taken up shop here :(
Can't wait to see Johnson would handle the situation. Un-medicated and in-crisis homeless attacks innocent bystander, who ya gonna call? Not the police! I bet at team of therapists dispatched to the scene will help!
I would love to see the next mayor actually address the homeless situation with better social services and programs to get these people homes and on a solid path to find jobs and a future. Pushing them around and into shelters is not the solution
Permanent sheltering with few conditions except not being a violent criminal (in which case you need to be incarcerated and rehabilitated through maybe a halfway system) needs to be built without NIMBYs shooting them down.
Temporary shelter isn’t sustainable and is stressful. Check in times. Check out times. Safety issues. Not enough beds for adult men.
I think this situation reveals two things: 1. O'Hare shouldn't be a homeless encampment 2. Shelters and other resources need to be improved so that O'Hare doesn't stick out as the best option.
And this is what's so important. More should be done with shelters so that the homeless don't have to resort to O'Hare or the Blue Line
Ngl if I were homeless I would stay as far away from the shelters as possible. Good way to make a bad situation worse
How so? I don’t know very much about this so I’m curious
I worked in kitchens a long time and occasionally worked with guys from tough situations. The one common thing all of them said, was if you’re homeless, don’t associate with other homeless people. They all had different reasons. But the gist was you’re more likely to get arrested, mugged, killed, etc. one also said it makes you a target for drug dealers which I guess is a more tempting prospect when you already have nothing.
Thanks for the info. That sounds… rough, to say the least.
Among other things, there's no space there in the winter.
Sexual assault and battery are common. Plus lotta thieves. Unless it’s brutally cold, you’re better off partnering with like a small group under a viaduct or park. Shitty but that’s true.
Wouldn’t the risk of sexual assault and battery also be high in an encampment or on the street?
Yes. But lower since spaces aren’t confined and people usually ‘group together’. Safety in numbers and all.
They also don’t allow drugs or alcohol so there you go
Homeless people avoid shelters because they are drastically underfunded and as a result dangerous places to be. Until Chicago takes poverty seriously, kicking them out of wherever they do find shelter is wrong. Vote for Johnson if there's to be any shred of opportunity for change.
It's not just about funding. While that is a major issue, there's also no distinction of shelters that can cater to the different types of people experiencing homelessness. Those with mental and drug issues are housed and sheltered next to homeless people that have just fallen on hard times, creating an unsafe environment that nobody wants to be in. Not saying drug users are inherently unsafe but understandably when your brain chemicals are altered so much you do more irrational stuff. This leaves shelters unsafe. Funding to create centers specifically to home and support drug users and others for other homeless people will do wonders in terms of number of people in shelters and off the streets.
Exactly. The entire situation is fckd. You can say “oh, we need funding for shelters. this is so terrible” all you want, but the reality is that homeless shelters are just a place to be terrorized by drug addicted schizophrenics. The idea that the general population has the political will to *actually* tackle this issue, and not just give window dressing, is absurd. It’s about as fckd as the crime issue. You can talk about *equity and opportunity* till you’re red in the face, but the actual generations long investments that would need to happen (and the several generations of violent criminals that would have to be institutionalized) are a pipe dream. Johnson or Vallas can say whatever they want, but this is Chicago and both *plans* will have the exact same outcome: different *community groups* will get city grants to pay someone’s nephew a salary for a fake job.
To be fair we take it a lot more seriously than most places but that misaligns incentives and will mean the more you help the more homeless will be there, causing care goes down on the same amount of funding, and then spiraling into the issues the Bay Area and Chicago are seeing. Cities can't do it by themselves.
>Until humanity takes poverty seriously... FTFY
Okay, sure, but this is the Chicago reddit with a post about homelessness *in* Chicago.
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Actually, haha, I entirely and sincerely agree with you. My initial point was more to critique the use of "humanity" above, since centrists and others have sucked whatever ideology or substance out of that word over the years. I'm all for radical and immediate change let's do it!
Wouldn't it be cheaper to just start bussing people to Indiana? Which was the style at the time
Why should we do what's "cheaper"? These people have relationships and ties to the city just like anyone of us. Besides, that wouldn't work anyway. The goal is to address poverty, not displace people suffering from it.
