By Sam Pullen
I’m a pastor at Resurrection Covenant Church (ResCov) in the city’s Lakeview neighborhood. We at ResCov have been serving our homeless brothers and sister with a Friday night warming center for a couple years now, but we wanted to go from simple acts of compassion to addressing the system roots of homelessness. Thankfully the coalition has given us that opportunity.
On Tuesday, two students from DePaul University, three leaders on the CCH Education Committee, and I met with State Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago). We thanked him for supporting line items in the 2013 budget that are important to us — programs that help homeless people get back on their feet.
Dasia Skinner, a DePaul student, gave a testimony about how her best friend and daughter (Dasia’s goddaughter) are without a home and are temporarily staying at someone else’s house. She explained that it was “heart-breaking” to see them struggle just to find a place to sleep at night . This is what motivates Dasia to fight for protecting homeless services.
Senator Cullerton was engaged, asking many questions of our speakers, to learn more about their stories. We were glad to help him have a deeper understanding of the importance of the programs that were protected in the budget this year.
The meeting concluded with us securing commit for the Senate president to meet with us annually. I look forward to being a part of this work in the future.