- Franciscan Outreach Association
- 1645 W. LeMoyne Street, Chicago, IL 60622
- Telephone (773)278-6724 Fax (773)278-7120
Franciscan House of Mary & Joseph ~
an emergency overnight shelter with 246 beds
Imagine yourself in downtown Chicago in the middle of Winter.
It's 33 degrees outside and the snowfall from a few days ago has turned to slush. It's 4:30 p.m. and people are just starting to come out of the office buildings to make their way home. Imagine yourself walking down Michigan Avenue, looking… click here to read the rest of this story .
Franciscan House of Mary & Joseph is an emergency overnight shelter. Every night of the year, we are able to accommodate 209 men and 37 women. In 2008, we provided:
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over 84,947 shelter nights,
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approximately 84,000 suppers of
soup and a sandwich,
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approximately 84,000 breakfasts,
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an estimated 40,000 showers,
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at least 461 case management contacts at this site
We also provided visits by medical personnel, visits by mental health outreach workers, and a limited amount of emergency clothing. We served an estimated 1,300 different individuals at our shelter in 2008.
We provide all of our guests with
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a bed, pillow, sheets and a blanket
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supper of soup and a sandwich
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a warm shower
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coffee and breakfast
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visits by health care personnel
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the opportunity to build a better life for themselves, and
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the opportunity to meet with a mental health outreach worker.
We operate on a first-come, first-served basis. However, we allow a limited number of our regular guests a reserved bed and a locker.
Even though we provided over 84,9947 shelter nights in 2008, we had to turn a person away 497 times because we were filled to capacity. These were mostly persons who has already stood in line for an hour or so! We would prefer not to have to turn anyone away, but turning away this many breaks our hearts!
We view ourselves as meeting the emergency needs of
the homeless population as well as being a point of entry for them into a
wide variety of services that can help them change their lives for the
better. Case managers, mental
health workers, and medical personnel meet with our guests and help them
find whatever they need to build a better life for themselves.
RUSH Medical Students operate a clinic for our guests. Mental health outreach workers are provided by the Shelter Linkage Project, developed by Franciscan House, Thresholds, and Heartland Health Outreach, in conjunction with the Illinois Department of Mental Health in conjunction with Thresholds and Chicago Health Outreach.
We are assisted by several full-time volunteers who live at the Marquard Center. We are always looking for full-time volunteers who can spend one year working directly with the homeless and helping us do this good work.
We also need two or three part-time volunteers every night. Volunteers serve soup and sandwiches, hand out towels, and clean up in the kitchen afterwards. To read more about volunteering at the shelter, see our Volunteer at the Shelter page.
Our shelter is located at 2715 W. Harrison Street in
Chicago. We are just East of California and two streets South of the I-290
Expressway. Parking is available on
the street, but don't come for a visit without an appointment because we only answer
the door at certain times. For a
map to the shelter, click here.
Correspondence, donations, and requests for further information should be directed to our administrative offices at 1645 W. LeMoyne, Chicago, IL 60622, (773) 278-6724. For email addresses, see our Contact Us page.
We accept donations of soap, shampoo, deodorant, and a wide variety of other items that the men and women who stay with us need, other than clothes. We don't usually accept clothes since our case managers provide vouchers for non-profit clothing distributors. For a list of the items we need most, check out our Buy-A-Supply Program or Wish List.
However, monetary donations that can be used wherever they are most needed are the most helpful to us. To donate now, click here.