Bob Adams and Joan Fox drove through low rise office buildings and behind fast food restaurants in DuPage County on a late January night searching for the homeless.
Armed with flash lights and clipboards, Bob Adams and Joan Fox drove through low rise office buildings and behind fast food restaurants in DuPage County on a late January night searching for the homeless.
Occasionally, they left their vehicle to maneuver through icy paths up to park shelters and other times pausing to take an extra second to look at a garbage bin that could be providing shelter.
Calling Fox his “partner in crime,” Adams said the two have done this before. This was the fifth time for Adams and third for Fox to be out counting the unsheltered homeless, fulfilling a requirement by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“It is a long night, but it’s a good thing,” Adams said, “We want to help folks in need.”
The two play special roles in the effort to reduce homelessness in DuPage County — Adams is the president of the Midwest Shelter for Homeless Veterans in Wheaton and co-chair of the Point in Time Street Count, and Joan Fox works for the DuPage County Community Services.
Similarly around DuPage County, between the hours of 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. on a recent Wednesday night, 20 teams of volunteers fanned out searching for unsheltered homeless as part of a national homeless count. Adams said volunteers throughout the country will do the same in their counties sometime at the end of January, many on this particular night.
Every other year, HUD requires communities to count the number of people living in unsheltered environments. In 2013, the last time a count was completed, 29 individuals were found. The statistics on the most recent count are not finalized.
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But alone, Adams and Fox, with the aid of a West Chicago police officer, found two unsheltered homeless people.
After losing out in a lottery selection at a DuPagePads shelter for the night, a homeless man and woman made their way by train to the West Chicago train station where Adams and Fox found them.
After obtaining some basic information in return for a $5 gift card, the homeless pair turned down an offer for a ride to a Carol Stream shelter opting instead to spend the night in the station or the elements.
Moving to the Carol Stream shelter would leave them “landlocked” and unable to use any public transportation except for a bus, Fox explained.
Adams said much has changed from a time when some wouldn’t admit that there were homeless people in DuPage County.
Now he said about 30 local agencies partner as part of the DuPage County Continuum of Care to provide volunteers for the unsheltered count in addition to working together toward ending homelessness in DuPage County.
In addition, Adams said local police departments have been “tremendous” in helping identify “hotspots” for unsheltered homeless.
Laundry facilities, trains stations, parks, and fast food restaurants are all “hotspots” for unsheltered homeless, West Chicago Police Sgt. Mike Zepeda said. Others include 24-hour businesses and grocery stores. Those with vehicles may park in industrial parks or apartment complex parking lots.
Overall, Adams said, “We are seeing a slight decline in the number of unsheltered homeless.”
The reasons homeless people don’t go to a sheltered are varied, he said. “When weather is a little milder the homeless may just make do outside.”
Full shelters may be another factor, Adams added.
First time volunteer Pat Wigeland of Lombard, a member of the Milton Township Citizens Corp CERT team, searched heated bathrooms and parking lots at Herrick Lake Forest Preserve.
The CERT team divided up its 48 volunteers into eight teams to search DuPage County Forest Preserves and Prairie Path bike trails, Naresh “Squared” Nair, the team’s incident coordinator said.
Almost near the end of their search at 1 a.m., the team hadn’t found any unsheltered homeless. Similarly, in 2013, the team didn’t find any “tent cities” set up in the preserves.
“If any homeless individual was encountered in the Forest Preserve, the CERT team would immediately contact the Forest Preserve Police for followup,”
DuPage County Forest Preserve Police Lt. Steve Laskowski said the CERT team would have notified his office for follow-up if any homeless person was found in a preserve.
Another first time volunteer, Sandy Oyler who runs a transitions program for older teens and young adults and their families as part of Wheaton Youth Outreach, said she gave up a few hours of sleep because she wanted to be part of the efforts to end homelessness in DuPage County.