Get Ready for Sleep Out Saturday 2008!

We invite you to register yourself or your group to participate in the 5th Annual Sleep Out Saturday for the Homeless! 100% of all funds raised by individuals and groups go directly to providing services for Bridge Communities' clients!

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Rally: Downtown Glen Ellyn
6:30 - 8:00 pm

Visit www.sleepoutsaturday.org to register and/or pledge a "sleeper".

More information will be coming soon for our 2008 event on November 1st. Be sure to stop back in the next few weeks to learn more... stay tuned!

Get revved for THE RALLY!

The Rally and Sleep Out Saturday is THIS Saturday, November 3rd. It’s here!!

Rally Location: 505 Crescent Blvd in downtown Glen Ellyn

Schedule of Events

6:30pm The Plural of Sheep band starts rockin’
· Sleepers can pick up their T-shirt, as well as purchase warm cozy ski caps
· Sleepers turn in pledge envelopes and cash/checks
· Coffee and Hot Cocoa will be served

7:10pm Program Kicks-off with Channel 2 News anchor Rob Johnson
· Learn how families become homeless
· Listen to Jessica, who found herself homeless
· See the benefits of sleeping out

8:00 pm DuPage County treasure - Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus

8:10pm Closing remarks

Don’t forget: The group who raises the most money will win a party at Lucky Strikes Bowling.

What Really is the Minimum Wage in DuPage County?

$7.75 an hour doesn’t go far

The truth of the matter is that a person with a family can’t survive on minimum wage. In Illinois, the minimum wage was just bumped up to $7.75 an hour. At that rate, someone would have to work 20 hours a day, five days a week to be able to barely afford the basic needs in DuPage County for a family of four. We pretty much know that working that much is impossible.

Living below the poverty line in DuPage

Last year in Naperville alone, there were 4,292 people living in poverty. The poverty line is defined as a family of four making $20,000 or less. Though not officially poor, families with low incomes ($40,000 a year or less) often still find it difficult to meet their basic needs.

Hard Choices

Low–income residents in DuPage County are forced to choose between paying their rent or going to the doctor, living in a safe home or having child care, keeping the phone on or having enough food. An estimated 45,000 to 63,000 people in DuPage have no health insurance. Last year, between the months of January and March, an average of 8,424 DuPage County households needed to go to food pantries each month.

Think about transportation alone. Living in the suburbs, a car becomes a necessity. Owning a car can be very expensive. Workers making $12 an hour spend about 20 percent of their income on transportation; in contrast minimum wage earners spend about 45 percent.

Going Beyond Minimum Wage

One way Bridge Communities helps the clients they serve is to take time out to train or educate the person for a specific job so they can begin to earn a higher hourly rate or salary. They must be able to earn more than minimum wage to survive in DuPage County.

Bridge Communities wants to thank you for making a difference. By sleeping out on November 3rd and finding sponsors, you are telling everyone that you acknowledge this to be a problem and you are doing something toward solving it.

Join Us for Sleep Out Saturday 2007 Rally

Each year we kick off Sleep Out Saturday with a bang with our county-wide RALLY. Details for the 2007 Rally include:

Location: The Rally will be held on November 3rd in the commuter parking lot next to the Bridge Communities office. Bridge Communities is located at 505 Crescent Blvd, Glen Ellyn 60137. We are located in downtown Glen Ellyn just west of Main Street.


Outside: After much consideration and research into facilities throughout DuPage County, we came to the conclusion to hold the Rally outdoors. The Rally will be outdoors rain or shine. Holding the Rally outdoors brings much needed authenticity to the event and holds true to the mission of Sleep Out Saturday.

Please dress warmly. We will serve Starbuck’s hot cocoa and coffee. And we promise to make the Rally an event worth the cold!


Schedule: The Rally is scheduled to begin at 6:30 PM with music by The Plural of Sheep. The program will begin at 7:10 PM. The Rally will end by 8:00 PM with a performance from the Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus.

If you want to have ample time to listen to the band, please plan to arrive around 6:30 PM. If you wish to arrive closer to the start of the program, please plan to arrive around 7:00 PM.


