It’s 9:25 Friday morning, and photos of Miss Sue’s grandchild are circulating through the Interfaith Action of Evanston Hospitality Center.
“Girl, what you doin’ butt-naked in the bed?” snaps Gina, a shelter regular who lives in her van, to the glossy image of the newborn infant.
The Interfaith Action of Evanston Hospitality Center, housed in St. Mark’s Episcopal Church at Ridge Avenue and Grove Street, is one of more than half a dozen sites serving the Evanston homeless this winter. Combined with six public warming centers open weekday afternoons through March 25, the Hospitality Center also represents a broader effort by community leaders to ensure Evanston’s approximately 1,000 homeless residents have a roof over their heads for as many hours per day as possible.
With the formation last month of the Mayor’s Task Force on Homelessness, a program aiming to alleviate and prevent homelessness, places like the Hospitality Center have become even more significant in the city’s welfare dialogue.
A disheveled volunteer slaps the latest issue of the Evanston Review on Miss Sue’s desk.
“Can you believe this thing costs $2 now?” he grumbles, ignoring the ongoing dialogue about the baby picture.
“Uh, no, I – ” Miss Sue attempts to respond before Gina’s assertive voice booms again: “You know I got an ingrown nail on my big toe?”
Another volunteer seated with a clipboard at Miss Sue’s desk audibly sighs, advising her to “just smile and nod.” Chris, a frequent shelter guest known for his fidgety nature, emerges from the nearby staircase to a chorus of exasperation.
“Chris! Sit down for once!” Miss Sue hollers across the room. “Please.”
It’s 9:25 a.m. Friday and Sue Murphy, the administrative director of Interfaith Action of Evanston, has already signed in 38 homeless men and women. And yes, she is very busy at the moment.
It’s a tireless endeavor complicated by a city ordinance that allows homeless shelters only 12 hours of daily operation, Murphy said. Three years ago, Interfaith Action began sponsoring public warming centers that occupy the afternoon time slot previously unaccounted for by local shelters.
But Murphy said she believes providing reliable heating and light nourishment throughout the span of the day is not nearly enough.
“What we need is a place where they can go the whole winter, but we can’t do that,” she said.
Although there is a “tremendous lack” of daytime refuge for the Evanston homeless, an extended-stay shelter may not be the proper solution, said Sue Loellebach, director of development at Connections for the Homeless, an Evanston-based welfare organization.
“We don’t think that’s a long-term way of ending homelessness,” she said, adding that such a proposal aims to sustain already-existing problems.
Nonetheless, Connections for the Homeless partnered with Interfaith Action in 2008 to open St. Paul Lutheran Church as an overnight shelter when the temperature dips below zero degrees. Murphy explained this initiative preempts the city’s cold emergency plan, which states that any community building can be utilized for temporary shelter if the wind chill is -30 degrees or lower.
“If you’re sleeping outside, you can’t wait until it’s 30 below zero,” Murphy said.
The Hospitality Center, which is open from 7 to 11 a.m. Monday through Friday, acts an intermediary haven between Connections for the Homeless’ overnight shelter, Hilda’s Place, 1458 Chicago Ave., and the various warming centers. Voicemail accounts, job counseling and desktop computers are all offered to the Hospitality Center’s morning guests.
Although the new computer lab has become increasingly popular lately, most shelter visitors arrive in hopes of simply “sleeping, eating and cleaning up,” Murphy said. One regular guest who sleeps on the beach uses the Hospitality Center’s bathroom to wash his tent, she added.
Jean Herbert, a volunteer at the warming center in First Congregational Church, said her site’s amenities are more limited but turnout has been “fairly normal,” nonetheless. She estimated there are 12 to 18 visitors at any given time at the warming center, which is open 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays.
“It really varies,” Herbert said. “It’s getting around from place to place that depends on how many people come.”
And, regardless of how many homeless are sheltered everyday, Murphy believes they are all, to some extent, a bittersweet family.
“They’re just wonderful people,” she said. “You fall in love with them.”
Chris is restlessly wandering again, eliciting frustrated shouts from other guests.
“Even him, too,” Murphy quickly adds.
