The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless estimates that between 2014 and 2015, 125,848 Chicagoans were homeless. 20,205 homeless students were identified by Chicago Public Schools. 98.1% of students identified were “children of color,” and 18.3% were diagnosed with disabilities or developmental delays. 54,638 students across Illinois were identified. People living with families make up half of Chicago's homeless population. Fourteen percent of Chicago's homeless adults had jobs. It seems to me that it's really hard to argue against helping the homeless, and yet, somehow, some people do it, and legislation gets passed, and services are denied. The most common arguments against helping the homeless tend to be more like rationalizations of ignorance, indifference, or superiority. "Subtle" arguments against. Someone might say something like, 'I see this guy every day; every day for about two years, and I gave him change, and I gave him change, and but he's still there, and I'm like, "Damn kid, why don't you get a job?" Already? ' 'Small dehumanizing insults. Presuppositions of an incredible mass of unknowables; things that are supposed to be true for oneself (or for the world as a whole) should then also be true for others, which is, of course, incredibly reductive and false in very many cases. We are not all the same people in the same circumstances and not everyone can do the same things. Not everyone has the same "luck", by which I mean something like the quality of feasibility. So anyway, this "Get a job" guy is just an example of someone arguing about caring and helping and empathizing, and in otherizing, and then arguing against the other's merit of... amidst the card... to turn to for a safe environment, meeting counselors, eating, sleeping, showering, washing clothes, etc. They also help homeless children with their education, working with schools to offer supplies and transportation. Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (www.chicagohomeless.org) “We organize and advocate to prevent and end homelessness because we believe that housing is a human rights issue in a just society.” They are similar to the National Coalition for the Homeless, but, of course, they are focused locally, in Chicago. They run several programs and campaigns focusing mainly on community awareness and immediate help to those who are homeless. They have a program that provides education and legal assistance to the homeless and a reentry program to help the recently unincarcerated find housing and work, as well as a general "Work" program, which creates jobs for the homeless.