Entertainment: The band The Plural of Sheep will perform from 6:30 – 7:10 PM. This local band, made up of Glen Ellyn teens will entertain the crowd with original and cover material of Indie rock and pop.

Matt Wilhelm, BMX biker and 3 time medalist at the X Games will perform bike tricks from 6:40 – 7:10 PM.

Rob Johnson from Channel 2 will serve as the evening’s emcee.

Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus will wrap-up the event with a heart-warming performance and interactive songs.


Transportation: Laidlaw Education Services has agreed to partner with us to provide free transportation to and from the Rally.

If you wish to ride with a participating Sleep Out group in your area, please contact me for a list of locations who plan to use our Laidlaw buses.


Give-aways: We will give away Sleep Out Saturday 2007 t-shirts to the first 500 persons to arrive at the Rally. Once they are gone – they’re GONE.


Ski Caps: To help keep you warm throughout the night – we will sell ski caps for $6. The caps are made of a black knit with Bridge Communities embroidered on the hats. If you would like hats, please plan to purchase them the night of the Rally for $6 per hat.

Incentives: Bridge Communities will give away a bowling pizza party at the new, very cool Lucky Strikes Bowling alley located at Yorktown Shopping Center in Lombard to one lucky group. How do you win this party?

Your group must raise at least $4,000 AND it must be the group that raises the MOST money.

So if your group raises at least $4,000 and then beats everyone else in what they raised – you will win a bowling and pizza party for your entire group. The party is sure to be loads of fun and a great celebration of your achievement.

Can You Imagine Quitting School at 15

Can you imagine quitting school at 15 and not knowing what your future holds? It seemed like that was Kevin’s only path at the time, to quit school. He was failing in most of his classes and things weren’t any better at home. His mom was raising him and his two brothers. She was having problems paying the bills and they were losing their home. With all the instability in the house, it wasn’t easy for any of the kids to pull good grades. Zach, Kevin’s brother could only muster Ds and Fs and Bill, his other brother, could not get his homework completed and turned in without misplacing it.

Being on the brink of homelessness and then actually becoming a family who is homeless is extremely stressful to all involved. Family members go into survival mode and kids can’t even think about doing homework or getting decent grades. Everything is looked at in “short term” time frame. How will the family eat? Where will the family stay? Who will help them? Weeks turn into months and the family still suffers until the cycle of poverty is stopped. When the kids go for months worried about basic needs such as food and shelter, school work is no longer a priority. Also, most high school kids need a computer to complete their homework. If you are homeless, you don’t even have a library card so using the computers at the library is no longer an option. Everything becomes an extreme effort. Unfortunately, in the long run these months of falling behind in school will mean a lot of make up work to catch up or even failing a grade.

Luckily for Kevin and his family, they entered the Bridge Communities transitional housing program. About that same time, a new tutor, Gayle, was beginning to help out at Bridge. She was assigned to Kevin’s family and within days Gayle, her husband and 24 year-old daughter were all helping tutor Kevin and his brothers.

Four to five days a week you would find the six of them huddled over books and calculators after school in the Bridge Communities Westmont learning center—located in the same building where the family lived. In between, Gayle kept in close contact with the teen’s teachers at two schools through email, teacher conferences, and frequent conversations with their mother.

All three children raised their grades from Ds and Fs to As and Bs. Kevin, Zach, and Bill are feeling proud of themselves for what they have accomplished. Kevin admits “I want to study and earn the good grades so I can go to college.”

Thank God for people like Gayle and her family who became tutors to Kevin and his brothers. They were able to help the kids focus on what is important in their lives right now while Bridge Communities program helped their mom understand what she needs to do to get the family back into their own home.

Homelessness: What You Can Do: Activities for the entire family

Most Americans underestimate how the problem of homelessness affects families. About 600,000 families and 1.35 million children experience homelessness in the United States. Family homelessness is more widespread than many think, but it is not an unsolvable problem.

Across the country, hundreds of communities are planning to end homelessness, and a handful of communities and many local programs are making progress in ending family homelessness.