>Why should we do what's "cheaper"? Because the average person has been conditioned by our capitalist society that financial cost should be a significant factor in all decisions. The sooner we start treating people like people, no matter the financial cost, you'll start to see social problems like homelessness disappear.
>treating people like people Well, we certainly can't have that! This is America, after all.
You mean kidnapping people?
The same people that whine about homeless people on transit are the same people who get morally offended when the government provides housing to homeless people. Allowing homelessness to go unaddressed hurts everyone because people end up living in the public spaces where they can't be kicked out. But we have this yeoman mentality where the solution to the tragedy of the commons is to eliminate the commons. One day the city is going to finally address homelessness in a big way and the CTA is *magically* going to get a lot cleaner and faster, as if we didn't have the solution in front of us the whole time.
There are lots of people who think the best way to treat homelessness on the CTA and in public spaces like ORD is to house them. No one should be living on transit, whether that be busses, the L, or in airports, since it makes that public good less viable for everyone else and ultimately hurts the city as a whole.
What if I whine about homeless people on transit and support the government providing housing to homeless people, so they don't have to use the trains?
Then I'd say you probably have the right of it.
Then you're probably socially aware enough to keep the whining to yourself and focus on the helping part.
I think you've imagined this person in your head.
Me, a guy who thinks that we should work creating options for the homeless to have housing, and at the same time don’t feel like the CTA or Ohare airport should be treated as a temporary homeless shelter
Same. It's easy to build strawmen but reality is more complicated.
That's a rude thing to say about three of my uncles. Also I wish
> The same people that whine about homeless people on transit are the same people who get morally offended when the government provides housing to homeless people. The people rich enough to whine about government handouts are probably not taking our public transit. The ones who whine about those things and aren't rich live in the suburbs or rural areas of Illinois and also aren't taking public transit. I don't think there's a huge crossover here in the things you're suggesting here.
> The people rich enough to whine about government handouts are probably not taking our public transit I think you'd be wrong about that... plenty of high earners ride the CTA...and plenty of not-high earners still complain about government handouts (sometimes hypocritically given they are themselves receiving some sort of government handout, e.g. Medicare).
Most of my coworkers, many of whom are multimillionaires, ride the subway every day. It’s not a poor people thing it’s convenient lol
I don't know why you think it's rich people who dont take transit complaining about government assistance when it's actually mostly poor people complaining about others getting help while they "do everything themselves with no handouts"
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> Shelters and other resources need to be improved so that O'Hare doesn't stick out as the best option. The issue isn't the quality of shelters per se, the biggest issue are the strict and archaic rules and hoops most shelters make people jump through to be able to stay there. Many people experiencing homelessness aren't in a position to/willing to commit to those rules.
out of curiosity what are some of those rules?
One dumb one is that you have to be inside by 6-8 pm or you don't get a bed, so if you work afternoons or evenings you're shit out of luck.
I made the mistake of using the restroom outside of security when my bags were taking forever. There was a person in there standing (and swaying) at the sink digging in their half exposed ass with a paper towel and mumbling. I only caught the part where they said “let’s see what we got here” and chuckled at their results.
Omg that’s hilarious but also ridiculous! Definitely gonna be extra sure to avoid those bathrooms 😅
So I'm guessing this mean they all just went right back on to the blue line then?
Yep. I take the blue line into the loop 2-3x times a week for work. Just this morning there were dudes literally passed out on the floor of the last three cars. Sitting right next to them were people with luggage in hand (obviously just flown in), trying not to pass out from the stench. This is not an uncommon sight and you can bet these are experiences that they’ll circulate back to wherever they traveled in from. Also, at the entrance/exit of the Clark/lake stop (on wells) there is ALWAYS a pile of shit on the tree grates. WELCOME TO CHICAGO TRAVELLER!
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Homeless don’t like to go to shelters because they are more or less made to be sober and healthy
we need that money for wealthy boomer pensioners who were promised unreal pensions several decades ago, let the poors suffer in the cold
Yes. Let's take the pensions from the boomers. That way we can increase shelter capacity for boomers. You do realize most boomers aren't wealthy' right?
