24/12/2017

After living on the streets as teens, now they lend a hand to the homeless

Image result for Zahara Bassett and Ricardo PaganIn the summer of 2016, Zahara Bassett spotted a young man at Love Fest, an annual LBGT celebration on the North Side. Their eyes met and they introduced themselves.
“Throughout the day we kept bumping into each other,” Bassett, 33, recalled.
Over the next days, she and Ricardo Pagan talked and shared their past struggles on the street. They found a common passion to make a difference.
So it was no surprise when, months later, Pagan came home to the apartment they shared and announced he was spending his Christmas money on feeding the homeless.
He had made up his mind after driving by a makeshift camp of boxes and tents in Uptown. And that’s where he and Bassett returned at Thanksgiving in 2016 with plates of food.
“I put myself in their shoes,” said Pagan, 25. “I have no issue telling people I love them.”
This year, the couple hope to reach even more people and have secured space at the Brave Space Alliance in the Washington Park neighborhood. A dinner will be prepared at Blue Max Coffee in Forest Park and served from noon to 4 p.m. Dec. 24 at 237 E. 58th St.
Both Bassett and Pagan learned the hardships of being homeless at a young age.
Bassett said she was put out of her home by a relative at 15. The streets gave her few options to survive, and she soon got involved in prostitution.
“I’ve experienced what young people out here have but it didn’t define me,” Bassett said. “I have thick skin and I refused to be labeled as a broken bird. I am an eagle.”
At 22, she found herself in New York City. A friend who had been a prostitute pointed her to a social agency that helped her get out of the life. That’s when she discovered how far programs fall short of helping people in need.
Bassett said she began working with agencies on the North Side of Chicago, including the Howard Brown Center, the Broadway Youth Center and Chicago House to get an understanding of social work and help channel her energy.
Pagan wound up on the street when his mother practiced some tough love and showed him the door.
“I wasn’t the best son,” he said, noting he is a three-time convicted felon with a record that started in his teens. “I’ve slept in laundromats, scared as hell, with my stomach growling, not knowing where my next meal was coming from.
“I had holes in my pants. I felt alone but it was my fault. I knew better,” Pagan said. “I’m from Cabrini-Green. I’ve seen people dead with needles in their arms and it didn’t matter. I became a felon. … I got a second chance to redeem myself, but where I’m from there are no second chances.”
Pagan has a 14-month-old son, but his criminal record has made it hard to find a job. “People my age and younger with babies are homeless, and it’s getting worse and worse.”
A recent analysis by the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless identified 82,212 people in Chicago as homeless in 2015. About 87 percent of homeless families with children were doubled up and living with family or friends.
Chicago Public Schools has identified 18,117 children as homeless in the 2016-17 academic year, a 2 percent drop from the previous year, according to the study. About 2,290 were considered “unaccompanied youth,” defined in the study as homeless teens living on their own without a parent or a guardian.
“Where are they supposed to go? We are America and America is supposed to be great, right?” Bassett asked. “How are we great if we’re closing down shelters and moving people away from the only homes they have?”
In September, the city shut down a homeless camp of dozens of people who lived in tents under Lake Shore Drive bridges at Lawrence and Wilson avenues in the Uptown community. City officials said the bridges were crumbling and posed a threat to the tent dwellers as well as motorists and pedestrians.
Bassett acknowledges that providing meals addresses only a small part of a large problem. She is in the process of starting a not-for-profit organization called Life Is Work to focus on the needs of the homeless.
“All of us together have to do our part,” she said. “Getting involved and working to help others in need is the only way to see change.”
Along with Christmas dinner, the couple is hosting a winter hat and coat drive to give people in need some of the essentials needed in a Chicago winter. Bassett has set up aGoFundMe  to help finance the Christmas dinner.
A drop-off place for hats, scarves and gloves is the Pamper Room Nail Spa located at 302 W. Madison St. in Oak Park.

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