Editorial: Restoring van pickup for homeless shows heart

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Updated: December 4, 2011 11:05AM

It’s good to know that we still have some heart in Chicago (along with some good political instincts).

We’re referring to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s decision Wednesday to move to partially restore middle-of-the-night van service to homeless shelters for desperate Chicagoans. The scaled-back van service would operate from midnight to 8 a.m. from mid-November until spring at a cost of $200,000. He wants a City Council vote on restoring the limited service later this month.

The city eliminated the van service on Sept. 1 after losing $2.3 million in state funding. The city also cut administrative positions and shaved $600,000 off grants for 18 shelters. The van service took the biggest hit because, compared with the shelters, it served the fewest people, roughly 20 requests a night.

Faced with that Sophie’s choice, the city did the right thing. But it was indeed a choice between two profoundly untenable options. The shelter funding cut triggered a loss of beds and reduced services. The loss of the vans means homeless families, weighed down with diapers and crying babies, have to track down a bus to the nearest shelter, all at 1 a.m. The city must keep looking for ways to fully restore those vital services.

We’ve learned that the van ser­vice had flaws and should be better run. Despite that, it’s the only option deep in the night. It is the kind of program that shows we Chicagoans haven’t lost our humanity.