PHOTO/BRETT JELINEK
CHICAGO, IL — The homeless in the Chicago neighborhood of Uptown are up against the harsh, natural elements: a rigged housing and job market, a society and political economy that simply doesn’t take our existence into account and, not least, an intolerant and hateful but well-off and privileged element of the general public. They hate us and want us eradicated like so many insects, and have the ears and loyalties of the mayor and local aldermen who are of a similar ilk.
This group is of newer arrivals to Uptown and they don’t share the values traditional to Uptown of acceptance of and service to the less well-off and poor. They are, in fact, quite hostile to them. They are looking to exploit and profit from the poverty of the neighborhood by buying properties cheaply and selling them expensively after having driven out the long-term residents of the community through “gentrification.”
Thus the homeless people’s encampments under Lake Shore Drive in Uptown are under constant attack from City Hall and the local aldermanic offices. They are granting the wishes of the wealthy, newer residents of the neighborhood who seek to expel the current and long-time poorer ones who increasingly have nowhere else to go in a gentrified world, thus creating more homelessness. They profit from their investment of buying properties cheaply and for personal comfort in their frank and belligerent intolerance (funny how our comfort level is never considered.) This began even before the alderman was elected.
Recently an attempt was made to close a shelter less than three blocks from the viaduct encampments. According to city officials, the shelters in Chicago are 95% full on any given night, but city agencies under the direction of this Alderman, were poised to seize our tents under the viaducts in September. This was done with the expectation that we would survive the winter without tents (apparently hoping we would not or certainly not caring if we did.) The city maintains tents are illegal (our lawyers interpret the law differently and claim they are not) but nevertheless tolerates them, thus, it seems, choosing not to enforce their interpretation of the law.
Before tents were tolerated the homeless under the Uptown viaducts would huddle together under blankets sometimes building snow banks on each side of the viaduct to try to keep out a blizzard. Barbecue grills were used to provide whatever heat they could. It was not uncommon to wake up and find the person next to you dead after a cold night.
Several collective, public, direct actions, including one in which we set tents on Lake Shore Drive stopping morning rush hour traffic for some minutes, seems to have gotten officials to back off on the intention to evict us from our tents—for now.
(To be continued.)
