Thirty Years of Living on the Streets

She's known simply as "Mary." She's been living on the streets of Chicago for at least 30 years.

I first got to "know" Mary in 1979. She was a fixture in the Rush Street bar district in Chicago. She was known for flashing her breasts for a buck. Over the past 29 years, I've seen Mary repeatedly in various parts of Chicago. While living in Los Angeles, I'd run into ex-Chicagoans who knew Mary. They gave her a buck. She showed them her breasts.

These photos were taken two days ago on State Street, in the Loop of downtown Chicago. The amazing thing is that Mary, living on the street for three decades or more, has not visibly aged much. She's always looked like hell, and she's not quite right in the head. I don't say that to be cruel; it's just sad truth.

It's a shame that the Democrats and ACLU got the Government to kick people like Mary out of institutions and onto the streets decades ago while Lyndon Johnson was the president. They said that it was a violation of the civil rights of people like Mary, who obviously cannot hold a job, to force them into an institution where they would get three squares a day, medical care, and be away from rapists and thieves. No, better to let them be "free" to fend for themselves and eat out of dumpsters.

Two More of Daley's "24"

Only 24 homeless people living in downtown Chicago? So says Mayor Daley, and Chicago News Bench is proving Hizzoner to be wrong, wrong, wrong.

Another of Mayor Daley's 24

Another one of the homeless in Chicago's downtown. Mayor Daley says there are only 24 living "in downtown" Chicago, but anybody who has ever walked around the Loop knows better. This guy was just loungin' on the sidewalk, not caring that he posed a hazard to scurrying pedestrians. Looked well fed, too. That's a weird thing about Chicago's downtown homeless - none of them, I mean none of the hundreds that I've ever seen look like they're in danger of starving. Many, in fact, are overweight. Only in America.

Three More of Daley's 24 Homeless

Mayor Daley, a man who has trouble counting past 24, may not be aware of these three homeless people who reside in Chicago's "Loop," the downtown business district that the Mayor recently said is inhabited by only "24 homeless people." Right. Here are three more, presented as a public service and, frankly, in an attempt to shame Da Mare. These people were photographed just north of the Harold Washington Library on State Street on October 23, 2007.

Homeless in Downtown Chicago

More of "Mayor Daley's 24" in downtown Chicago, an on-going feature of The Bench. Click photos for larger images. The shopping cart was taken in a small park at State and Jackson, where homeless men frequently sleep on the open grass. Photos taken October 16, 2007. All are copyright 2007 T.H. Mannis

Alderman Moore's Silent Homeless Problem

Mayor Daley ludicrously claims that there are only 24 homeless people living in downtown Chicago. But here in the underserved Rogers Park neighborhood, Alderman Moore has at least 24 homeless people who regularly sleep in Loyola Beach Park at night - and sometimes during the day, as this person was seen doing today at 1:45 p.m. There were three sleeping homeless people along the park as well.

Perhaps Alderman Moore thinks this is not his problem because these poor folks are on Chicago Park District property.

More of Daley's 24 Homeless

More of Chicago Mayor Daley's "24 people who are homeless in downtown Chicago." These photos were taken during the week of October 8, 2007.
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Another of Daley's 24

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley says there are only 24 homeless people living in the downtown Loop. Hmmm.

The Bench has photographed about 6 or 7 so far.

Here's another one of "Daley's 24," in front of Macy's on State Street, that great street.

More of Mayor Daley's 24 Downtown Homeless

Two more of the "24 homeless people who live in downtown Chicago."

So said Mayor Daley recently, in what was either a bald faced lie or a show of unrivaled ignorance.

Three of Daley's 24

Here are three more of Mayor Daley's "24 homeless people" who "live downtown" in Chicago.

Or is that 23 homeless people now?

Two More of Daley's 24

Mayor Daley says there are only 24 homeless people living in downtown Chicago. Last week, RPB showed you two. Here are two more. Twenty to go.

Homeless in the Loop

Two homeless people snooze in a public park in Chicago's downtown "Loop" near State and Jackson, just north of the Harold Washington Library. Mayor Daley claimed recently that there are "only 24 homeless folks living downtown," but anybody who walks along State Street between Wacker and Congress will see nearly 24 homeless on any given day.

Only "24 Homeless" in Downtown Chicago?

If the City of Chicago can do such a poor job of miscounting the homeless people right outside the doors of City Hall, how are we to trust the recently released Chicago crime rates report?

The Sun-Times got it right when they started the story with this statement:

This may come as a shock to commuters who see panhandlers on every Loop corner, but a city census of people living on the street in the downtown area has produced a surprisingly low number: 24.

Yes, it is a shock. The man seen here (top left) is a homeless man that I photographed last fall at Clark and Division, which is considered to be part of "downtown." And it's a shock that Mayor Daley & Co. believe that you and I are complete ignoramuses. Now, come on, folks. This is simply not believable. Only 24? Is this for the benefit of the Olympics Committee? Or to fool those of us who live in Chicago?

The woman here (left) was sitting on N. Michigan Avenue, across from the John Hancock Center. This is "downtown." She is homeless. Are she and the man above one sixth of all of Mayor Daley's downtown homeless people? Keep in mind that this is still north of the Loop.

The Sun-Times article went on to say that the "downtown count was released on the same day Mayor Daley claimed homelessness across the city was down 12 percent -- from 6,715 in January 2005 to 5,922 at the same time this year -- marking progress in his 10-year Plan to End Homelessness."

So, of the 5,922 homeless folks that Daley admits to being in town now, there are only two dozen are habitues of "downtown?" How is Mayor Daley defining "downtown?" Perhaps he only considers the two-block radius from City Hall as "downtown." None of us do.

But let's suppose, for the sake of discussion, that there really are only 24 homeless people living in "downtown" Chicago. It begs the question: So what? There are still at least 5,922 that Daley admits are here, and it does not change the fact that every neighborhood (even the Gold Coast) has its share of homeless folks.

In the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, you can walk along Sheridan Road (left) from Devon north to Touhy in Alderman Moore's 49th Ward, and the odds are that you'll see at least two or three homeless people. The homeless man on W. Devon (right) is napping in Alderman Stone's 50th Ward.

Loyola Beach (below left) often looks like a summer camp for homeless people, with at least a dozen hanging around at any point in time during warm weather.
When the Sun-Times called Rogers Park the "Venice Beach of Chicago" a few months ago, they may actually have been more correct than they intended in at least one way: Venice Beach, California has a lot of homeless people. So does Rogers Park. So does all of Chicago. To try two sweep the issue under the rug by callously fudging the numbers is a shameful act by a shameful (yet shameless) Daley Administration.