By Mike Krauser
The homeless and their advocates are demanding that the city have a change of heart and not evict people from an area of Lower Wacker Drive known as “The Triangle.”
City officials told the homeless living in the stretch of Lower Wacker near Wabash Avenue they had to be out by Monday due to upcoming construction. But advocates and the homeless themselves said they have little other recourse.
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Amid the stench of urine and the noise of delivery trucks, a man who was evicted from the Lake Shore Drive viaducts who now has a place to stay said the city is being inhumane.
“I’m one of these people. I’ve slept on that ground,” he said. “The city is obligated to help us. It’s about human lives. They may not be as smart as most. They may not be as clean as most.”
Diane O’Connell is an attorney with the Chicago Coalition of the Homeless.
“The city’s response to homelessness is to criminalize, barricade and exclude vulnerable people.”
She noted that for years the city has been kicking the homeless out of fences they seek shelter and erecting places to keep them out.