By permission of the Helping Hand Mission
WELFARE ORGANIZATIONS
The mission is not the only institution to which the homeless man turns. Social service agencies, public and private, many of which are organized primarily for family rehabilitation, have given assistance to the homeless man.
The United Charities, although engaged chiefly in work with families, has a homeless-men division. During the year ending September 30, 1922, 1,026 non-family men received assistance. Of these, 629 were given material or personal service, and 397 were referred to other organizations. The Jewish Social Service Bureau also maintains a homeless men’s department which, in the year 1921, gave personal and material aid to 1,333 men. During 1922, the number of men helped fell to less than half this number, largely as a result of the improved industrial situation. The Bureau works in close association with two Jewish sheltering-homes, which together house about 70 men. Homeless men who apply for assistance are cared for here until their cases are carefully investigated. The Central Bureau of (Catholic) Charities, in conjunction with the Mission of the Holy Cross, provides shelter and food for destitute men, and aids them to become self-supporting.
The Chicago Urban League, organized to promote co-ordination and co-operation among existing agencies for the welfare of Negroes, maintains an employment bureau for men out of work. During the winters of 1920-21 and 1921-22, when thousands of men[69] were without house accommodations, the League took the lead in co-operating with churches and other organizations to secure temporary housing quarters.
The hotels for homeless men maintained by the Salvation Army and by the Christian Industrial League have already been described.[70] In addition, both organizations maintain industrial homes where men are given temporary work and are helped to become self-supporting.
The American Legion has been active in behalf of unemployed ex-service men, many of whom are also homeless men. Its work has consisted chiefly in getting jobs for the unemployed, and in this it has had the hearty co-operation of the newspapers. The Legion Hall was turned over to homeless veterans for sleeping quarters during the winter of 1921-22.
The Chicago Municipal Lodging House was first opened on December 21, 1901. It provided free temporary shelter and food for destitute, homeless men. At first it was operated under the Department of Police, but was transferred on January 1, 1908, to the Department of Health, and later, on April 17, 1917, transferred to the Department of Public Welfare. In its early history, the Municipal Lodging House was fortunate in having as its superintendent men like Raymond Robins, James Mullenbach, and Charles B. Ball, who set high standards for its administration.[71] The Municipal Lodging House met the severe test of the unemployment years of 1908 and 1914 by showing how its organization could expand to meet extraordinary situations. For example, while only 23,642 lodgings were given in 1907, the number rose to 105,564 in 1908; and the 78,392 lodgings given in 1913 rose to 452,361 in 1914. The Municipal Lodging House closed in 1918-19 because of lack of applicants during wartime prosperity, but it did not reopen during the hard winters of 1920-21 and 1921-22. Many destitute men, who would otherwise have been inmates of the Municipal Lodging House with the medical attention, sanitary sleeping quarters, and other assistance for rehabilitation which it offered, became instead “regular feeders” at the “bread lines” and permanent patrons of Hogan’s “flop.” There seems to be no doubt that the absence of municipal provision made for an increase of promiscuous begging and injudicious almsgivings.