You are helping to end homelessness in DuPage County with your participation in Sleep Out Saturday. Thank you for your enthusiasm and dedication to ending this hidden epidemic in our communities.

We recently came across some great activities designed to help us learn a bit more about what it might be like to be a homeless child, teen or adult. And more importantly, what we can do to get involved. All of the information below is from the Natuial Alliance to End Homelessness website. We encourage you to visit the site to gain more insight to the hidden epidemic of family homelessness in our communities.

The Fact Sheets for Students are materials designed for school aged children to educate them about the causes and solutions to homelessness and provide opportunities for the young people to become a part of the solution.

Originally, the fact sheets were designed in 2000 during a partnership project between the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the Fannie Mae Foundation that sought to engage young people in the Washington, D.C. area in the fight to end homelessness. The Alliance updated the fact sheets in 2007 to reflect current statistics and strategies for ending homelessness.

· Kindergarten-Grade 2
· Grades 3-5
· Middle School
· High School


Homeless to Harvard 'Movie and Activities

In April 2003, Lifetime Television premiered the Lifetime Original Movie, Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story. The movie, which is based on a true-life story, was accompanied by an educational campaign to increase awareness about the issues and solutions of homelessness and promote youth empowerment.

As part of this campaign, the National Alliance to End Homelessness and Girls Inc. partnered with Lifetime to develop the Homeless to Harvard educational toolkit. The toolkit, which includes fact sheets and activities to facilitate classroom discussion, has been distributed to high school educators and guidance counselors throughout the nation.

The Homeless to Harvard toolkit is available for download:

• Homeless to Harvard Worksheets
• Homeless to Harvard Teacher's Guide

Where do you go if you don’t have a Home?

Where do you go if you don’t have a home? Most people probably never have to ask themselves that question. But, sometimes a few poor choices start adding up and then the bottom falls out. That’s what happened to Carrie when she realized the man she married was not a good choice and was making her life miserable. When rent money ran out, she figured she could lean on a few friends and stay at their homes. She found out quickly that wasn’t really going to work and had no back-up plan. So, Carrie and her preschool daughter ended up staying in a cornfield that summer. This is her story in her own words:

“Everything was going pretty good until my ex-husband stole the only vehicle I had and also the only money I had for savings. I eventually got into College of DuPage and applied for grants and scholarships. I was told I’d have those grants and scholarships by the time rent came due. However, that didn’t happen…”

“I chose not to go through the eviction process so I thought well, it’s summertime, my daughter and I could camp out or stay at a couple of people’s houses and try to rotate, but that didn’t work out. I was lucky enough that someone gave me a tent and my daughter and I ended up going to various cornfields and slept there at night. I kept a pretty good schedule for us. We did eat and I had a job.”

“Unfortunately, by the time winter came around, I didn’t get my grant and scholarship money, so it started getting cold for us at night. I continued going to school. I would study in the tent by moonlight. I got good grades but my daughter ended up with a 107 degree temperature and we decided to just stay out here….”

Carrie found out about Bridge Communities and was able to get much-needed help. At Bridge, they help clients stop the cycle of poverty so when they leave the program, he or she has new skills for employment, for making sound decisions and for setting goals and a budget for the future.

Carrie’s daughter is now in first grade. When she came to the program, she needed special care and tutoring to catch up to other kids her age. She is now able to attend a typical elementary school.

Now that Carrie has been through the Bridge program, let’s hope and pray she never has to ask herself again, “Where do you go if you don’t have a home?”

Tips to guarantee fund-raising success:

- Promote your financial goal in your solicitations. If people know you are shooting for a stretch goal, they are more likely to help you with a stretch gift.

- Make a list of everyone you know. Think big and then, if you want, start to cut it down. But remember, you will be surprised at who will give if you only ask!

- Ask for persons to make a donation to your efforts in lieu of a holiday or birthday gift.

- Ask your parents to take the pledge form to their workplace. Write a small paragraph about your participation in Sleep Out and attached it to the pledge envelope.

- Take your pledge envelope around the neighborhood.