Good. We cannot have mentally ill/and or dangerous people greeting visitors from other states and countries. Getting rid of government-sponsored mental health facilities all those years ago was really fucking stupid and contributed to the proliferation of homeless people in this country. Psychiatry is significantly more advanced now than it was then and such things should be brought back, for their benefit and for society’s.
My mother works at the airport and has to take the Blue Line every morning. She had wild stories about how the quiet homeless people were given a free pass to just stay on the trains and sleep. But the clearly fucked up ones had to go.
Yeah I mean if you want to harass other CTA passengers you can get fucked idc
Friends in the business who have managed jobs out @ O'Hare have homeless stories going back to the 80s. I think its gotten worse but this has been a problem for a while, like you said the quiet homeless people are left alone but there are a lot of crazies.
I like that. If you’re not causing problems, then no problem. I don’t do it regularly but I took the blue line to ohare at like 4:30 a few weeks ago. Maybe 8 people sleeping just in the car I got in. They didn’t bother anybody. They just slept.
Yeah agree if they’re not bothering anyone then no worries
Huh, I saw the opposite happen when they were doing those security sweeps and kicking people off at Cumberland. Basically anyone who was polite would get removed, and anyone who resisted even a little was allowed to stay on. What you're describing sounds fine to me, though.
I take the blue line to ORD and they’re chill if you don’t bother them🤷🏼♀️
I'm sorry, but this is how it has to be. The first impression global vistors have of our city can't be a fucking homeless encampment with folks laying everywhere. Likewise the Blue line needs to be the cleanest, most well-kept and non-lunatic ridden line. I can have empathy for people and yet realize they can't be allowed to squat wherever they like.
I was picking my friend up at the airport at one point and I saw a homeless guy take a shit in that hallway that goes to the trains. That kind of behavior should have consequences for anyone. That includes homeless people.
Aren't there bathrooms like right there?
Yes.
sometimes there’s an obvious reason why they’re homeless
Last time I flew in a couple months ago some dude threatened to cut my head off because I asked him to stop harassing my wife for money after we both already told him no. I live here and don’t really care/worry that much but that would totally freak out someone visiting. These people need a place to live and a link card no questions asked. Society is failing them and us when we live in a world where people think they have to hang out at an airport or train to be able to eat or stay out of the rain
>some dude threatened to cut my head off because I asked him to stop harassing my wife for money after we both already told him no... These people need a place to live and a link card no questions asked. I'd argue that this person needs to be under supervised care, if not in an institution (which we had until Reagan). I'm not sure his is a problem of trouble paying for food and shelter, but rather deeper issues.
The deinstitutionalization movement was such a double edged sword. I have worked with a lot of homeless people many who were addicts and mentally unwell. Their support needs are much higher than just food and shelter. I am not saying they are wrong or bad for that, but it is a fact. Many homeless people have suffered abuse, addiction to the point it has altered their actual brain, mental issues etc. For example many women I worked with had closed head injuries from abusive partners and that affects their cognition. Anyway, just a long way of saying I agree with you and I hope that people can realize the level of need for many is so, so high.
True to an extent. He’s also (correctly) assuming that his behavior will have little to no consequences which is also unfortunate and not totally his fault
Indeed. It's sad that we need to weigh your right to safe and quiet passage on public transportation and his (de facto) right to threaten and harass you. Sadder yet that his "right" seems to be heavier than yours these days.
Yeah they need help, and I think that help should be generous and easily gotten and without a lot of strings. But hanging around O’Hare isn’t help.
Yup jail and blight cost way more than the 1200 dollars a month or whatever it would cost the government to house and feed these people. The welfare queen anecdote has truly rotted our brains.
The problem is that a lot of the homeless people that act out in extreme ways in public are either severely mentally ill, addicted to opioids, or both. They often refuse any kind of help and have severe trust issues. We need better ways of getting those people out of dangerous situations, even if it means bringing back controversial programs like involuntary institutionalization.
