Lane Bryant crime scene clothes donated – Chicago Sun-Times
The clothes from the Tinley Park Lane Bryant store where five people were murdered are being donated to an agency that works with the homeless, a domestic violence non-profit and a women’s prison.

Stereo Sinai raises more than $100 for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless – Chicago Coalition for the Homeless
A couple weeks ago I mentioned the Stereo Sinai fundraiser around their single 12 Below, which was being used to raise money for CCH. The fundraiser has ended and CCH reports that they received a donation of more than $100 from the group.

Loyola students feed and cloth homeless through Labre program – Mosaic 2009 Blog
Thursdays at Loyola’s Water Tower campus, students make sandwichs and gather food into coolers which they use to distribute to the homeless on the streets. The post also has some interesting reflections on coffee shop customer service that puts the customer first, unless they are a homeless person.

Local homeless organization featured in Oscars commercial - True North Snacks
Inspiration Cafe, an Uptown homeless organization with many programs, was featured in a commercial during the Academy Awards on Sunday. The 60 second ad was directed by actress Helen Hunt and featured Inspiration’s founder Lisa Nigro’s story and the work that Inspiration does for the homeless. Inspiration was chosen from 2300 applicants and recieved a $25,000 prize with the national exposure. Check out the link for the ad and for a behind the scenes video with Helen Hunt.

In 2008, a documentary called Devil Plays Hardball was made for CBC Newsworld. The documentary paired mentors with five homeless people for 10 months. The mentors were charged with working with the homeless to get them off the streets. One of the homeless people featured was a man named Dance Crowkiller, an exceptional name to say the least.

Now Crowkiller is the subject of a new documentary called The Meaning of Life is Rice…Wink. The new documentary was made by Romantic Child Studios in response to the way Crowkiller was portrayed in Devil Plays Hardball. For the documentary, Crowkiller was given a video camera and asked to document his life and his interactions with the community. It is shot in first-person, and from the trailer it looks like many of the shots are too close and too dark, which seems just right for a film that looks at a life rarely seen by others even though they pass it every day.

Here is the trailer fro Devil Plays Hardball.

What do you think? Has anyone seen the documentaries and can comment on the portrayal of Crowkiller? Tell us in the comments.

Update – Homeless man files suit to get on the ballot in Oak Park – Chicago Breaking News
Daniel Fore filed suit Thursday in Cook County to get his name on the ballot for Oak Park village board after the board voted 2-1 he couldn’t be on the ballot because he doesn’t have an address. Fore was denied access to the ballot last year, but this year he is represented by the law firm Kirkland & Ellis.

Gov. Quinn appoints former CCH Board President and longtime Board Member – Chicago Coalition for the Homeless
Gov. Quinn appointed Michelle Saddler to Director of Policy. At CCH, Saddler was on the board of directors until 2003 and in government she has been the Director of Investments for the Office of the State Treasury for four years. Some of the policy initiatives she will oversee include housing, economic development and health care. This could also mean that issues surrounding homelessness could have an advocate close to the governor’s office.

Blues to benefit Sarah’s Circle – Sarah’s Circle
Sarah’s Circle will be having a fundraiser next Thursday Feb. 26, at Buddy Guy’s Legends. The John Primer Band will be playing, Kirkland & Ellis and the show begins at 9:30 p.m.

Residents skeptical about new CHA program to prevent homelessness – Chi-Town Daily News
A new plan from the CHA would help place people being evicted from public housing into shelters and help them during the transition with services like storage for their belongings. Critiques ask why not work on something that keeps people in their homes instead of helping them move into shelters, which are increasingly overcrowded? Check out another opinion on the plan at the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless blog.

Homeless kids lack school to call home – Chicago Tribune
Carlos Sadovi’s story is about the hardships of the homeless students who attend Chicago Public Schools. Constantly changing shelters, and therefore schools, along with the inability to maintain friends or do homework productively at home makes it difficult to succeed. And the number of homeless students is growing.

Not public art in the traditional sense, but art in public spaces for sure.

The Piñata Factory was a project to make huge colorful piñatas and put them outside where the homeless had often slept. The city fenced in many highway underpasses where the homeless used to sleep. These underpasses were one of the primary places the Piñata Factory choose to put its creations.

The piñatas were filled with emergency blankets instead of candy and more blankets were placed nearby. Co-op Image Corner Art Center coordinated the project with local schools and social service organizations to make the piñatas, which were then distributed in a pickup disguised as an official city vehicle.The piñatas were created over two years by over 140 volunteers and community members.

For photos from the creation and distribution of the piñatas go to the Picasa album.

Check out this video to see the piñatas and learn more about the project. Video by MILC.

As the recession and the housing crisis threatens many people with homelessness, a radio marathon will highlight the issue from the site of another event that caused many people to loose their homes: Hurricane Katrina.

On Monday, the 12th annual Homelessness Marathon radio broadcast will begin at 6 p.m. central time and end at 8 a.m. the next day.

This year the marathon is centered in Pass Christian, Miss., which is next to the official designation of ground zero for Hurricane Katrina according to the Army Core of Engineers. Pass Christian lost all of its pubic buildings, all of its business, and 80 percent of its homes in Katrina.

The location of the marathon is meant to highlight what the marathon calls the “disaster” of reconstruction in the area.

“One gentleman told me that what happened after Katrina is a ‘premonition’ of what will happen to the rest of the country after the current economic tsunami rolls through,” said marathon director Jeremy Weir Alderson.

Some of the topics that will be covered in the marathon will be trends among homeless veterans, stories from soon to be homeless evictees in Miss., the challenge of food stamps, registering homeless voters, homeless youth and testimonies from homeless individuals.

The marathon will be broadcast on over 100 stations nationwide, but unfortunately no radio stations in Chicago will be carrying the broadcast. There will be three stations in Illinois carrying it:

WEFT 90.1 FM in Champaign
WDBX 90.7 FM in Carbondale
WQNA 88.9 FM in Springfield

To catch the broadcast in Chicago you can listen to a live stream online. For other online streams and stations around the country carrying the broadcast check out the full list.

To call in to the show dial 877-662-6398, and if you are homeless or in fear of becoming homeless call 866-533-8688.

The marathon was started by Jeremy Weir Alderson in 1998 as an offshoot of the weekly radio program called “The Nobody Show.”