- Email your friends and family members with a request to donate. Sample letters can be found on the website. Add the link to our video that is posted on U-Tube and our website, in your email.

- In lieu of trick-or-treating for candy on Halloween; try to trick-or-treat for Sleep Out Saturday. Bring your pledge form and when they answer the door: “Trick-or-treat for Bridge Communities.” Where your Sleep Out Saturday t-shirt or hat.

- Do you attend a school with a dress code? Ask for a dress down day with a $2 donation to dress down. Add all the proceeds to your Sleep Out Saturday totals.

- Ask for persons to come over for a social gathering, show them the promotional video and ask them to contribute to your efforts.

- Look outside your church members/friends. They may already be supporting your transitional housing program.

- Send a follow-up letter/email after you Sleep Out. Add a picture of yourself with your yard sign and/or tent. Or if you don’t Sleep Out, add a picture of yourself at the Rally.

- Send a follow-up acknowledgement letter to everyone you asked – even if they did not contribute. Include how much you were able to raise and how it contributed to the pooled contributions from all our groups. Everyone will appreciate a follow-up and it will help increase your contributions for next year.

Remember that the process of trying to help and raise money is more important that the total amount raised. Don’t worry about the “Suggested Amount” and just have fun and try your best! Call Amy at (630) 545-0610, ext. 12 with any questions.

Can one Person Really Make a Difference for the Homeless?

The average age of a homeless person in DuPage County is eight. Of the 45,000 DuPage County residents living in poverty, 30% are under age five. While these facts are startling, there is good news: for just $25, you can provide a shelter night for a homeless child at Bridge Communities.

Here’s a true story to help explain:

Bridge Communities began in 1988. It started out with a dad whose kids were in high school and college and was asked by his church to volunteer one evening at the local PADS – that’s a temporary shelter for people to stay one night. When he got there, he was shocked to see how many kids were in need of a place to stay. Most of these children were under the age of 10 and were usually there with just their mom. When he returned back to his comfy home, he continued to be nagged by the fact that there were lots of children in DuPage County that had no place to live on a permanent basis. How could these kids learn in school, do homework, or just have fun and play when they were constantly being moved around each night?

So this dad decided to do something and asked a number of his friends at church to hear him out. This group committed to pitching in dollars to buy one apartment where they would begin to make a permanent home for at least one or two families out there. He thought, “I may not be able to help all of those families, but at least I can start by helping one or two.”

The project snowballed and today it’s called Bridge Communities. And that dad is Mark Milligan who is the President and co-founder of Bridge. Now Bridge is responsible for providing permanent housing for over 95 families per year. Not only does Bridge provide housing, they provide all the support services to teach these families how to turn their lives around. The parents go to school to get better paying jobs, learn how to budget, figure out where they went wrong and begin to make smarter choices. After two years, these families are back on their own and most of them have learned and worked hard to make a better life for themselves. It’s not easy. Many times single moms are going to school during the day, coming home to take care of their children, possibly working at night and then coming home late to study.

Thanks to great companies like Harris Bank and Icon Digital Design, they help with the cost of putting on a Sleep Out Saturday. Every “Sleep Out Saturday” sleeper that can raise $25 has brought one child in from the cold for one night. Just think if you asked five of your friends to sleep out with you and you each raised $100 in pledges, your small group of friends will have now brought in FOUR children for SIX nights! Small things add up. Every little bit counts. Just remember the snowflake that turned into the huge snowball!

Please decide to make a difference. Ask your friends to join you to raise some pledges for a great cause. Not only will you and your fiends have an awesome time, you will all sleep a little better at night knowing you helped someone else do the same!

How Do Families Become Homeless?

How does it happen? How does a family who is living in a home become a family without a place to live? Believe it or not, Bridge Communities receives approximately 880 phone calls each year from families in such a crisis.

Meet Justyn, now 18 and his brother Jordyn, 16. About ten years ago, their mom, Belinda, quit her job to take care of her parents and several members of her extended family who had become very ill. Within 18 months, she lost both of her parents, a sister, and three aunts. Soon after, she was diagnosed with diabetes and both Justyn and Jordyn were told they had heart disease. Both the boys had to be on heart medicine.

