Saving women from the streets: Here’s HOW

By Morgan Amos
Amid the constant traffic of people walking from one end of the corner along a stretch of West Howard to the next sits the home of Housing Opportunities for Women. Located at 1607 W. Howard St., on the city’s Northwest Side, the brown rustic building holds the stories of the many people who have come to call this place and its staff home.

Inside the Housing Opportunities for Women building on a recent Saturday morning, 19 women gathered for the first day of orientation for a program called Life Smart. The 10-week program aimed at teaching helping them learn more about themselves on the road to reclaiming their lives is a branch of the HOW organization.

The orientation, which took place on the second floor, was held in a small room with yellow walls, red drapes, and hardwood floors. The instructors for the course, Bob Wysocki and Lakethia Conner are only two of the members who work to help make HOW a place where homeless women can find the resources they need.

HOW is a non-for profit organization that receives its funding primarily through private donations, officials said. Since 1983, the group has helped women find homes, employment, health care, and much more, specifically in the Rogers Park area. Women ages 18 and up can receive help from the center. According to the center, 65 percent of its clients as single women and 35 percent are homeless families with children.

Darcel Pickett, 46, a woman with short dreadlocks, is among those who have found help at HOW. Pickett said that after four years of being homeless, prostituting and using drugs since the 1990s, she has managed to turn her life around and is now eight years clean.

As Pickett introduced herself to the rest of the group during the recent orientation, her smile seemed to radiate the room, though not apparent beneath that smile is a story of the hardships she has had to endure.

Pickett says that after going to treatment at another center, a woman gave her a flyer, which had information about HOW. It was during that time that she says she had a spiritual awakening and decided to turn her life around.

“I decided that I wanted to get off the streets, stop prostituting, and stop using drugs,” Pickett said.

She also says the HOW Organization has helped her by addressing her mental health issues and providing the support system she needed during that time.

Like Pickett, Carmen Lott, 48, says she has been through rough times, but has managed to find the strength to persevere and become a better mother to her seven children. Lott says she has been homeless for 10 years and has a disability.
Before coming to HOW, Lott says that she stayed at a battered woman’s shelter. During a telephone interview, she explained how the agency has helped her.

“My son was shot, and HOW allowed my son to be put on the lease in order for him to come and stay with me so that I could help take care of him,” said Lott, adding that she believes HOW will continue to help her with her future goals.

“My goal is to see my kids off to college, and I believe that by the HOW organization helping me that I can definitely see my kids off to college,” Lott said.
Even though HOW has provided Lott with a place to stay, she says that she still considers herself homeless because she is living in one of the homes provided by the organization.

Lott’s story is not that different from Bridgett Jamison, 48, who says she was homeless for five years and that she is grateful for HOW’s help.

“HOW is helping me to try and find a job,” said Jamison. “The program has also helped me become a better person both mentally and spiritually.”

For these women, becoming a part of the organization wouldn’t be possible without people like Conner and Wysocki.

Conner, 33, has worked for the agency three and a half years. Conner is the “patient navigator,” and as such helps women with any medical services they need. Annually she services 700 people, including single women and women with children.

“I love what I do,” said Conner, wearing a white shirt, blue jeans, and braids while sitting at the table in an office at the center. “Getting to help these women make life changing decisions is very inspiring.”

Wysocki, 47, who has been with the center since 2005, but has only been in his current position as Wellness Activities coordinator for two years, expressed the same sentiment.

“I like being able to make a difference in someone’s life,” said Wysocki.

Just recently, the agency expanded its services to the South Side since some of its clients live there and it is difficult for them to make the trek to the North Side center. In fact,, many of the case managers from the Rogers Park center now make house calls to its South Side clients. HOW has also expanded its services to provide help to homeless men through one of the four departments, which is called the Echo Team.

And many here, like Conner, say they are making a difference.

As the recent orientation wound down, Conner stood in the doorway waving goodbye to a new group of women on the road to turning their lives around, the sun shining down on her face.