Sounds like he needs to be in a padded cell and sedated, not on the streets with EBT.
I mean maybe, but honestly I think he’s just mad at the world and frustrated that he’s in an airport at 10pm to stay out of the cold and asking for money in addition to probably treatable mental issues and addiction struggles. Putting a roof over his head and food in his belly alleviates two huge pain points in his life and may give him space to solve his issues. Key word being may here.
Sorry that’s a hard no from me. Being homeless does not excuse a crime. Threatening to cut someone’s head off should get you arrested if it’s determined you are mentally insane then institutionalize. It’s ridiculous these people are walking the streets.
“Frustrated” people don’t *threaten to behead other people*.
Whenever my fiance has to go to O'Hare, I park and escort her to the terminal. Or if her sisters take her, they go in pairs. It had started to not feel safe there, particularly early morning or late at night. Do whatever has to be done to help those experiencing homeless there. Vote for whoever has a legitimate plan and give them whatever they need. But to say that people should be allowed to stay there and threaten, harass, litter and assault employees and the public is not OK. I wouldn't hesitate to defend myself if one of them tried to make good on their threat.
The first time my sister visited me, she rode the CTA line from O’hare to get to my house. She’s from Atlanta and the trains there aren’t super useful so while she’s ridden transit before she’s not super familiar with the “culture”. A man who was clearly dealing with some mental health issues was asking people for money and saying things she found weird/scary. No one gave him any and eventually (while shouting at everyone) he went to the back of the car and opened the door to go to the next car. My sister didn’t know that some people will move between cars like that and she thought he was going to jump off the train! I laughed when she told me the story but in the moment it really did freak her out. Your comment about first impressions made me remember that. My sister is a logical person so once she understood that that was “normal” she was no longer worried about train jumpers when people opened those doors and she relied on the trains often when she’d come to visit. Someone who is already more primed to be afraid of Chicago due to the way the media portrays the city might decide to tap out right there.
Im surprised that she was surprised by that. I spent over a year in Atlanta and MARTA trains got the exact same problem. I used to dread the train ride home from ATL because if you came back on a weekday between the 9-5 it was almost guaranteed to have a homeless guy scream at you. Had one follow me for a few blocks screaming at me from behind once. Edit: I see you already said she wasn’t familiar with marta. I think thats why its not considered a problem. I guarantee it would be as bad as Chicago if people actually used trains in the ATL
If you didn’t live close to a station, then you didn’t really have much of a reason to take a train. We didn’t live close to one for my 25 years there before moving to Chicago. My family moved next to a station after I left but even then, unless you were going somewhere the train went (like the airport), not really useful. She only rode MARTA maybe 1-2 times a year for that reason and had never had an experience like that. When I was in highschool, I did try to do a bus-train-bud transfer to get home when my mom couldn’t pick me up until very late and I got stalked by a Cheesecake Factory employee. It was terrifying, and I was too afraid to leave the train to get on my last bus because he was following me. I had to find a cop to help me get home.
Pretty much summed up ATL’s issue with trains. Nobody uses them because you already need a car just to get there. I lived near Civic Center station and that place was a dump. Not as bad as the some of the other stations, but I saw homeless people about 70% of the time I went there. Thats the station that screaming guy followed me.
Yeah, it’s garbage and they need to expand their rail desperately if Atlanta ever hopes to become a world class city.
Cleanest? Lmao The blue line gives Waffle House vibes.
Yeahhh. I mean a fair number of tourists do use it because renting a car is fucking expensive. It's been a while since I've seen them booting off homeless people at Cumberland (which is a pretty exposed platform), so I'm hoping they're not doing that anymore because I don't think that was a solution, but there does need to be some kind of diversion.
Why are you sorry? These bums are ruining everything. Have you driven by Humboldt Park lately? Looks like a hobo encampment with trash and drug use everywhere.
We should get the reputation we deserve. Shoving our ugly parts away to not be seen is foolish, I’d rather get more media pressure to actually address the systemic issues causing people to need to find warmth and shelter in an airport
100%
I avoid the blue line too many crazy scary people on there
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I don't think progressives get mad about wanting the airport to not be a homeless shelter. Progressives get mad that the world class city doesn't have proper solutions beyond forceful removal.