Left with a mountain of medical bills and other unpaid debt, the bank repossessed their car and they were evicted from their apartment. It was right after Christmas, and their mom felt tired and defeated.

“I felt like I failed everyone,” she said, “God, my children, my parents. I lost everything by not making good decisions.”

With two teenage boys, Belinda didn’t qualify to live in shelters because most of them felt they would be a threat to the young girls living there.

Jordyn’s grades began to slip. “It’s harder to make good grades in school because I couldn’t really concentrate on my schoolwork. I was thinking about everything that was going on in my life at the time.”

Justyn realized it was becoming real uncomfortable at school. “It got hard with school because you have friends and they want to come over and visit. It’s kind of hard to tell them “no” and to come up with something like saying…”I’m homeless.”

Justyn and Jordyn’s mom found out about Bridge Communities. Bridge helps families get back on their feet by providing transitional housing, mentoring, tutoring, financial support, and more.

Jordyn talked about how it feels. “Before we were in the Bridge program, life was kinda hard. We were bouncing around…we were living in a hotel or out of a car sometimes.”

Here’s the great news: As recent graduates of the Bridge program, Belinda, Jordyn and Justyn have been moving forward ever since. Today, their mom works full time and they live in a three bedroom home in Villa Park. Jordyn is doing great as a junior in high school. Last month, Justyn, a National Honor Society member, was one of only 68 freshmen to be accepted into the architectural program at the University of Illinois, Circle Campus in Chicago.

We asked Bridge what they found to be the patterns and/or obstacles that appear to be significant factors for people who become homeless; here’s their list of top reasons:

- High rate of domestic abuse
- Make bad relationship choices
- Bad credit, high debt
- Lack of budgeting skills
- Depression is a common theme
- Lower functioning – poor education, undiagnosed learning disabilities
- Lack of specific professional training or expertise
- Decision making is framed through a short term, “survival” type of lens
- Lack of understanding of long term consequences or effects from this kind of decision making. Inability to think/plan long term

Just think how Sleep Out Saturday could help other families like Justyn and Jordyn’s. Thanks for listening.

Top 10 Reasons to Sleep Out Saturday, November 3rd, 2007

Just like David Letterman, we’ve created the Top 10 Reasons for Sleeping Out on Saturday, November 3, 2007:

10. It’s the best excuse you will ever have for a slumber party outside!
9. You and your friends can find ways to stay warm and cozy on a November night while getting a “taste” of what it means to be homeless.
8. You get to check out Matt Wilhelm, the very cool 3-time BMX bike X-game medalist, perform on his bike at the rally.
7. You will realize that there are too many kids that do not have a place to call home.
6. When your group raises $4,000 or more, your group is treated to a party at the new really cool Lucky Strikes Lanes in Lombard!
5. You can help stamp out the fact that the average age of a person who is homeless in DuPage County is eight years old.
4. You will cherish your own home even more after the Sleep Out.
3. You will have a better appreciation for what it means to be homeless and you will say to yourself “Nobody should be in a situation where they have no place to live!”
2. You will feel great about raising money to fight homelessness.

AND THE #1 REASON to SLEEP OUT ...
Because YOU can make a difference!! And that’s the greatest feeling on earth!

Welcome to Sleep Out on Saturday, November 3rd, 2007

Welcome to the 2007 SOS Blog – where you and your friends can make a difference in the fight against homelessness in DuPage County. Each Thursday, we will update you on the latest plans for Sleep Out Saturday Night being held on November 3, 2007, in downtown Glen Ellyn, in the parking lot adjacent to Bridge Communities at 505 Crescent Blvd.

Be sure to pass this site onto your friends.

SOS 2006 Stats

700+ people attended the Rally

1000+ people slept out

$68,323 in pledges raised (and growing!) That’s 2,732 shelter nights for homeless families in DuPage!

