A Safe Haven Foundation

Across the nation, protestors cry out against the injustice done to George Floyd, an unarmed man who died in police custody in a Minneapolis neighborhood. While we understand and support the frustrations and concerns against him by someone who was sworn to serve and protect. We pray that justice will be served to him and those who may have been accomplices in his horrific act.

A Safe Haven (ASH), a 25-year-old Chicago-based nonprofit that offers a systems based approach to help address poverty and homelessness by providing supportive housing, behavioral services, education programs and job training and placement. One of our properties housing the most vulnerable was hit by rioters on Saturday night. 

ASH Wabash Single Residency Occupancy (SRO) is a 170-apartment unit which houses low income, senior and disabled people. It has a commercial floor that is rented to small business restaurant owners, franchisees and a barber shop.

The non profit SRO relies on the rental income from the commercial tenants to help cover the costs of housing those living in the building and the social services we provide to the vulnerable tenants residing in the building.

The commercial tenants, who were already struggling because of COVID 19, were hit by the rioters who damaged, looted, graffitied, and almost burned to the property to the ground before tenants on site heroically got past the vandals and put the fire out with three fire extinguishers.  

We ask the public to donate to ASH’s GoFundMe page to help A Safe Haven continue to provide uninterrupted services to our tenants and to help us pay for their living expenses including food! Due to the riots, there are now no grocery stores open within miles of this location. We hope that through these funds that it will allow us to subsidize the rent of the commercial tenants too, so that they have more time to recover and rebuild.

ASH thanks the public for its generous donations today. It takes one minute to make your donation and keep someone in need safely housed. 

More information about A Safe Haven Foundation: A Safe Haven helps people aspire, transform and sustain their lives as they transition from homelessness to self-sufficiency with pride and purpose, providing not only food and shelter, but more importantly health, social, educational and job placement tools for each individual to overcome the root causes of homelessness through a holistic, scalable mode. A Safe Haven's visible social and economic impact unites families, stabilizes neighborhoods, and creates vibrant, viable communities.

Everyone is talking about the global Coronavirus pandemic as one of the worse healthcare calamities and threats to humanity and to society since 1918.

Today, the COVID-19 is a major threat to all of our health and our lives, many are also facing significant financial costs to all of us.  One of the biggest lessons we are learning is how all of us are connected as ONE humanity.

In Illinois, the Stay-At-Home order by Governor Pritkzer applies to millions of people that have a place to call home. Yet our homeless population in Chicago is estimated at 86,000 people*, with more than 16,000 homeless students in the Chicago Public School (CPS) system. These people are all at risk of infection by the Coronovirus pandemic. That is why the services we provide at A Safe Haven are more important than ever.

Thankfully, most of us have a place to take refuge and quarantine ourselves to protect against infection and transmission of the Coronavirus. But the homeless by definition are far more likely to remain in public areas or else seek a homeless facility like A Safe Haven for shelter.

Since we began in 1994, A Safe Haven in North Lawndale has grown to serve an average of 5,000 homeless people annually. These people come from all family make-ups, backgrounds and ages, including many veterans. A Safe Haven’s headquarters and associated transitional housing facility houses 400 homeless people and employs a staff of more than 100 people on site on a daily basis. The 140,000-square-foot facility is also where the homeless residents eat, sleep, receive social services, education, and job training, and live in a supportive community, 365/7/24. This model is so successful it is frequently lauded as a national model and complete solution to helping end homelessness across the nation.

During this coronavirus pandemic, the demand on A Safe Haven’s services is enormous as the homeless are clamoring for a place to live to be safe and well nourished. A Safe Haven’s team has rallied and are 100% committed to doing their part. Now we are requesting your help to cope with the urgent and immediate needs to the Covid-19 response in preventing the spread of infection within and outside the homeless population.

Like everyone else, we are in need of significant additional resources to achieve these measures and strengthen our response through concentrated efforts, staffing, and inventory of supplies needed to protect against a severe and fatal outbreak of COVID-19.

We invite you to visit our website at ASafeHaven.org and support our mission by making a contribution today during this national crisis.

*Chicago Coalition for the Homeless

Want to join us in making a difference?  The Childs Dreyfus have joined forces with Safe Haven to bring a little holiday cheer to those in need.With the holiday season fast approaching, it is that time of year again for us to give thanks for the blessed life we have enjoyed and share with those who are less fortunate. Thanks in advance for your contribution to this cause that means so much to us at The Childs Dreyfus Group.

CDG is reaching out with the most heartfelt of intentions for contributions to help battered women and children in need in the Chicagoland area this holiday season. We are running short on gifts we will provide for the children. We kindly ask for a small money donation ($1, $5, $20 ... any contribution helps!)Please help us in making the holiday season warm and jolly for these families in need. This has been an ongoing holiday tradition for the CDG family and we are very excited to continue with double the amount of children as we had last year!
 

The money donated will be used to purchase Christmas gifts for the children who reside in A Safe Haven shelter.