Voucher System Helps Needy Chicagoans

November 2011

Richard Kaczmarek does not hand over spare change or leftovers when prompted by the homeless.  Instead, he offers what appears to be a small square ticket, good for food or personal care items at local stores and restaurants.  To some, he is known as the Chicago Shares man, but in fact he is president of the not-for-profit corporation based in Holy Name Cathedral.

Kaczmarek, 73, is responsible for all phases of the operation, from recruiting volunteers, appointing board members, right down to purchasing and distributing vouchers.  The concept behind the voucher: feed those in need while preventing monetary access to drugs or alcohol.

Partnered with other churches, synagogues, merchants and a volunteer staff, Chicago Shares has become a self-sufficient operation.

“Chicago Shares was the entity that developed the shares, produced the shares and sold them to the participating churches.  The churches then in turn sell them to their congregations,” Kaczmarek explained.

Often a combination of cash and vouchers are redeemed at the merchants.

“At the end of each month, the merchant contacts us.  One of our volunteers goes to the merchant and delivers a check for the full value of the vouchers,” he said.

The participating stores and restaurants receive more business as the result.

“Most of all, they are helping people who are in need.  But financially, they aren’t hurt.  We don’t expect them to give them or us a discount,” Kaczmarek said.

With an average 80 percent redemption rate used at over a dozen locations stretching from the Loop to Lincoln Park, it appears the system is working.

“Not all the vouchers we sell are used,” Kaczmarek said.

About 20 percent of the funds from the voucher sales remain in Chicago Shares accounts.  Only a small fraction of this goes into administrative expenses such as printing the vouchers and maintaining a website.  With no office or paid staff, the remaining funds reach those in need

“We have donated $74,000 in cash to organizations that serve the homeless,” Kaczmarek said.

Since its beginning in 1992, Chicago Shares has provided thousands of vouchers which the disadvantaged can exchange for food or other items.  Ann Klocke, 76, pastoral assistant at Holy Name, set to work modeling this organization that addressed the concerns of the donors while meeting the needs of the homeless after reading about a similar project in Berkeley, Calif.

“I was on my way over here for an evening meeting, and four different times people asked me for money. You wish you could do something for these folks, and everyone should have dinner,” Klocke said.

For Ron Polaniecki, 61, volunteer and board member of Chicago Shares, the simplicity of the organization is most appealing.

“I thought it was a very innovative and simple solution to something that always bothered me– how to give something to a person on the street without fumbling for cash or pulling out my wallet, and how to be sure that the recipient would use my money for food, and not alcohol or drugs,” Polaniecki said.

It was in 2000 that Kaczmarek joined the Chicago Shares team as a co-executive director, but a passion for serving those in need stems from his upbringing in the Catholic faith.

“My work with Chicago Shares offers me the opportunity to serve God’s people in a small way by helping to feed some of the hungry poor,” Kaczmarek said.

His work at Holy Name extends to the Right of Christian Initiation for Adults, helping adults become members of the Catholic Church.

Kaczmarek also devotes some time to Learning Ally, a Chicago organization that records text books for blind and dyslexic students.  He is a supporter of a number of organizations and charities such as UNICEF, and is a freedom writer for Amnesty International.

“He has brought very good order to us.  He also has a really big heart and loves very much to help the needy,” Klocke said.In May 2010, Kaczmarek became president of Chicago Shares, replacing its founder, Klocke.

Kaczmarek notes that the needs of disadvantaged and homeless Chicagoans extends beyond spare change.

“Addiction control, education, finding a home, finding a job—those are long term,” Kaczmarek said.  “But they have got to have something to eat today, and that’s where Chicago Shares comes in.”

Chicago LGBTQ homeless youth

December 2011

Young people who face homelessness have few resources to rely on in Chicago.  Patricia Posey, who left home when she was just 17, describes Teen Living Programs, a housing and support program that works with homeless youth as “the day that changed my life.”

“She was living with her mother, she got into repeated conflicts over her sexuality, and she left home.  She seemed to have been couch surfing and she was referred to us by a social worker at school,” explained Michelle Goldberg, development coordinator at Teen Living Programs.

Posey is just one of the many young people who experience homelessness because of their sexual orientation.  Some parents who do not accept their child’s sexual orientation force the individual to leave home, or they choose to leave because of harassment at school or in their community.

In Chicago, 10,000-11,000 “unaccompanied youth” from ages 14 to 21 made up 11 percent of the homeless population in the past year, according to a Chicago Coalition for the Homeless analysis.  Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer youth make up 20 to 40 percent of that population.

Beth Cunningham, staff lawyer at CCH, finds LGBTQ homeless youth rates and statistics difficult to pin down.

“It’s a tough population to capture.  I’ve heard numbers like 40 percent, but that’s anecdotal,” Cunningham said.  She explained, however, that anecdotal numbers give the “best estimate” in this situation.

“Between 40 to 50 percent of our youth at any given time identify as LGBT, and unfortunately that is the reason a lot of the times they are facing homelessness” Goldberg said.  “Their families don’t accept it, they don’t feel they have a home in their community—that they are being accepted, and that comes, unfortunately with physical abuse, emotional abuse.”

Despite the growing urge for acceptance, campaigned by many politicians and celebrities like Lady Gaga, and the various anti-bullying programs that have become part of public school curriculums, youth who identify as LGBTQ experience homelessness at a rate much higher than heterosexual youth.  Individuals are also choosing to “come out” at younger ages.

“It has been a consistent challenge, and what we’ve been seeing is seeing them much more sooner,” explained Brian Richardson, director of public affairs at the Center on Halsted, a resource center for the LGBTQ community.

Alexis Allegra, associate director of residential programs at Teen Living Programs, confirms the static nature of LGBTQ youth homelessness.

“I think this is a consistent problem and it is not something I have seen drastically change one way or another over the six years I have worked here,” Allegra said.

The struggles faced by LGBTQ youth include sexual and physical harassment, as well as stigmatization at school and home, leading them to run away.

“Youth have either been kicked out of their parental homes or have chosen to leave because of the harsh criticism and intolerance they experience,” Allegra said.

“It’s not just living on the street,” Goldberg explained.  “In our eyes, it’s not having a stable home to live in.  A lot of the youth we reach out to may not be able to live at home because their parents don’t accept their sexuality and they might live at a friend’s house.  They might couch surf– they might stay on the CTA one night, and then go to another friend’s house.”

Only 209 beds are available to homeless youth in Chicago.  According to Cunningham, cuts in state funding have lead to a drop in resources and services made available to these individuals.

While housing and outreach organizations like Teen Living Programs and Center on Halsted continue to offer assistance, there is still a need for resources available to LGBTQ youth.   Teen Living Program’s Bronzeville Youth Shelter, for instance, has only four beds available for ages 14 to 17.

“It’s more temporary for a lot of runaways that are referred to us by the police department, by the [Illinois] Department of Children and Family Services, and they stay with us between a few hours to two weeks,” Goldberg said.

Teen Living Programs also has Belfort House, a transitional living unit of 24 beds for ages 17 to 23.  Here, they stay an average of six months, but can stay up to 18 months as needed.  The youth are provided with educational and vocational resources, as well as health assessments.

“It’s a very loving, accepting community.  I think because they have other people they can identify with, and staff and case managers who support them and their decisions,” Goldberg said.

Programs like Teen Living Programs helped secure a strong future for Posey, who has since graduated from high school and obtained a job.

“They have struggled so much with loved ones who don’t accept them that what we see are young people we are proud and confident in,” Allegra said. “They are resilient and unbelievably strong.”