Our top fundraising groups to date:
- St. John the Baptist (Winfield): $3890.90
- Lisle Teens with Character: $3852
- St. Margaret Mary Parish (Naperville): $3514.55
- St. Thomas the Apostle (Naperville) $3000

If you couldn't make it to the rally (or even if you could), check out the rally video

Thanks again to everyone who participated! See you in 2007!

The Rally

Come learn more about how homelessness affects DuPage County homeless families at the SOS Rally!

The Rally will be held at the Glenbard South High School fieldhouse. We expect 1,500 people to attend. Don't miss it!

It will run from 7pm-9pm.

Kicking us off (and getting us pumped up) is the band Hook, Line and Sinker. Hook, Line and Sinker has played on tour with Five Iron Frenzy, Number One Gun, and The Insyderz and has played at Cornerstone.

John Lamperis will emcee the event. We'll have activities, multimedia presentations, and a variety of speakers, including former Bridge clients.

Put in on your calendar now! This event isn't just for "sleepers," but for anyone who is interested in learning more about homelessness in DuPage!

The fieldhouse in the the northeast corner of the building, across from the tennis courts and baseball field. Follow the signs to enter through doors 11 and 12. For directions, check out the Glenbard South website.

Why Sleep Out?

I thought the question of "Why participate in Sleep Out Saturday?" would be best answered by groups who participated last year. Here's what a few of them had to say:

"We connected with SOS as a way to build awareness in our community about homelessness. In the end it was us, the ones who slept out, who had a greater understanding. We wanted, in the smallest way to 'get it' when it comes to realizing that thousands of people right here in DuPage county wonder where they'll find shelter in a storm or from the cold. We slept in our cars and the noise of the raindrops and thunder seemed to be amplified by our car roofs -- waking us up every few minutes. We came away from our experience wanting to tell all we met that homelessness is real in our community and that no one should be homeless. We can do something to change it -- and we must." --Kirk Moore, St. Matthew United Church of Christ, Wheaton

"We ended up with nine kids and my husband and I sleeping out. We watched Castaway starting around 10:15 and headed out to the tents after midnight. At one point, after the movie had ended but the rain droned on, one of the kids said, "Do we really have to go out into the rain?" I told her no, we didn't have to, we did have the option of our parish hall. Another girl spoke, saying, "Hey, you guys, people have paid us because we told them we were going to sleep out. We should really go outside." And with that, the decision was made. The rain only seemed to vary in intensity, but not stop, and over the course of the evening, we slowly lost sleepers to the indoors.

With our Stewardship Sunday approaching, I was able to use the SOS experience as a plug. Stewardship has to be felt to be meaningful, regardless of whether you feel it physically, emotionally, spiritually, or financially. Standing in my jeans, my sweatshirt, and my down vest, with my non-bed bed-head, I told my congregation that there were many things we enjoy daily that had become instant luxuries for me the night before: beds, extra clothes, enough food, even a roof over our heads. The only every day "item" that I felt would have really hurt me to lose were my friends, who, at that particular moment, were nine teenagers (ok, my husband, too!). If, through our stewardship, we could either prevent others from losing any of these "luxuries" or enable someone to gain one of these luxuries, I suggested that then we would be being good stewards." --Anne Bouchard, Little Home Church by the Wayside, Wayne

The end may be in sight

Is it possible to eliminate homelessness? The DuPage Homeless Continuum of Care thinks it is.
They have a plan to end homelessness in DuPage by 2010.

Bridge Communities (the organization that sponsors Sleep Out Saturday) is hoping to play a major role in helping the Continuum to reach this goal. Last year, Bridge provided 65,000 shelter nights to homeless families (One shelter night is housing for one person for one night). But it's not just a roof--Bridge prides itself on being a 2 year transitional housing program. So in addition to providing housing, Bridge offers clients a variety of supportive services. Each family meets weekly with a team of trained mentors who help clients with budgeting and other issues. Bridge also offers tutoring (for children and adults), job training, employment counseling, and case management services. The goal is for clients to reach self-sufficiency by the end of the 2 years.