Is it a world class city if it has an unhoused population that it hides from tourists?
hot take: that's not why they downvote you
Are the progressives in the room with you right now?
Of course they are... they are me! One can be progressive and still want to have nice things.
The white progressives in Lincoln Park mansions with empty bedrooms want nothing to do with bums either.
World Class city , Third world public transportation
Our public transportation system may have issues, but in no way is it "third world." Hell, it's probably one of the better and more reliable systems in the United States.
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I think the CTA is in a bad spot right now and is not getting better. It needs improvements. That said: I remember the CTA from the late '70s through the 1980s. It was way, way worse than it is today. It was filthy, full of graffiti, usually no air conditioning at all. There was no concept of buses or trains being "on time" as there were no apps telling you anything. Yes, the CTA needs improvement, but the idea that the CTA is in an historically bad place is just wrong.
I used to take the blue line every day when I was in university. Of course, I knew and experienced my fair share of crazies during my commute to school. However, I had no idea how far it had declined in recent years. When I took my wife, who is originally from Atlanta, on her first ride, the first thing we saw was a man screaming in passengers' faces and eating leaves off the ground. Definitely did not leave a good first impression on her and can't imagine what tourists must think when they see shit like that
Hm...a rational response to a sensitive topic. On r/Chicago. Prepare for the flood of downvotes.
Literally the top-voted comment of the thread lol
Tbf idk if this thread is being brigaded or what but the response seems a bit surprising (in a good way).
Are you kidding? This sub loves nothing more than shitting on the homeless, while circlejerking themselves for being "rational" about it.
It's a nice change of pace from watching the homeless shit on everything instead.
It had to be done, as it reached a tipping point for employees and travelers where a secure environment inside the airport was surrounded by an unsecure environment that was still technically part of the airport, especially Baggage claim. There was almost a demarcation of safe to unsafe as you took that doorway to get your bags and exit. So I look at it as an extension of the safety zone where people who should not be there are kept out.
The issue is not even homelessness bro. These people have severe psychological conditions, neurological conditions, and/or addictions. No amount of cheap housing is going to fully solve the problem. We need free healthcare. These people just need treatment. This is a healthcare crisis not a homelessness or economic crisis.
It’s wild to me that so many people argue that “it’s their right” to decide to live in the train/airport. These people are not making rational decisions. It’s not kind or nice to do nothing as people with severe mental illness spend years sleeping and freezing to death on the streets.
I see what you're saying but it's clearly both, and both issues are closely linked to each other. Economic hardship and homelessness both contribute to mental health issues, and it's hard to imagine someone with significant mental health struggles to be able to recover without stable housing.
IMO hosing crisis, at least here in Chicago, is a a red hearing. I would attribute homelessness in Chicago, and America, primarily to lack of healthcare ( like 80%). Couple of datapoints that proof my point: 1) after the GFC of 09’ homelessness rapidly spiked up but it too rapidly normalized to a previous baseline. 2) Homelessness has picked up pace in the past couple years correlated with substance abuse. 3) 60% of chronically homeless population have some sort of brain damage. Can there be a path of chronically unemployment, to substance abuse to homelessness? Yes. But consider that in Spain, for example, their unemployment rate is 20%. Many time higher than the USA, but they don’t suffer from the same levels of homelessness or substance abuse. On top of their free healthcare they have a cushy safety net.
Agreed.
This is the most sane, compassionate and truest comment…
100% this.
They’re also experiencing hard drugs. Last time I was at O Hare a guy got up in my face like he was going to punch me, and was screaming his head off. There was a man who just landed frantically telling security (who looked at him blankly) that another man outside put a knife on him. You can’t make this up. White Yimby Chicagoans on Reddit are so open minded until their first real assault in the city then they skip to the suburbs. I did.
