Members of Evanston’s diverse faith community have housed dozens of the city’s homeless individuals in recent days, as air temperatures dipped to the single-digits and wind chills added a sub-zero feel.
The night of December 14, when temperatures reached a dangerous low of around 3 degrees, 37 people slept inside First Presbyterian Church of Evanston, one of a half-dozen religious institutions doubling as emergency overnight shelters for Evanston’s homeless population this winter.
Susan Murphy, director of Interfaith Action of Evanston, said that’s the most people the program has ever served in a single night since it began a decade ago.
Interfaith Action of Evanston, a non-profit group comprised of 42 faith-based institutions throughout the city, is the only organization operating an emergency overnight shelter for the city’s homeless population, according to Murphy.
In addition to First Presbyterian Church and others, the First Congregational Church of Evanston, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, First United Methodist Church of Evanston, Unitarian Church of Evanston, and Beth Emet The Free Synagogue signed up to host the city’s homeless on a rotating schedule on nights when the temperature is expected to be dangerously cold.
Local non-profit social service providers, including ones that deal with housing issues, estimate that about 10 percent of Evanston’s population — roughly 7,500 people — are either homeless or at risk of becoming so.
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Murphy said the number of people who showed up that Wednesday night “was shocking to me.”
“In the past we’ve never had more than 25,” Murphy said. “Some people don’t mind sleeping outside or they have their little spot and are comfortable there and warm enough, but with this weather, I don’t think there’s any place that’s safe.”
Prior to this year, Murphy said, the organization operated the emergency shelter solely out of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and only when overnight temperatures hit zero degrees. She said the organization decided this year that the zero-degree benchmark was too cold.
Some 112 volunteers, predominantly congregants of the religious institutions that comprise Interfaith Action of Evanston, help run the shelters. This year the organization raised enough funds to hire someone to supervise the shelter’s guests overnight along with a volunteer, Murphy said.
“We have a room for women, and there tend to be less women (who come to the shelter), and a room for men,” Murphy said. “We give each one a blanket and a sheet. There’s hot drinks but no food, and at 10 p.m. we turn off the lights and they sleep until we wake them up at 6 a.m.”
Murphy said the guests are required to leave by 6:45 a.m. and most head straight to St. Marks Episcopal Church, where Interfaith Action of Evanston hosts a hospitality center for the homeless Monday through Friday. There, guests receive breakfast, access to job coordinators, case managers, facilities for grooming and making phone calls regarding jobs or apartments, she explained.
The city also provides refuge alternatives. Several public places, including the library and local community centers, are accessible to people during those facilities’ operating hours, according to the city’s website.
The city also provides grants to some of the non-profit organizations that operate an emergency shelter in the winter months.
The city of Evanston contributed $10,000 of the $20,000 Murphy said it costs Interfaith Action of Evanston to run its shelter program, Murphy explained.
Sarah Flax, Evanston’s housing and grants administrator, said that next year the city has tentatively committed over $12,000 to the program.
Connections for the Homeless, an Evanston homelessness prevention service provider, doesn’t offer an emergency shelter program like the interfaith group does.
However, Betty Bogg, executive direct of Connections for the Homeless, said the organization does offer meals three days a week, and a place were people can do laundry or even get clothes from a closet of donated wares.
“I think (Interfaith Action of Evanston) is doing an amazing thing this winter because they raised the temperature limit of when they open,” said Bogg.
“I would love for us to have a year-round emergency shelter, and I’m sure that’s (Interfaith Action of Evanston’s) goal, too,” she said. “But none of us have the resources right now.”
Lee V. Gaines is a freelancer.