Raising awareness of Joliet homelessness with overnight camp out

A Joliet mission wants people to sleep outside and under a box on Sept. 8 to educate about homelessness.

The event is called “Box City of Hope” and will be held in a safe and secure area at 1350 S. Briggs St. in Joliet.

MorningStar Mission in Joliet held the event annually until 2016 and brought it back last year to help raise awareness of the post-pandemic rise in homelessness, said Stephanie Putman, senior program director at MorningStar Mission.

“When you work with the homeless – I’ve done case management – a lot of families, men and women feel like outcasts, they feel like they have failed, they feel like some type of disease to society,” she said. “I want to change that perspective.”

MorningStar Mission is a nondenominational organization that helps people in need.

The cost to attend is $10. The event will include speakers, dinner, live worship band and a family friendly movie. People leave at 7 a.m. Sept. 9 with a complimentary doughnut, Putman said.

The hours for “Box City of Hope” are similar to when overnight clients enter and leave MorningStar Mission, Putman said. Approximately 100 people would attend in previous years, Putman said.

“It’s a full night,” said Kelsey Teegen, director of development for MorningStar Mission. “You can also just come for the evening and not sleep over in a box – or a tent, if you’d rather not do that.”

Attendees may bring their own box or boxes or purchase one from MorningStar Mission for $5. Any size is welcome.

“You can make it as big or small as you want,” Putman said. “In the past, we’ve seen people combine two boxes and had families put up a teepee.”

Participants may bring a tent if they prefer. They are welcome to also bring sleeping bags, pillows and blankets, Teegan said.

“At the end when the event is over, be grateful you have a home to go to.”

—  Stephanie Putman, senior program director at MorningStar Mission in Joliet

The idea is to build awareness of homelessness not to create stereotypes, such as “dirty drug addicts warming their hands over a can fire,” Putman said.

“Homelessness can happen in an instant,” Putman said. “If you have nowhere to go and don’t go to a shelter, you may not be sleeping in a box. We’ve had people sleep at the train station or a vacant building.”

It can happen to anyone

Not everyone who is homeless struggles with substance abuse. Men, women and entire families can wind up homeless. Cancer patients undergoing radiation and chemotherapy can run out of money and become homeless, Putman said.

People can work a job for decades, become sick and unable to work and then lose their home. People on disability can become homeless. People with jobs can become homeless, Putman said.

“In our family center, people get up and go to work every single day as a teacher or a student in nursing school,” Putman said. “It’s not just those working in fast food restaurants.

However, people paying to live at a motel are not considered homeless, Putman said. Panhandlers are not necessarily homeless, she said.

“People will get dressed to look homeless when they actually have a 9 to 5 job,” Putman said. “They’re just trying to make extra money on the side.”

Putman hopes people will leave Box City of Hope with compassion, understanding and the motivation to effect change.

“At the end when the event is over, be grateful you have a home to go to,” Putman said. “There’s so much we can do as a community: donating used clothes or helping to restock the food pantry or volunteering at one of our events. I know our guests, when they see the other volunteers getting involved and connecting with them – they don’t feel like an outcast.”

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Box City of Hope

WHEN: 4 p.m. Sept. 8

WHERE: 1350 S. Briggs St., Joliet

COST: $10 per person. Group rates available.

ETC: Bring own box (or tent) or purchase a box for $5.

REGISTER: Call 815-722-5780 or visit morningstarmission.org.