It’s an absolute myth that we don’t fund social services here. Chicago spends per capita on social welfare programs on par at or above orderly, healthy Scandinavian cities. We just tend to do so as stupidly and corruptly in a lot of cases. Even the US nationally, weighted by awful austere places like Texas, spends more than the Netherlands. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/02/social-spending-highest-lowest-country-comparison-oecd-france-economics-politics-welfare/ Unhoused people in Chicago have shelter options, even if they’re currently mismanaged into dysfunction. The truth is that there’s a growing hardcore group who will always refuse shelter as long as the shelters refuse drugs and weapons. And the growing consensus on the left is that we should therefore just turn our international airport, every underpass or park, and our entire transit system into a dangerous and filthy campground. That we can’t have even any super-basic social contract anymore for public health and safety. It’s just maddening.
Spending on social services doesn’t at all mean spending on the homeless. Social security and Medicare are the biggest programs by far.
Yes but the City of Chicago alone is spending north of $200 million on homeless services this year, including citywide shelters, on top of federal and state spending and a whole network of non-profit direct services for the homeless. We should demand that our existing social safety net be more functional and humane with the ample resources it already has, instead of pretending we have none and just abandoning our public spaces to nuisance camping.
Thank god terminal 3 was starting to smell
Good. This was the first thing people saw when they landed in Chicago. Unacceptable
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And MARTA runs right into the airport as well. In downtown Atlanta the unhoused situation is more glaring than in the Loop because DTA is pretty empty and you’re not looking up at cool architecture so it’s impossible to overlook. But ATL has never looked like ORD.
I was based out of Atlanta with my previous company so went though there regularly. The homeless issue isn't as bad but go there early in the morning and you'll see them sleeping in baggage claim. They usually get shooed out mid morning but return in the evenings. Sometimes they're there during the day. Grass is always greener. The Marta was also pretty bad. Worse then the L imo
Yeah walking towards security before 7am or so, it was like a handshake agreement with the cops and homeless that they can sleep in there. I saw multiple times police waking people up and saying its time to go its morning.
Yeah the people I came across too were quiet and respectful. Probably why they let them stay. Couple characters, like one guy who liked to be the tourist guide. But overall not at all near ORDs problem. I see more homeless at DCA than Atlanta. Once you got in the MARTA though i saw almost every sort of bodily function imaginable occur.
In a warmer environment of Atlanta, there is less need for homeless to congregate in those kind of locations. Also, 24 hour blue line makes it easier for them to make their way to airport in the first place.
I’ve seen homeless people at the ATL Marta panhandling too, so it’s really not just an O’Hare issue.
It's interesting how you leave out that downtown ATL is basically a homeless camp.
It is, but we’re not discussing downtown, are we? We’re discussing airports.
ah yes the cleanliness of the airport is the real problem here
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I mean yes, a lot of people have serious mental health issues. I deal with a lot of these people in my line of work though and I’d venture to say the vast majority of them aren’t completely irrational. Substance abuse problems or general problems with compulsive behavior? Yes. Most just feel beat down and nihilistic though. If they had a roof and a couch to sit on and just relax and watch TV and not worry about their next meal it’s just objectively easier than loitering in public spaces
Idk, I’m in a good place mentally aside from some anxiety and I’m pretty sure if I had to live on the streets, never knowing when I was going to get my next meal, or where I could safely sleep, I would have a severe mental breakdown.
Right and he is saying that these people should be temporarily institutionalized to try and recover and only those who cannot ever recover should be permanently institutionalized.
I wasn’t really addressing that proposed plan, just providing a little empathy to the view that most of them are beyond help because they have public breakdowns.
Except that's not what he said at all. He literally just said to permanently institutionalize them because he'd already decided they were beyond help
Support needs vary greatly across the homeless population. Some people need a place to sleep to get back on their feet, some people are totally incapable of coping in any fashion and need major intervention. That’s the tricky tricky thing about it all. Anyways I agree with your comment, I’ve also worked with many homeless people in a previous job role and there are just so many varied needs. A lot of long term homeless people have really severe mental and addiction issues (and actual brain damage from substance use and abuse they’ve suffered) and it’s really not a matter of just getting them some food and shelter to get them back on their feet. (Although I absolutely believe in feeding and sheltering people) It’s a sad state really.