Bridge partners with dozens of local churches and community groups who are seeking to help homeless families. Through the Continuum, Bridge also partners with organizations all around the county—including PADS, Catholic Charities, the Community Housing Association of DuPage, DuPage Habitat for Humanity, Outreach Community Ministries, and Family Shelter Service (and countless more! Check out the list on the Contiuum’s website to see them all) in an effort to end homelessness.

The task may seem daunting, but recent history offers hope. On Easter morning 2000, The Sumter County Initiative (Sumter County, GA) announced that it had provided housing for every resident in the county. Substandard housing was eliminated and in its place, affordable, decent housing was available to every single individual or family in need. This accomplishment can’t be credited to a lone group—it was achieved through the partnership of nonprofit groups, government agencies, and local corporate, churches, and individual sponsors. Looks like DuPage County is on the right track.

Moving Day

Have you ever moved?

I moved from California to Illinois when I was 5 years old. I did not transition well. For at least 3 years when people would ask me where I lived, I would say, "Well...I'm from California, but we're just living in Illinois for a while." I didn't actually hate my new school, or my friends, or my house. I just hated the idea of moving, of leaving friends, of living in a new place. Even in college, when I moved to a different room every year, it took me at least a month to set it up. By the end of the year, the new room finally had started feeling like "home." And then it was time to pack up and move out.

Most of us have moved at least once. It's stressful, right? The packing, the unpacking, the getting settled, making new friends, starting a new schedule.

Homeless families are on the move almost every day. If you are living in your car, you may have a place to keep your stuff, and you know you can sleep in it...but where are you going to park? What about tomorrow? Where are you going to shower? Where are you going to do your homework.

The National Center on Family Homelessness has studied how homelessness uniquely affects families. Here's what they found:

Families with children are the fastest growing segment of the homeless population.

Every year 1.35 million children experience homelessness.
They will move. Often as many as 3 times. 68% of those children will attend two or more schools.
They will be held back. 35% of those children will repeat a grade because of frequent absences or changing schools (compared to 10% of other children).
They will get sick. They will have twice as many ear infections, four times as many asthma attacks, five times more stomach problems, and six times as many speech problems.
They will experience violence. 25% will witness acts of violence within their own family.
They will wake up every day and worry about where they will go the next night. They will be hungry sometimes and not know where their next meal will come from.

I don't want this to be just another list of depressing statistics. I do want this list to be help people understand the breadth of the problem of homelessness in 2006. This year the theme of Sleep Out Saturday is "How Homelessness Impacts Children and Youth." Homeless families are a lot less visible than the homeless guy you pass on the street everyday—but it doesn’t mean they aren’t there.

107 hours per week

107 hours per week. That's how much you would have to work at a minimum wage job to afford a two-bedroom apartment in DuPage County. There are only 168 hours in a week.

Or look at in another way: the "Housing Wage" in DuPage is $17.33/hour. You have to be making $17.33 an hour to afford a two-bedrooom apartment. Housing is considered "affordable" if it costs no more than 30% of the renter's income.

How realistic is it to make $17.33 an hour? As a recent college grad, I know that most of my friends are making less than $17.33/hour. Which is fine for us right now--we can share apartments, we don't have children to support, and worst case scenario--we can always take out a "parent loan." But what if I was a single mom? If I can't find a job making $17.33/hour with a college degree (and the support of a full-time career office)...how much harder is it for someone who didn't have the chance to go to college? Or who was forced to drop out of high school? Or who isn't fluent in English?

The National Alliance to End Homelessness breaks the problem of homelessness down to a few key causes. First, there is not enough afforadable housing. Second, many people have incomes that are too low to pay for basic living expenses. Finally, it is hard for people to access resources that would allow them to live independently.

DuPage County is one of the wealthiest counties in the country. But high housing costs make it difficult for even families who earn the median income to afford housing. What about all the households who make less than the $72,400 median?

About this blog

Welcome to the SOS blog! We're hoping this will be another resource your group can use in planning the event. I will post at least once a week (probably on Wednesdays) with some ideas on how to promote Sleep Out with your group or to answer common questions. Please continue to contact me with questions and concerns!