UPTOWN — Uptown residents rallied Friday in support of homeless people who the city removed from a "tent city" under Uptown viaducts two weeks ago and are still not being allowed back.
The homeless were cleared from the area due to an upcoming lakefront Mumford & Sons show, the city said, but some homeless people say Chicago Police officers are keeping them away even though the concert is long gone. They believe the city is using concerts — Beach Boys and Kool & The Gang played The Dock at Montrose Beach Friday — as an excuse to clear the viaducts for good.
"When people try to go back under there, they tell them to leave," said Susan, a homeless woman who declined to provide her last name, referring to police officers. A Chicago Police spokesman declined to immediately comment.
"When you're homeless and going through this, everything you go through is a horrible thing. This is horrible because at least we had a place to be. It's not fair."
Vernon Andrews was living underneath the viaduct at Wilson Avenue and Marine Drive before the city forced him and others to leave ahead of a Mumford & Sons concert. Now he lives underneath a tree in a nearby park. [DNAinfo/Mina Bloom]
Susan is among the group of homeless people who was living in tents underneath the viaduct at Wilson Avenue and Marine Drive until the city forced her and others to pack up and move June 16 ahead of a lakefront Mumford & Sons concert, that would draw more than 30,000 people to the area. A city spokesman said the viaduct and the other one at Lawrence Avenue and Marine Drive must remain clear to "secure the area" for an onslaught of people flooding the area.
When city workers forced Susan to leave, she had to move to a different viaduct on the west side of the city without her belongings, which were stored in Uptown.
"I got put with 10-12 guys that don't know me. It's very secluded," she said, adding that she was ripped away from the social service agencies in Uptown on which she relied.
Many of her "people," as she calls them, are currently "hiding" in parks or living in shelters, which are much less safe than living in a tent in a community, according to Susan.
"You go into a tent and it keeps you safer," she said.
Roughly a dozen Uptown residents showed their support Friday by protesting the city's move, holding signs like "Stop exporting diversity" and "Uptown is everyone" at Wilson Avenue and Marine Drive. They gave out free food to the homeless who are now living nearby — either in parks or shelters.
Eric Clayton was among many Uptown residents who showed support for the homeless at Friday's protest at Wilson Avenue and Marine Drive. [DNAinfo/Mina Bloom]
"I think [the city] was not being sincere. They were looking for an opportunity to push them out and they found one," said Ryne Poelker, an Uptown resident of six years who helped organize the protest.
Poelker said even though gentrification is pushing out low-income people in neighborhoods across the city, he believes the problem is exacerbated in Uptown because of the "prime real estate right off the lake."
"There should be no surprise that there is more people living underneath the viaducts when there's less affordable housing," he said.
Poelker said the goal of the protest was to send a message that the homeless have rights. He also said "it helps when they see people supporting them."
Uptown residents protesting Friday at Wilson Avenue and Marine Drive. [DNAinfo/Mina Bloom]
When asked how it felt to get support, one homeless man, William, who joined the protest Friday, simply said: "I love it."
"Somehow, some way, someone understands what you're going with. I might not have anywhere to go, I might sleep on trains or whatever else, but it doesn't mean I'm not human," he said.
Though William did not live underneath the viaducts himself, his friends did. He believes the city is using the concerts as an excuse to clear the viaducts for good.
"The moment they got everyone to move their stuff, they knew that they wasn't letting us come back. The concert didn't even matter. Then they said there was people saying, 'We can't walk through. We're scared. We don't know what might happen.' But the whole time that we've been over there nothing has happened. We are friendly to everyone," he said.
"Because we're homeless don't make us animals. It doesn't make us less than. That was another smoke screen. I don't see nobody calling the police on us when we haven't done nothing."
When asked if the city was not allowing the homeless to return because of The Beach Boys concert, Matt Smith, a spokesman for the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services said in a written statement that "all residents may use the public way, but they do not have the right to keep tents or structures on, or to obstruct, the public way."
"The city will continue our outreach and cleaning efforts while abiding by the terms of our agreement with the homeless advocates, which set clear parameters how cleanings take place and the types of personal property permitted. The city will also continue its ongoing dialog [sic] with homeless advocates about how to best address the special needs and challenges of our homeless citizens," the statement reads.
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