By Raven Feagins
When the weather is nice, Donald King bikes over to Lake Michigan to go fishing. It brings him back to memories of his childhood in New Orleans and spending time with his mother before she passed away. His charming smile and laid-back personality could fool anyone into thinking that he has lived an easygoing life, but he’s had an arduous journey that has led him to...
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By Brian Solem
Housing and health are inseparably linked. You’re more likely to be in consistently good health if your housing costs (rent or mortgage plus utilities, groceries and other household needs) take up a limited slice ( 30% by most estimates ) of your overall budget. If you are barely making ends meet, your health might show it, and you become more susceptible to unstable...
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By Raven Feagins
Until the age of 45, Latesha never had a place of her own. For years, she relied on friends and acquaintances to have a safe place to sleep at night, but, when she wasn’t lucky enough to find someone to stay with, she resorted to sleeping on the streets of Chicago.
“I was always here, here, here and here. Each time there were setbacks after setbacks,”...
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By Raven Feagins
Veronica* is the loving matriarch of her Chicago-area family. When she’s not taking care of two of her grandchildren, her mom and her aunt, she works as a talented seamstress. She’s open with her family about most things - except her own health status.
Veronica is living with HIV and has for the past 20 years. Most of her family, except her husband, don’t...
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Few things can more negatively impact a person’s long-term health than being homeless or unstably housed. Fortunately for 100 homeless and chronically ill Chicagoans, there is hope. Two experimental housing programs led by AFC’s Center for Housing and Health (CHH) offer those Chicagoans a fresh start.
CHH is also looking beyond those 100 people whose lives are being transformed...
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by Raven Feagins
Millions of people across the country are unable to work most jobs and earn an income due to disability or other challenges. For these folks, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) are available to help supplement, but the application process is known for being nearly impossible to navigate. This inspired the creation of the...
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Young activist Ava Santos-Volpe, age 12, is a girl on a mission. While working on a class leadership project two years ago, Ava asked a youth homelessness advocate to visit her school to discuss Chicago’s youth housing crisis. After learning more, Ava decided she needed to help — but didn't know how. That summer, while on a family trip to Florida, she spotted a parking meter collecting...
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This article highlights the successes the AIDS Foundation of Chicago achieved in 2016. Read more about our work in our Annual Report .
Glenn Baker is a 44-year-old Chicago native who currently works doing food prep for a catering company. He has a very calm demeanor, tends to keep to himself and is even self-described as anti-social. However, Baker's magnetic personality...
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by Raven Feagins
Pharoh Swain is a soft-spoken, yet passionate young person from Chicago's West Side. I met with this 22-year-old for the first time in the lobby of Center on Halsted, where he formerly worked as an intern during the summer. Now, Swain currently serves as president of the new All Chicago Youth Advisory Council, which seeks to guide organizations to better understand...
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Almost a year ago, AFC readers met Kasey White, an energetic advocate for youth experiencing homelessness in Chicago. Ahead of this year’s youth housing project fundraiser Out in the Open Sleep-In , which White has supported since its first iteration in 2015, we wanted to check in with White to see what she’s been up to, and where she sees herself...
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