At its annual memorial service Tuesday, social service organization Connections for the Homeless mourned participants who died in the past year as well as the four people who were killed on Labor Day in the shooting on the Blue Line. Among the four was Margaret Miller Johnson, who’d received support from Connections in the past.
Johnson and the other victims were shot while sleeping on the train at around 5:30 a.m, according to Forest Park Mayor Rory Hoskins.
Connections CEO Betty Bogg remembered Johnson as someone who was kind, even in difficult times. Bogg said that the loss has been difficult for both those close to Johnson and for all of the staff who knew and cared about her.
“The tragedy of losing your home in America is prevalent right now, rising because of the housing crisis we find ourselves in,” Bogg said. “That’s a lot of the work that we do, is to ensure that people become rehoused so that they do not fall into circumstances under which they have to find themselves sleeping on a train in a clearly unsafe situation.”
The Alliance to End Homelessness in Suburban Cook County’s Point-in-Time (PIT) Count estimated 114 unsheltered homeless people in suburban Cook County in 2024, a 58% increase from 2023. Nineteen of those people were in northern Cook County, where Evanston is located. This year’s count was taken on Jan. 31.
According to the Chicago Coalition to end Homelessness, this isn’t even the full picture. These PIT Counts are based on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s definition of literal homelessness, which excludes those who temporarily stay with others. Taking those individuals into account, the Coalition estimated that 68,440 Chicagoans were unhoused in 2021, for example. Chicago’s 2021 PIT Count for all homeless individuals only estimated 4,477.
As the homeless population rises, so does the amount of people who are likely to resort to using trains as shelter.
To offset this problem, the Chicago Transit Authority entered an agreement with the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services in November 2022 to provide unhoused train riders with additional outreach and support services. DFSS got $2 million in 2024 for added outreach efforts.
The CTA told The Daily in a statement that this agreement has led to 7,800 interactions with unhoused riders in the past year. From January 2023 to July 2024, the program connected 88 people to housing and 220 to shelters.
Chicago organizations Haymarket Center and Thresholds are currently carrying out these outreach efforts on the 24-hour Blue and Red Lines, respectively. The CTA didn’t disclose any plans to expand to other lines in the near future due to the larger need on the Blue and Red Lines, the CTA told The Daily.
According to Sam Guardino, the director of Thresholds’ Homeless Outreach Program, the support from DFSS and the CTA has been very beneficial.
“They’re checking in,” he said. “If we have a problem with something, they fix it. You know what I’m saying?”
Guardino noted that unhoused people — especially those with symptoms of mental illness — don’t always feel comfortable staying with large groups of people in shelters. He said that on the CTA, they can find a quiet corner to sleep in while also feeling less vulnerable than they would feel sleeping outdoors.
Guardino also emphasized that homeless people staying on trains don’t perpetrate as much violence as some may assume. According to research from the University of Central Florida in 2008, while the homeless are arrested more frequently than housed people, those arrests are commonly for non-violent behavior. Furthermore, they are more likely to be the victims of a crime, according to research in Violence and Victims in 2014.
“I just want people to understand that there are reasons people do shelter on the CTA, and that most of these folks aren’t causing anybody a problem, really,” Guardino said. “We have to solve the problem of affordable housing and have appropriate services and supports for people.”
At the memorial, Connections Board President Pastor Monté Dillard emphasized that homelessness is an important issue that must be addressed to prevent tragedies like this.
“From here forward, it will be up to us to hold their memories in our hearts and to hold our society accountable for the violence done to all those who must struggle to put a roof over their heads in this richest country on Earth,” he said.
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