Franciscan Outreach Association 

1645 W. LeMoyne Street, Chicago, IL 60622

Telephone (773)278-6724  Fax (773)278-7120

 

About Us

Shelter

Soup Kitchen

Social Services

Volunteer

Buy-A-Supply

Wish List

Donate

Home

What's New?

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 walking down Michigan Avenue, looking... 

in the windows of the many fine stores. You see shoppers carrying packages, a light snowfall, and carriages standing ready to take riders through the busy streets.

Now imagine that you have no money, no job, no home, no car, and no friends or family. You are homeless. You have nowhere to go. Night is coming and you are getting colder by the minute.

You begin to look for public buildings where you might stand for a few hours. You think about asking someone where the library is or jumping a turnstyle to get onto the subway. You carefully eye others who seem to be homeless, wondering if you could possibly trust one of them enough to ask where you might get some help. 

You go with the flow of the many commuters rushing for home and find yourself in the train station. You sit down on a bench and doze off for a while. Soon, you are awakened by a police officer. "You must leave," he says. You look up, ready to cry. "I don't know where to go," you respond, hoping he doesn't offer you a nice warm place in jail.

Instead, he tells you about Franciscan House, a shelter where a person can get a bed, a meal, and some help in building a better life. That sounds pretty good to you, so you ask for directions. They tell you where it is and you begin to walk.

After three miles, you finally arrive. It's first-come, first-serve so you have to stand in line. The men there take your name and you wait. Soon, you are relieved to learn that there will be space for you tonight. You wonder about the ones who were behind you in line.

When you walk into the hall, someone hands you a cup of warm, thick soup, a sandwich, and a cup of hot coffee. You eat and are shown your bed. It’s a real bed, with a pillow, sheets and a blanket. They tell you about the rules, the showers, breakfast, the health care workers, the mental health outreach workers, and the case managers who can help you with whatever you need.

As you try to go to sleep you are relieved to think that you have made it through the long evening. You think about the many different problems that put you on the street. Every one of them seems insurmountable. "What's a case manager and how can they help me?" you wonder. "The people at the door were nice, so maybe the case managers will be too."

You drift off to sleep with a glimmer of hope that, just maybe, tomorrow will be better than today.

Franciscan House of Mary & Joseph is the first stop for many of Chicago's homeless. We offer the emergency services that keep body and soul together and then provide our guests with the encouragement, hope, and practical assistance they need to build a better life.

To learn more about our emergency overnight shelter, view our pages about Franciscan House of Mary & Joseph.