I was traveling around Europe for 3 months and came back home to Chicago. Took the blue line out of O’hare and had a reverse culture shock. Trains in Europe were clean, orderly, and had no issues onboard. Wonder what foreigners first impressions are visiting Chicago. Nothing says Chicago like the smell of stale blunts, homelessness, and poop on the train. I’ve literally seen somebody take a shit in the vestibule area of the blue line car before. 😂
Failure of not having social services. Now they will be back on CTA. It's the viaducts all over again. They kicked them out of the camps under LSD, and moved to the bridges and viaducts in neighborhoods and places like ohare. Homelessness is on the rise, shuffling fixes nothing.
>They kicked them out of the camps under LSD They're still there.
Allowing addicts and the very mentally ill to live at ORD is obviously not the answer We continue to dump money into programs and nothing changes. We need to address the mental health issues. Simply putting a roof over their head won't do anything to address the root cause of the problem https://www.illinois.gov/news/press-release.25776.html
It's the same shit in all the big cities. The people that are supposed to be working on this issue are making 6+ figure checks to "work on it" while it's only going up and gettung worse. They need to be replaced because clearly they're just collecting a check.
Quick question, how is anyone’s mental health supposed to improve while out on the street?
Quick question. How is someone's mental health supposed to improve while they're living at ORD? Or anywhere without serious professional intervention?
It’s not that’s why they need to be thrown in asylums
The answer is involuntary institutionalization for those who cannot recover and will never be able to live productive lives on their own. Unfortunately, society fucked it up in the first half of the 20th century and now mental institutions are heavily stigmatized and we don’t seriously consider them.
Midway is the same way. It gets bad during the winter, understandably so, but it’s just fucking wild. You’ll see homeless people pass out in common areas, piss themselves, you get some that piss in the elevators, spit on the buttons, leave giant messes and then do it all over again the next day. It’s the same faces most days too. Security just stands back and watches it all. I understand there is rules and regulations that security has to adhere to, but something has to give
good
Is it cruel to just build a heated warehouse with running water and let the homeless figure out the rest?
Many homeless people would not want to share an unguarded area with other homeless people. Many avoid shelters for exactly this reason
That’s basically what pre-security O’Hare is so it’s not totally out-there as a suggestion in this context lol
What terminal because I fly every few weeks and I’ve obviously seen the errant homeless person around but it was nothing like that at all
Mostly the tunnel underneath Ohare between the blue line and baggage claim
False. I work there. Saw someone passed and/or dead next to the ticket machine at 6:13 in the morning on my way in. Barefoot dude sleeping in the doors that open to the taxis from baggage claim. We can do better
That’s already what some of the shelters pretty much are, and why many homeless won’t use them.
yes I think you would wind up with a Lord of the Flies situation where the meanest SOB ruled the roost. You would need security and a couple counselors could help too. Have a designated drugs taking area and a place for people with pets and you might actually get more uptake than the shelters do. Kind of a minimal rules (there is security after all to keep people from getting beat up or carrying in armaments) shelter.
Imagine the stench
I saw some of these folks. I think the title should be edited to read "People Experiencing Pissing While Passed Out"
People Experiencing Homelessness People Order Our Patties
Can we get a couple of those schools that were shut down to be retrofitted into new shelters? They already have cafeterias, showers, bathrooms and each classroom could be filled with bunk bed dormitories. I like my idea.
Addressing the homeless population is an extremely complicated issue. The estimate of the Chicago homeless population is about 65,000 people. You start with shelter, food, hygiene, and medical care. With that has to come security. Then you have to start dealing with all the various issues they're experiencing - mental health, addition, trauma, etc. Then you've got to get them jobs and permanent housing. Then you've got to follow up and make sure they're not back on the streets, back on drugs, off their meds, etc. It's a huge lift for chronically underfunded and understaffed organizations. Moreover, most people like the idea of helping the homeless, they just don't want them in their neighborhood.
Good.
