FATHER MICHAEL PFLEGER made good on his promise on Thursday, February 15, when he and more than 100 supporters marched outside of the Union League Club of Chicago, 65 W. Jackson, where Democratic National Committee (DNC) officials were meeting to discuss the August 19-22 Convention, which will be held at the United Center, 1901 W. Madison. Pfleger wants the DNC to raise the issue of homeless funding before the Convention. (Photos by Chinta Strausberg)
Keeping his promise to hold an informational protest outside of the Union League Club of Chicago, Father Pfleger had three busloads of people carrying signs that read: “no money for homeless: no democratic convention.”
Ironically, the Senate passed a $95 billion foreign aid bill.
More than 100 protesters answered the clarion call of Father Michael Pfleger on Thursday, February 15. He joined the protesters in front of the Union League Club of Chicago, 65 W. Jackson, where Democratic National Convention (DNC) officials were meeting inside planning the upcoming August 19-22 Convention being held at the United Center, 1901 W. Madison St.
With homelessness being a problem for decades in Chicago and across the nation, Father Pfleger is asking the DNC to raise this issue of homelessness before the Convention. He made the plea on the same day that the Senate passed a $95 billion foreign aid bill where, if passed by the House, the funds would go to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.
“If we can come up with billions of dollars for war, then we can ought to come up with billions of dollars to feed and to house people in the city and this country, and what better place to start than in Chicago.”
Pfleger doesn’t want the DNC to just come here to “party and leave, and we got the same damn situation before you came here.”
Armed with a bullhorn, Erica Nanton, the community organizer for St. Sabina, bellowed, “What do we want?” The protesters responded, “Money for the homeless.” When she bellowed, “If we don’t get it,” the protesters yelled, “shut it down” and “no more tents.” Several people carried mini-orange tents symbolic of those that many homeless people are forced to live in tents especially along the expressways.
In an interview with the Chicago Crusader after the two-hour protest, Nanton pointed out that among the homeless there are 35,574 veterans. When she mentioned that fact during the protest, some people who were calling for peace in Gaza joined the protest line. “It’s all connected,” she said. “The billions we spend on wars and the veterans we send to fight today, there are thousands who are homeless today.” Chanting over the bullhorn, Nanton said, “That ain’t right.”
Those calling for peace in Gaza began chanting, “No money for the homeless, no Democratic Convention,” and Nanton chanted their cry for peace. She said if people with social justice issues would unite, “We will see some progress.”
Similarly, Father Pfleger has a problem with the system that has Blacks and the migrants “fighting over crumbs” when their issue of homelessness is the same.
He wants the DNC to know that he is serious about asking Biden and Congress to pass enough money to end homelessness in America. According to HUD officials, all it takes is $20 billion to achieve that goal.
Father Pfleger doesn’t want DNC members to come to Chicago to party while thousands of homeless people are sleeping under viaducts, tent cities, outside and inside shelters and in abandoned buildings deemed unfit for habitation.
Pfleger said Congress approves more than $20 billion to Israel and the Ukraine alone. Quoting Dr. King, he said, “The money we spend on war, we take from the poor.”
While Pfleger is pushing for enough funds to end homelessness in America, in Chicago, according to the Chicago Coalition For the Homeless, there are 68,440 people who were unhoused in 2021 and of that number 65 percent represent “couch surfing,” where many live temporarily with other people. That figure includes 12,000 CPS students.
In Chicago, he said Blacks made up 53.8 percent of the total homeless population in 2020. He blamed “longstanding structural and historical racism” for the continuation of their homelessness.
And some Illinois students are also homeless, according to Student Homelessness in America, the National Center for Homeless Education, and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
He said during the 2019-20 school year, Illinois schools identified 47,445 students who experienced homelessness or 2.4 percent of the state’s school enrollment, and the system of homelessness is also racist.
“The homeless service system continues to prioritize white people experiencing homelessness over Black and brown people, especially Black mothers,” said Pfleger.
He pointed to recent research, which showed that “white women who have experienced traumatic life events are consistently perceived as more vulnerable than Black women who have experienced the same events.
“In a system that prioritizes housing opportunities based off of vulnerability, Black and brown families are kept homeless,” Pfleger said.
Always concerned about the children, Father Pfleger said they too were victims of homelessness last year; with 111,620 of them living without a home, 10,548 living outside of shelters and more than 3,000 completely on their own.
He passed out a fact sheet on the nation’s homelessness as of 2023 that painted a troubling picture of life in America if you are poor. There were 396,494 people receiving temporary shelter via emergency facilities, transitional housing programs or local safe havens.
And there were 256,610 people who reportedly slept in conditions determined to be unfit for habitation like on sidewalks, bus stations, empty buildings or abandoned vehicles.
There were 57,563 family households that experienced homelessness nationwide, and 35,574 veterans experiencing homelessness. There were 143,105 persons who experienced chronic homelessness—those with disabilities who were homeless for more than 12 months or had experienced several periods of extended homelessness over the past three years.
And Pfleger said more than one half of America’s homeless individuals live in the nation’s 50 largest cities. New York City and Los Angeles have one-quarter of the country’s unhoused people.
Pfleger said in Chicago most of the homeless people are African Americans and 64 percent of unhoused persons in America are African American or Hispanic/Latino. He pointed out that the Black community experienced homelessness most disproportionately at a rate nearly triple its population share.
He said those who are affected the most by homelessness are young Blacks who are at an 83-percent higher risk than their white counterparts. Young Hispanics are at a 33-percent greater risk than their white counterparts, and LGBTQ youth are twice as likely to become homeless than their peers.
With America being the richest country in the world, Pfleger said on a single night last year more than 34,700 people under the age of 25 had experienced homelessness. “No one should go to bed hungry or without a home,” he said.
Initially when the protesters arrived, police quickly placed their bicycles in their pathway restricting their way; that is, until Father Pfleger talked to them. The officers removed the bicycles and even later went and got bottles of water with one policeman handing them out to the protesters.
