Facing the freeze, homeless men get a Christmas gift: hotel rooms and movie night

A small group of men, used to staying on the city’s streets, found refuge in downtown hotels on Thursday and Friday when a life-threatening winter storm descended on Chicago, thanks to an altruistic South Side resident.

Most nights, the men stay in tents beneath the Dan Ryan Expressway in Pilsen, but the subzero cold that hit the city this week was too much.

“Even with the survival skills we know, when it gets down there like this, it can still be dangerous,” Henry Thomas, 51, said.

Instead, the Pilsen eight were lent a hand by Aleta Clark, who put them up hotels for the two nights and along the way, took them to the movies.

Clark, a South Sider who runs a cleaning company, stopped by the camp just as they were hunkering down for the storm Thursday, Thomas said.

The men said she has been visiting for years, bringing hot food and occasionally putting them up in hotels.

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times

She brought them to one hotel near Grant Park and then another in the Loop on Friday. The total for the two nights was around $3,000, which Clark paid for herself and with the help of some donations by others.

Between stays, she also brought the group to see a showing of “Black Panther,” spending around $250 on concessions.

“We got us a bunch of junk food and sat there and watched a great movie,” Thomas said.

The cinematic sojourn was also a chance to remind the men of human warmth as they avoided the cold outside, Clark said.

“I’m trying to give them experiences that remind them that they are humans, so one day they will learn to treat themselves better,” she said.

Michael Haerd was moved to tears at the screening and again, Friday, just thinking about it.

“It gave me great memories of going to the movies when I was young,” he said.

For the group, the hotel rooms and movie night was a sort of Christmas miracle.

“We’re not where we want to be,” said Haerd, 61, “but we’re not down and out thanks to her.”

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times

Michael Loria is a staff reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South Side and West Side.