BUCKTOWN — During brutally cold weather, many homeless people flock to shelters, though others — including a group of three huddled late Monday in a freezing garage in Bucktown — say they'd rather sleep outside.
"We have an addiction. We drink. A lot of shelters won't let you in if you drink," said Lorraine Ropp, who was resting on a mattress piled with blankets inside of an open warehouse garage near Ashland Avenue and Cortland Street.
Last year, Ropp said she knew two men who died because of the cold weather, but that fact is not enough to make her or her husband, Buzz, or Daniel Wilkerson, another homeless man who camps out with the couple, seek overnight refuge.
On Tuesday, Corey Neal, a morning shift worker at Pacific Garden Mission, the city's largest shelter at 1458 S. Canal St., said the shelter had reached capacity on Monday night, housing over 500 men.
Alcohol is not allowed at the shelter, Neal said.
"They can check the cigarettes in and get the cigarettes back. We don't tolerate liquor at all," Neal said.
Prior to settling in for the night in a sleeping bag near the Ropps, Wilkerson, 44, was among dozens of homeless people eating dinner at the Franciscan Outreach Association's daytime center at 1645 W. LeMoyne St., which serves dinner nightly from 5 to 6:30 p.m. and offers laundry service and shower facilities.
Ed Jacob, executive director of the Franciscan Outreach Association, said the daytime shelter offered extended hours on Monday due to the cold temperatures.
"It's so bitterly cold; we will find a place for someone to be inside," Jacob said.
Jacob said the Franciscan Outreach Association's overnight West Side shelters, a 265-bed shelter for men and women, and an all men's 70-bed shelter were both at capacity.
"We figure something out or call another shelter when we are too full," Jacob said.
When asked how staffers at the Franciscan Outreach Association respond to objections from folks who prefer to stay outdoors, Jacob said, "There are so many challenges and it is very hard and very frustrating. What my case managers have told me is that it is a matter of building the trust but even when we do that, we do run into [people who want to stay outside]."
On Monday, the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, only one of the city-operated warming centers, at 10 S. Garfield Ave. was open, according to a 311 operator.
Daytime warming centers run by the city's Dept. of Family and Social Services are not open on weekday holidays "unless specifically indicated," according to the city, which also states that "hours and days may be extended under extreme conditions."
Marcus Faletti, a 56-year-old homeless man, who sleeps outdoors, has been keeping warm by hanging out in a warming center set up for ice skaters in the Wicker Park field house, 1425 N. Damen Ave.
Normally closed by 5 p.m. on Sunday, the field house is staying open until 9 p.m. on days when the new skating rink is open, a boon for Faletti, who said on Sunday that he will sleep outside.
Darrell Dwyer, who has been homeless for five years, said Monday that he spent Sunday night sleeping in a viaduct underneath the Fullerton ramp to the Kennedy Expressway because the Pacific Garden shelter was "too crowded."
Dwyer was eating dinner at the Franciscan Outreach Association's Wicker Park shelter on Monday and after that, said he was planning to sleep in the Norford Hotel, a single-room occupancy (SRO) hotel in Humboldt Park.
After spending the night in the viaduct, Dwyer said a woman in a car stopped him on Monday to tell him that she had paid his rent at the Norford Hotel.
The women who paid for the hotel has previously given him money as he panhandles under the viaduct, Dwyer said, adding that he doesn't know her name but she "looks middle aged."
Reached early Tuesday, Dwyer confirmed he had been able to spend the night at the Norford Hotel.
"I want to thank her," Dwyer said of the Good Samaritan.
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