Emmaus House

“We’ve always just assumed we might not be here in a couple years,” Lydia mentioned a few times in my week at Emmaus House. But ten years on they’re still going strong providing a home to activists and housing insecure folks in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood. Lydia might be the only founding member of the community left but as Dorothy would say folks move out and make space for others to move in and Emmaus’s house full of CWs and their block extended community show this to be true.

-jail support-

A grassroots effort that started in the midst of the George Floyd summer, Emmaus House supports the Chicago Community Jail Support. Every day that at least 2 people are available to sign up for shifts from 6 to 8 and then 8 to 10 volunteers sit outside Clark County’s detention center to share resources and comforts to those being released.

The jail supporters come well stocked for whatever folks might need upon release: shoe laces, belts, a cell phone to borrow, shirts, deodorant, bus passes, sweat shirts, water, snacks, first aid, masks, and even cigarettes. On cold Chicago evenings during the winter their van is also used as a warming space for volunteers and just released folks waiting for a ride.

Folks were really appreciative of the simple items we provided and a kind face offering aid as they were released.

There is a precarious peace between the jail support and the prison staff. On my shift we were repeatedly harassed by a sheriff who insisted we move to a less accessible location so that employees might not have to walk near the formerly incarcerated folks hanging out waiting for a ride from friends or family.

 

The jail support project is not an exclusively Emmaus House project but EH is kind of the home base. Its there that extra supplies are stored and on their block where the van gets parked.

The van they use is a true Catholic Worker styled vehicle. Dishevled and often in need of repairs it even features a salvaged police vehicle door as a replacement for the original that literarly just fell off one day.

-mutual aid-

The west side chapter of Chicago’s mutual aid network was initially started by and is still largely staffed by members of the Emmaus House and their extended comunity, though not exclusively so. Every Saturday morning a fleet of larger vehicles arrive at a food warehouse to pick up day-old and overstocked items in bulk and drive them to a near by church.

Once everyone converges in the church parking lot (or indoors in inclimate weather) the task is to divide the food into dozens of individual boxes and bags eventually to be dropped at front doors around the area. Most of what makes it into the individual distrobutions are whatever happened to be available at the warefhouse that day but mutual aid does have some funds for getting special requests for folks. Requests might be a gallon of milk or stuff like that.

On the morning I helped out distribution bags contained: zuccini, potatos, collard greens, cookies, oranges, limes, corn on the cob, cream cheese, onions, bread, tortillas, packages of precooked chicken, cucumbers, and even a package of raw meat!

After its all divided up groups of two drive them around dropping them on the doorsteps of folks who have signed up to recieve them. There are also a couple of large senior living apartment buildings that get food. While it isn’t possible to do unique bags for every drop off, at these centralized locations bags aren’t made up ahead of time and instead folks come on out to a little makeshift grocery store set up in front of the building where they can shop for whatever sounds good and useful to them.