Solving Homelessness

Adar is finally stably housed after living under bridges, in stranger's cars, on sidewalks, in doorways, in woods and at times couch surfing for almost 3 years. After being homelessness once before, Adar had made a promise to himself to stay on the straight and narrow to avoid being in that position ever again. He had a steady job as massage therapist, a car and an apartment, but after a break-up depression hit. He wanted be a "normal guy” but things quickly fell apart.

Armando Smith, Director of Operations & Client Services, traveled to Bloomington, Illinois for the 2018 Housing Matters! Conference, entitled “Leading the Way ” October 25-26. He joins nearly 300 individuals and organizations who care about expanding and protecting affordable housing and ending homelessness in Illinois.  The two-day program features several plenary speakers, interactive breakout sessions, and workshops in four tracks: Public Policy Advocacy, Ending Homelessness, Housing Counseling, and Affordable Housing Development. 

On October 5th, we celebrated the graduation of our 29th Career Passport Employment Readiness class. The program, which began in 2009, offers a curriculum customized for people experiencing homelessness or housing instability and takes in consideration the additional challenges that population faces.

Housing Forward’s 8th Annual Trivia Night, Compete to Defeat Homelessness took place on July 12 at Fitzgerald's Nighclub in Berwyn. The impressive first place trophy was awarded to Team Bro Bozos whose members were Pam & Charlie Meyerson, Jane & Josh Ditelberg, Janice Kieckhefer and Jake Skubbish -- but we believe at an event like this, everyone is a winner.

This past week Housing Forward Executive Director Lynda Schueler and Supportive Housing Director Patricia Stokes attended the Corporation for Supportive Housing’s Annual Summit in Los Angeles, June 5-7. 

The CSH Summit brings together national stakeholders in the supportive housing movement and overall housing policy to discuss and begin to solve issues surrounding topics such as developing and managing supportive housing, equity policy, healthcare, system transformation and current innovations in the supportive housing field.

On April 8th we will open a new shelter to increase our PADS efforts. During the last quarter of 2017 and continuing into the new year we saw an increased need for more shelter space in the Oak Park community. We were at capacity and often in the position of turning away individuals and families who were in need of immediate shelter.

St. Christopher’s faith community was able to answer our call and is offering their facility as additional Shelter on Sunday nights.

We are still in need of volunteer teams to make this new PADS shelter a success. Please contact Tonisha Daniel, tdaniel@housingforward.org or 708.338.1724 to help with this effort.

Recently, Housing Forward has experienced an influx of families in our PADS Shelter. We know that being without a permanent house places extreme stress on families. Housing Forward is committed to placing a high priority on children and families in all of our programs. As we work to provide comprehensive support for these families, we are seeking volunteers who can help support the parents with providing books and educational supplies so that they can help their school age children with their homework.

We hope you will consider supporting us on #GivingTuesday, the global day of giving that harnesses the collective power of individuals, communities and organizations to encourage philanthropy and to celebrate generosity worldwide.

Emergency Shelter Food and Shift Gaps

We are in need of meal volunteers in our PADS Shelter for the following weeks during the month:

Breakfast:

5th Wednesday (monthly when applicable) @ Grace Episcopal Church (60 people)

5th Friday (monthly when applicable) @ St. John Lutheran Church (42 people)

1st Friday (monthly) @ Unity Lutheran Church (18 people)

Lunch:

1st and 2nd Thursdays (monthly) @ First United Methodist (60 people)