Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Art Project Raises Awareness On Homeless

By Andrew BowenThe Daily Northwestern

Beginning today, as many as 20 works of art on homelessness will be on public display at several locations in Evanston, Glenview and and Kenilworth, Ill.

The art project, titled “Visions of Home,” is meant to make residents more aware of who the homeless are and how they ended up in that situation.

Connections for the Homeless, an Evanston organization that oversees several programs to help relieve and prevent homelessness, launched the arts project as part of a larger campaign to increase awareness in Evanston and the surrounding suburbs.

Homelessness is a problem that only the community can solve and the first step is understanding, speakers said at a news conference Friday at Lake Street Church, 607 Lake St., one of the sites where the art is displayed. The Evanston Public Library, 1703 Orrington Ave.; Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes St.; and the Evanston Police Department, 1454 Elmwood Ave., also are displaying artwork.

“One of the newer reasons (for homelessness) that we haven’t seen in this country in a long time is the situation of men and women returning from military service and having trouble getting back into civilian life, and becoming homeless,” said Jeff Strong, an artist who participated in the project. “I think that’s an embarrassment to our country.”

Local artists met with and received written statements from clients of the organization to discuss the homeless experience and their vision of “home.”

“(The) statement (I received) was nothing like I expected, which made me realize that I don’t know anything about homelessness,” Strong said. “What I thought I knew was preconceptions and generalizations.”

Kolleen Bentivegna, another artist, said the man she met with became homeless after his roommate assaulted him. He went to the hospital, and after they released him he had no where to go.

“He initially thought it was going to be a negative situation, (but) he realized that the people he was living with (on the streets) were giving him more support than he had ever received,” she said.

Bentivegna said she admired the energy Connections for the Homeless is putting into the campaign, and that it is a leader in the effort to end homelessness.

“This project could be used as an example for, say, Chicago, where there’s a much higher population of homelessness,” she said.

The conditions that lead to homelessness in Evanston are entirely stoppable, said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Evanston), who also spoke at the news conference.

“We know that in order to end homelessness – which, by the way, we believe we can do in Evanston and Northeast Cook County – we need to become aware of and educated about the realities of homelessness,” Schakowsky said.

She said she was “really disappointed” that the tax referendum for affordable housing failed in Tuesday’s election.

The referendum would have helped fund affordable housing programs in Evanston by increasing the city’s real estate transfer tax by 20 percent.

But Schakowsky also said there was “good news at the national level,” receiving applause from the audience.

“The elections really matter,” she said. “They’re not just about politics; they’re about outcomes and different decisions … Homelessness is a decision … and we can make other decisions that end homelessness.”

In addition to the arts project, the awareness campaign will set up donation sites at several local restaurants and grocery stores, publish a series of articles in the local media written by clients of Connections and host a series of local speeches on the subject of homelessness. The campaign will conclude with an event auctioning off all of the artwork in the project.

State Rep. Julie Hamos (D-Evanston) also spoke at the conference and emphasized the importance of grassroots action.

She said lawmakers can pass legislation on the national, state and local levels, but homelessness can never end without help from the community.

“It really takes community support to make this work,” she said. “Communities still need to be welcoming, they still need to open their arms, they still need to recognize that the homeless are among us … and they’re going to sometimes be our next-door neighbors.”

Reach Andrew Bowen at [email protected].

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Art Project Raises Awareness On Homeless