It took some careful wording and a day’s worth of subtle hinting for Laurence, 52, to get permission to leave work early this afternoon.
The 5:05 p.m. bus, which normally arrives a few minutes late, had been showing up early. This first bus is the most important to Laurence, for without it he could never make it to the 5:45, the 6:50 or the 7:30-all elements in the four-hour journey he makes every day to and from his menial-labor job at a far west suburban shopping mall.
But Laurence is thankful, and he displays the kind of work enthusiasm and energy of a man half his age. The $4.75-an-hour job should be able to get him through the winter comfortably, provided the shelter he stays at remains available to him and there continue to be enough beds to accommodate those even less fortunate than he.
A former supervisor for a large data-processing firm, Laurence became homeless after being laid off from the company, for which he had worked 30 years. In summer 1993 he lived beneath a mound of old blankets and cardboard behind the kitchen door of the East Bank Club. This summer he has been sleeping, eating and getting back on his feet with the help of the Lake View Shelter.
More than a decade old, the shelter has been helping hundreds of people like Laurence get their lives together.
“We are not just `a hot and a cot’ “-a meal and a place to stay, said Sam Gaurdino, 35, the shelter’s housing coordinator, “Lake View Shelter is a place where people can come and work on the issues (that got them in a homeless situation). We have an intensive, individual, case-management program that uncovers the problems and gets the people to the right kind of (supportive services).”
Also, said Annie Wallace-Hudson, 31, the shelter’s executive director, “we can provide a first month’s rent, or security deposit, so a person can begin living on their own.”
The shelter’s mission includes educating the community and advocating for improved conditions.
“Some people out there look at homeless people like they’re scum. People stick up their noses,” said Edward, 43, a transient from North Carolina and current resident of a Lake View Shelter housing facility. “But we’re just people. We ain’t all drunks and druggies. Some are. Some ain’t.”
Alfred, 46, has been at the shelter two months. “Being homeless isn’t about being lazy, or wanting to take advantage of the system,” he said. “In my case it’s about being unprepared to get a job at 46 with no education, a lifetime of personal problems and a lack of support system.”
The Lake View Shelter was created in 1983 by people from various church communities in the Lake View area. They opened the doors of the Lake View Lutheran Church, 835 W. Addison St.
At the beginning, the homeless were given three meals and a place to sleep. The pastor was always available, as were volunteers.
“We still have an open-door policy, but the screening process has gotten more strict, as more people try to get in the shelter,” said Wallace-Hudson. To get a bed-a workout mat on the floor-and help from the various programs the shelter offers, a person has to show “a willingness to effect a change in their lives. We will usually allow a person to stay for up to 90 days,” she said.
The Lake View Shelter is open year-round and operates another facility during the winter at the Wellington United Church of Christ, 615 W. Wellington.
“My philosophy about homeless people is that they are people, that they are no different than you or I, except they don’t have a place to live,” said Wallace-Hudson. “One thing that really gets me is when supportive-service providers look at the clients as the meek, who need our protection, and nurture them. What they need is a supportive environment, and people who will treat them as human beings.”
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Call Ray Ocasio at 528-6657 to volunteer at the Lake View Shelter.
