Recently, Chicago land folk have been faced with extremely harsh temperatures of as low as -20F being the lowest recorded this winter. With this, many problems have emerged in the community such as school being canceled because of the frigid temperatures. Communities in the area have been able to take action to help people deal with the cold, which . Here at Lake Forest Academy, Caxy vans were running back and forth between the parking lots and Corbin, and students also got to dress casually for the week to help keep warm. However, the homeless population of Chicago still needs to be considered, especially during the cold winter months.

So what are the some 6,000 homeless in Chicago doing to stay warm in these horrible temperatures? They’re wearing layers of coats and other warm-weather clothes to help keep them warm. However, getting warm winter gear can be very challenging for them. A Chicago group called the “Night Ministry” provides aid from socks to shelter. The group goes around looking for homeless people and to see if they need help. They go tent to tent asking if any aid is needed during this hard time. The city of Chicago is also trying to help out. They opened many different “warming centers” for people to warm up in, and a couple of them are open 24 hours for the homeless. The city also opened up six additional shelters for the homeless as long as the cold lasts, just trying to get people off the streets. This is becoming increasingly challenging as the number of homeless people has risen in the past years.

Eric Hillebrand, LFA Economics teacher, commented on the potential causes of this growth in homelessness recently. He said, “COVID-19 really slowed down the economy and put a lot of people who were just barely making it out of work.” Nevertheless, Covid is in the past so how does it still cause homelessness numbers to be high? Hillebrand explained how when the economy returns to normal, homeless people find it hard to return to normal as well due to the lack of an address, internet, or cleanliness can make integrating back into normal life challenging for many. Hillebrand added that, “the downturn in the economy can kick people out and boot them from their homes but the upturn of the economy doesn’t really grab them back as easily.”

So even though temperatures are starting to climb back up again, we still need to be conscious of the largely underrepresented homeless population and their necessities.