Putting Children First: Ending Family Homelessness In Illinois: A Statewide Survey on Family Homelessness

The recent economic recession and resulting layoffs compounded by a severe lack of affordable housing, lack of living wage jobs, and an increase in foreclosures, has caused increasing hardship for families in Illinois, including homelessness. This December 2001 study of seventeen agencies that serve homeless families in fifteen counties throughout Illinois and the eight warming centers (emergency shelters) in Chicago gathered information regarding family homelessness in Illinois. The agencies surveyed indicate an increase in family homelessness over the past year and specifically over the past two months. These results, and other recent research regarding the acute shortage of affordable housing in Illinois points towards the increasing need for Illinois to invest in homelessness prevention initiatives and the development of affordable housing for the benefit of thousands of families and children

Buying Sex: A Survey of Men in Chicago

On April 23, 2004 staff of the CCH and 42 volunteers conducted one-on-one interviews with 159 men in nine popular Chicago bars, on the streets of high volume 'bar-areas' in scattered neighborhoods throughout the city, and at Chicago's Union Station. The Prostitution Alternatives Round Table (PART), a project of the CCH decided to make contact with some men who may pay for sexual services in Chicago to determine their characteristics, the frequency with which they paid for sex acts, their interactions with law enforcement, their knowledge of the plight of women and girls involved, and their attitudes about the sex trade industry. Why interview customers? Strategies to combat both legal and illegal aspects of the sex trade seldom focus on the demand that fuels this industry. Research in Chicago indicates that many women and girls in the sex trade experience homelessness and are victims of violence, abuse and exploitation, and that some male customers are violent and exploitative. Yet, there is little research on the customers of women in the sex trade industry. Only two researchers, Martin Monto and John Lowman, have done research with men in North America who buy sex. The reasons are obvious: It is difficult to determine and construct a representative sample of sex trade customers due to the clandestine nature of the industry. It is also likely that many male customers will be reluctant to admit that they pay for sex for a variety of reasons, including the fact that it is against the law

Prostitution: A Violent Reality of Homelessness

This policy paper summarizes findings on the connections between homelessness and prostitution

Deconstructing The Demand for Prostitution: Preliminary Insights From Interviews With Chicago Men Who Purchase Sex

In December of 2006 and June of 2007 the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE), Prostitution Research and Education (PRE), and the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) launched a research initiative in Chicago to investigate the cognitive and behavioral patterns of men who purchase sex. A team of ten individuals, including three survivors of the sex trade, were trained by CAASE and PRE. In total, the team interviewed 113 men who buy sex. Men were recruited through the "Erotic Services" section of Craigslist, the Chicago Reader, and Chicago After Dark. Each interview lasted approximately an hour and a half to two hours and consisted of both quantitative and qualitative questions

Unlocking Options for Women: A Survey of Women in Cook County Jail

On October 31, 2001, 60 members of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless conducted in-depth, one-on-one surveys with 235 of the 1,117 women detained that day in Cook County Jail. These surveys were designed and conducted to gain an understanding of women's lives that may dictate and support policy initiatives and further direct service providers in assisting those in need. This study was conducted to document the lives of women detained in Cook County Jail and promote understanding of their many experiences. It reveals a great deal about the lives, current circumstances, and future hopes of 235 women detained that day

Failing to Deliver: One Stop Employment Centers

In 1999, CCH started its Day Labor Organizing Project. The project grew from a survey of over five hundred interviews with homeless individuals, conducted in shelters during one evening. The results showed that many of those surveyed were employed, but three-fourths had day labor jobs. Eighty-two percent of these jobs had wages of $5.50 or less, which were too insufficient to enable them to rent their own apartment. CCH worked from 1999 until 2002 on the abuses common to the day labor industry: no pay for overtime, transportation fees, and race, gender, and age discrimination. Day laborers continued to face homelessness because, ultimately, even under the best working environment, temporary work at low wages leaves workers in poverty. While organizing in shelters with day laborers, CCH discovered that job seekers were seeking services at local Workforce Centers. Often referred to as One-Stop centers because of the concentrated services available in one place, the centers are supposed to be a resource to job seekers that provides career training and employment services to the unemployed and underemployed. Job seekers, particularly day laborers, sought services that would lead to permanent work at livable wages. As organizers from CCH continued to hear from One-Stop clients living in shelters, we found that many were being placed into temporary jobs with low-wages and their need for skills training was not being met. The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless developed a test project to evaluate the effectiveness of the services at the One-Stop centers from January to July of 2004. The project shadowed 16 One-Stop participants as they navigated the system of services over a period of six months, as well as spoke to over 35 job seekers during that same period. To broaden the scope of our research, in August and September of 2004 CCH organized 30 volunteers from the community to survey participants at the One-Stop centers throughout the city. This report is the result of 170 interviews conducted during that time period. Overall, the research revealed that respondents were not satisfied with the services they received through the One-Stop centers. Had respondents received the services they requested, they may have been able to achieve self-sufficiency through wage or skill increases. However, over half of respondents did not receive the services they requested. While many people reported that developing a career plan with a job developer was beneficial, only one-fifth of respondents had created one. Also, most respondents received job training (69 percent), but 45 percent of those individuals reported that job training was not geared toward job placement

War and Homelessness

The war in Afghanistan, and the resulting increase in the number of refugees and internally displaced persons, focuses our attention on homelessness at an international level. This policy paper represents an effort to examine homelessness created as a direct result of war, and to recommend ways to reduce conflict and prevent war

Toward an Alternative Intrinsic Probe for Spectroscopic Characterization of a Protein

The intrinsic fluorescent amino acid tryptophan is the unanimous choice for the spectroscopic investigation of proteins. However, several complicacies in the interpretation of tryptophan fluorescence in a protein are inevitable and an alternative intrinsic protein probe is a longstanding demand. In this contribution, we report an electron-transfer reaction in a human transporter protein (HSA) cavity which causes the tryptophan residue (Trp214) to undergo chemical modification to form one of its metabolites kynurenine (Kyn214). Structural integrity upon modification of the native protein is confirmed by dynamic light scattering (DLS) as well as near and far circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy. Femtosecond-resolved fluorescence transients of the modified protein describe the dynamics of solvent molecules in the protein cavity in both the native and denatured states. In order to establish general use of the probe, we have studied the dipolar interaction of Kyn214 with a surface-bound ligand (crystal violet, CV) of the protein. By using the sensitivity of FRET, we have determined the distance between Kyn214 (donor) and CV (acceptor). Our study is an attempt to explore an alternative intrinsic fluorescence probe for the spectroscopic investigation of a protein. In order to establish the efficacy of the modification technique we have converted the tryptophan residues of other proteins (bovine serum albumin, chymotrypsin and subtilisin Carlsberg) to kynurenine and confirmed their structural integrity. We have also shown that catalytic activity of the enzymes remains intact upon the modification

Risk Factors for Homelessness and Sex Trade Among Incarcerated Women: A Structural Equation Model

Incarcerated women are among the most vulnerable and perhaps the least studied populations in the US. Significant proportions of female inmates are substance users, and many living in unstable housing conditions or being homeless. Female inmates are often at high risk of engaging in sex exchange for drugs or housing needs. While a disproportionate number of incarcerated women have experienced childhood household adversities and maltreatments, the effects of these childhood experiences on psychosocial and behavioral outcomes of this population in later life. We apply a life course perspective to examine these pathways in a sample of incarcerated women in Cook County, Illinois. Findings demonstrated lasting, but differential, effects of household adversities and childhood abuse on subsequent life risks and opportunities among these women