HOMELESS POPULATION | To escape the cold, many crowd into police stations, which some say are safer than shelters

January 21, 2008
BY NORMAN PARISH Staff Reporter/nparish@suntimes.com

The day after Christmas, a 43-year-old woman said she became fed up with physical and verbal abuse from her husband.

So she sought shelter in a place many people try to avoid -- a Chicago police station.
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Homeless man Melvin Turner rests his head on a bag of trash while sleeping at the Pullman District police station Thursday night.
(Chris Sweda/Sun-Times)

The South Side woman is the latest regular overnight resident at the Police Department's Pullman District station in the 700 block of East 111th Street.

"This is a blessing," said Jacqueline, who didn't want to give her last name. "People have been nice to me."

Jacqueline said she went to the district's station to use a telephone but found some of the dozen or so people who were sleeping on the lobby floor to be helpful and nice.

She decided to make the station her temporary home.
'We have to protect them'

For more than a dozen years, the city's homeless have been using various police stations as shelters.

"They are still citizens of Chicago. We have to protect them," said Pullman District Capt. Thomas McMahon. "But this is taken to another level."

Some police facilities have become particularly popular during cold snaps, including the current one.

Late Thursday night at McMahon's station, for example, more than a dozen people were camped out -- snuggled in blankets and pillows on the lobby floor. Most of the homeless there were couples.
Most shelters bar couples

Paul Wilmer, 45, and his five-months-pregnant wife, Alisa, 28, were among them. They've been regulars at the district for at least two years, they said.

"Most places don't take men or they don't take women," said Paul Wilmer -- a couple's dilemma, homeless activists acknowledged.

Chicago has about 75 shelters, but only about 10 allow couples, according to Ed Shurna, executive director of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.

As for the city's homeless population, the number depends on which organization is sponsoring the survey and ranges from 7,000 to 15,000, according to Shurna.

Still, during extremely cold nights, a police lobby can can be populated with large numbers of both singles and couples.

Many of the homeless say they feel safer in a police lobby than a shelter.

At the same time, some homeless people complain police are too tough. If one person becomes disruptive, the whole group is kicked out, they complained.

At his station, the rules are: Keep on your shoes, no arguing, no rowdy behavior, and no vandalism, McMahon said.

"There is a couple who argues like there's no tomorrow,'' McMahon said. "But there have been no real problems."
Free coats, gloves

McMahon said the group often polices itself, and the homeless are helpful to each other, sometimes sharing blankets and food.

Also, their police hosts sometimes provide free coats, gloves and other clothes.

"We just have to keep faith that things will get better for us," said Jacqueline, who found a job last week as a cook at a nursing home.

"Now, we just have to look out for each other."