Streetwise on Michigan Avenue in Chicago

I stopped for coffee at a restaurant on Michigan Avenue in Chicago a few blocks from the conference I was attending when a couple stopped by under an awning on a sunny day. "You don't love me. That's the message I get," said the woman, who I clearly heard from 20 feet away. He responds in hushed tones that I can't hear.

"We won't be able to work through it today," she added. Just as quickly they disappear before I can take a picture.

A woman in a motorized wheelchair makes an appeal for donations for Streetwise, a magazine helps "homeless and impoverished men and women of Chicago."

"Good morning, good morning, good morning. Streetwise," she rattles off to passersby. "Looking-good, sounding-good Streetwise," she repeats as people walk from the subway station and pass by on their way to work or make deliveries.

I spoke briefly with the woman, who said she had been homeless for six years, but added donations had gotten better recently. She mentioned she gets food assistance occasionally from an area church food pantry.

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