With cold weather and snow in the forecast this winter, you may notice an increase in the number of homeless individuals seeking shelter on your CTA commute. But as we’ve seen in the past, that’s a common occurrence this time of year.
“Individuals who are homeless tend to use the 24/7 nature of our system to take shelter during the winter months,” CTA spokesman Jeff Tolman said.
And although commuters are likely to observe an uptick in the city’s homeless on your morning or evening buses or trains, the annual Chicago homeless point-in-time count tells a different story—citywide homelessness is down 13 percent from 2015.
The Chicago Department of Family and Support Services did the 2016 point-in-time count of homeless people over the course of one night in late January. The number of homeless people identified in the 2016 street and shelter count was 5,889, down from 6,786 in 2015, marking the lowest observed count of homeless individuals citywide in more than 10 years.
Twenty-one percent (1,243) of the people counted were “unsheltered,” meaning they were residing in a place not meant for sleeping such as a park, street, abandoned building or public transit. That’s a 40 percent decrease in the unsheltered population from last year, which counted 30 percent of the homeless population in 2015 as unsheltered.
This year’s PIT count also altered its methodology on the CTA, stationing teams on the 24-hour Red and Blue lines and two bus routes. Homeless individuals could be seen re-boarding at the end of the line and were easily identifiable and counted at these points. Teams also tallied people spending the night in major indoor transfer points in Loop stations. This helped give a more accurate unsheltered homeless count than in previous years.
So how does the CTA deal with homeless riders? Beginning in December, the agency has additional personnel on the Red and Blue lines to help identify those who might be riding trains in a continuous loop, taking up additional seats or are in need of assistance. At the end of the route, those people may be asked to exit and pay a fare if they want to continue riding.
“We recognize that homelessness is an issue on some of our trains and buses and can impact the experience of other customers,” Tolman said. “We have a proactive approach and work closely with community partners, including Catholic Charities and Thresholds, to provide alternative options for homeless individuals.
“We don’t have the resources to provide personnel in every rail car, so riders should notify a CTA employee if they see someone in need of assistance. And if they come across anything unsanitary, they should tell CTA personnel who will work to get it cleaned up.”
Thresholds’ Mobile Assessment Unit provides outreach, psychiatric care and resource referral to people experiencing homelessness with serious mental illness. The organization also has a special CTA team that provides clinical assessments and engages homeless individuals in need of services on public transportation. Mada Leanga, team leader of Thesholds’ Mobile Assessment Unit CTA team, said they’ve provided aid to more than 300 people this year.
“We work mostly on the CTA, on trains and around train stations,” Leanga said. “We primarily focus our efforts on the Red and Blue lines, but we also do the pedways downtown in the Loop.”
Thesholds’ CTA team is composed of six people, all of whom are licensed clinicians. They typically set out for their CTA outreach between 8 and 9 a.m., but some days they start as early as 6 a.m., doing overnight shifts once a month.
“We used to focus our outreach more during the night, but things aren’t typically open late at night,” Leanga said. “If they need food, have paperwork they need help getting or anything, it’s easier to do that during the day.”
Despite the 2016 PIT count showing a decrease in Chicago’s homeless population, Leanga said Thresholds has noticed an increase in the homeless population, citing recent shelter closings and changes as the reason. The PIT count provides only a snapshot of the sheltered and unsheltered homeless population at a given time. Needless to say, there could be discrepancies in the actual number of homeless individuals in the city throughout the year.
When it comes to interacting with homeless individuals on public transit, Leanga suggests leaving them be.
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“We never wake people up,” Leanga said. “You don’t know the mental state that person may be in, and waking them suddenly could be a trigger. Otherwise, I have no other advice. They are pretty cool people; they just have nowhere else to go.”
@RianneCoale | [email protected]
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