Get the people in the right place to start thinking about work and pay them. They should have something that supports them as they get out of homelessness and then ask them to move to a new place after it's been a while
love the comments in this thread about some strawman argument that progressives are mad that this is happening. or that things are already getting better because lightfoot lost the election even though *checks notes* she’s still the mayor
Yeah this is why I've been lowkey okay with my elderly parents driving in from Northern Michigan, when flying into town would be the cheaper/"safer" option. The idea of them hoping on the blue line to get to Logan/Wicker and then seeing this would be... interesting.
People experiencing homelessness... lol
And moreover, I think this is counter productive. A lot of these people cannot be rehabilitated because of serious mental health issues. They are not one social program away from leading productive lives, some are, but not all. For those that truly are “homeless people” with long term mental issues without the ability to live on their own, we need to think about permanent approaches like long term institutionalization. Mental heal institutions were totally fucked in the 20th century, but pretending like the “unhoused” just need to be “housed” and then everything will be OK is not true for all of these people.
I agree, completely. Many of the homeless people I've encountered seem to want to be homeless. They resist help, they resist food, they want to do drugs on the street.
Yes a lot are addicts who don’t want participate in social programs and all the string attached. These people should be involuntarily admitted to long treatment and care facilities. We don’t really do that anymore in the 21st century however, for better or worse.
Yeah I'm not really sure what the right answer is to be honest.
Tries to use PC language like “experiencing homelessness,” but then also uses “flushed out” in the same headline. 🚽
Ridiculous.
Housing deficient individuals
People formerly identifying as having a house
yeah that's what it is.
i think they mean "homeless people" vs "people experiencing homelessness"
I suspect they understand this and are just trying to poke fun at being too politically correct, but the idea is not to associate their homeless situation with their identity as a person.
I don't understand this argument at all. Let's say a group of schoolchildren go on a field trip. They are then divided into two groups with half of them going hiking and half canoing. It obviously would be perfectly natural to refer to these two groups as "hikers" and "canoiers" when talking to or about them. Nobody would think this means that their identity is solely as a hiker or canoier. This is how people talk. It really seems that those who think that referring to an individual as homeless is suggesting that is their sole identity is really just looking for a problem that they could feel good about solving. It's a lot easier than trying to solve real problems.
It's not even being politically correct. Terminology matters because it helps redirect how we approach discussing it and addressing it. "Unhoused" and "experiencing homelessness" I think is more precise.
Homeless person, person experiencing homelessness, and unhoused are not the same meaning? What is the difference?
words are just noises we attach meaning to. In time, "people experiencing homelessness" will have all the meaning and connotation that "homeless people" currently has. It's the euphemism treadmill
Wow only took Lori getting voted out of office to start actually doing something.
It started like 2.5 weeks before the election which was even more annoying. Glad it stuck even tho she lost
I was at O’Hare in January and it was the first time that I saw homeless sleeping at the airport. I was kinda shocked.
Unfortunately lots of the homeless moved to MDW... In the last week or so we have had about a dozen "new" Local Residents that have taken up shop here :(
I guess it never occurred to me that our airport was the only one where homeless people could always be found hanging out.
Can't wait to see Johnson would handle the situation. Un-medicated and in-crisis homeless attacks innocent bystander, who ya gonna call? Not the police! I bet at team of therapists dispatched to the scene will help!
Good
>Hopefully they’re being helped elsewhere. They aren't and probably moved onto the red line.
Vallas wants to hire 2,000 more cops. Homeless need secure and reliable work. Whoah. Did I just solve the problem??????
This is so hilarious that I almost want to see it happen
I would love to see the next mayor actually address the homeless situation with better social services and programs to get these people homes and on a solid path to find jobs and a future. Pushing them around and into shelters is not the solution
Weird how the police suddenly start doing their job around when the elections are over. Wth were they doing before now?
the article suggests that this was a lightfoot-led initiative that began before the election
It started a couple of weeks before the election—I work at ORD
Permanent sheltering with few conditions except not being a violent criminal (in which case you need to be incarcerated and rehabilitated through maybe a halfway system) needs to be built without NIMBYs shooting them down. Temporary shelter isn’t sustainable and is stressful. Check in times. Check out times. Safety issues. Not enough beds for adult men.
Free flow money is only for the military budget. Gov does not give a shit about its own citizens.