Homeless Women Chicago

Mental illness can lead to homelessness, but the stress of losing one's home, sleeping on a park bench, and surviving from nickel to nickel could just as easily exacerbate a predisposition to mental illness.

This is the fourth in a series of excerpts from my book Of No Fixed Address: A Collection of Voices from the Streets of Chicago

A man on the street once said to me, "I wish I could just go somewhere and be with some people. You know, just socialize with some people. Not a shelter. Just a place to hang out, you know? But I'm homeless, man. I ain't got nowhere to go." Brunches like these seem to fill that void.