Abstract
Near West Side resident Jim Schlecht recollects his arrival to the Near West Side in the summer of 1972. Schlecht highlights how his faith has shaped who he is today. This interview focuses on Schlecht’s involvement in the Thomas Merton Community along with Cleveland’s Catholic Worker Community. Schlecht recollects his experience working with children and adults with special needs. He later shares how he provided transitional housing while raising a family in the community. Schlecht for many years has been involved in street outreach for Care Alliance and Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH).
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Interviewee
Schlecht, Jim (interviewee)
Interviewer
White, Bali (interviewer)
Project
Near West Side Housing Activism
Date
8-7-2024
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
86 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Jim Schlecht interview, 07 August 2024" (2024). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 544012.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/1339
Transcript
Bali White [00:00:02] Alright. Hi, everybody. I’m Bali White, here with the Cleveland Regional Oral History Project at the Carnegie West Library. It is August 7, 2024. Today I am speaking with Jim Schlecht, first and foremost. How are you?
Jim Schlecht [00:00:17] I’m good, Bali. And yourself?
Bali White [00:00:19] Good, thank you. Thank you.
Jim Schlecht [00:00:20] Good.
Bali White [00:00:21] So, could you introduce yourself kind of when and where you were born?
Jim Schlecht [00:00:26] Sure, Bali. My name is Jim Schlecht. I was born in 1952 in Euclid, Ohio, where I lived there until I was about 20 years old.
Bali White [00:00:38] Awesome. So, could you share with us a little bit about your family background? So this could be in terms of, like, ethnic background, anything else kind of relating to that?
Jim Schlecht [00:00:49] Sure. I really feel I was blessed to grow up in a really loving family. My mom and dad were very devoted to us. I have two brothers. I’m the oldest. You know, Euclid was a very nice place to grow up. I would describe it as a middle class suburb. And I also a big part of our life, which I think was foundational for me, was the fact that both my parents were religious, and that was important to us family wise. Church was a part of our family growing up. My dad especially, and also my mom were involved with the church in the neighborhood. And I really feel like so much of what I’ve ended up entering into has to do with that religious foundation that, you know, that started off as a child and continues to grow to this day and also just nurture into the spirituality that I’m experiencing today.
Bali White [00:02:08] So were both of your parents working?
Jim Schlecht [00:02:10] No, my mom was a stay home mom, which was pretty common at that time. It isn’t anymore. And my dad worked, and I just have to share that. My mom was the primary caretaker of myself and my brothers, and my mother had a heart of gold. And I also attribute a lot of what’s in my heart as a result of how she, just the example she was in her very individual, personal relationship. She never did anything real huge, but just the way she was concerned about people and the way, you know, she put others before her, and that sense of unconditional love that she showed to the family was really, I think, has really touched my heart a great deal.
Bali White [00:03:06] Okay, So you had mentioned you have two brothers. Are you the oldest?
Jim Schlecht [00:03:10] I am the oldest. Right. My brother Bob is five years younger, and my brother John is two and a half years younger than I am.
Bali White [00:03:19] Okay, so you had mentioned that you grew up in Euclid. You mentioned it was middle class. Could you kind of describe, like, what the demographics were of that neighborhood?
Jim Schlecht [00:03:32] I think mostly it was an extremely white neighborhood. Okay. I felt that, well, we lived in two different areas in Euclid. On the first was on Farringdon Avenue until I was eleven years old. And there were a lot of other kids on the street that we had an opportunity to play with and engage with. And then we moved over to Halle Drive off of 255th and Lakeshore until I moved to the Near West side. So. And there was, I felt there was a sense of community there. But I also, what, as I got older and what was one of the motivations of moving to the Near West side was I really felt a need to, to be in a more diverse community. And that, and, you know, it’s, it’s interesting, it’s ironic, because now when I go back to Euclid, it’s a very diverse community right now, you know, which I really enjoy seeing. And that. So that was a really, really positive change that takes place since I lived there.
Bali White [00:04:43] Absolutely. So you had mentioned religion kind of was a big factor in your life growing up. Are you Catholic or-?
Jim Schlecht [00:04:53] Yes, I am. Yeah, I’m still a practicing Catholic. I, more of a Christian, I think, is where I’m at in terms of, you know, trying to follow my faith and the teachings of Jesus is really, really significant in my life. And sometimes I fail that miserably and learned from those experiences. But, yeah, I think that’s been a motivation for me to try to, you know, I grew up listening every Sunday to the Gospels and Jesus’s teachings. And I think I, I think I always share with people. I think two things happen when that happens and more can. But one is you just become kind of numb in that, or the other is it slowly begins to become ingrained in you and you try to make that a part of your life. And I think hopefully that’s what I’ve tried to do with that.
Bali White [00:05:52] So where did you attend school? Were you like, in public school growing up or was it private school?
Jim Schlecht [00:05:59] Or was it a private school, actually for both grade school and high school, Bali. I went to Catholic schools. I went to St. Williams on East 260th off of Lakeshore. And we just lived- We just lived maybe a half a mile away. So we’d come home for lunch and go back and that, and then I went- It was then called St. Joseph High School. It’s now Villa Angela, St. Joe’s and, and that. And then from there, I went to Cleveland State.
Bali White [00:06:29] So what year did you attend? Or when did you start going to Cleveland State? What year?
Jim Schlecht [00:06:36] Well, I went after graduation. My grades weren’t real good, so I went to Lakeland Community College for a year, and after that year is when I transitioned over to Cleveland State, which would have been 1971. And then I graduated in December of, like, ’74.
Bali White [00:06:55] What were you studying?
Jim Schlecht [00:06:56] Sociology.
Bali White [00:06:57] Sociology. So after college, what was the next step?
Jim Schlecht [00:07:05] Well, I think there was a time after my first year, after my first year at Lakeland was a real kind of pivotal time for me because actually, I think I was trying to discern what the next step was, and it involved being of service. And I remember at the end of my first year at Lakeland, I decided to apply to enter into VISTA, Volunteers in Service to America, and was pretty excited about that. And then right before the deadline to apply for Cleveland State, I received a letter from them basically saying, you know, thanks for applying, but you don’t have any skills and you don’t have a degree, so you’re not going to be able- We’re not going to be able to accept you when, if that changes at one time, we’ll be glad to reconsider. And that was real. I was extremely disappointed and frustrated. And out of that, I said, well, I guess what I’ll do is I’ll sign up to go back to Cleveland State. But also, that was a time, too, when I had a friend who was moving to the Near, who had moved to the Near West Side. And so I started to think about that. And also during that time period, a friend of mine, Chuck Ackerman, who had moved to the Near West Side, was really pivotal in kind of bringing certain issues to the forefront with me that I really wasn’t spending much time thinking about. And one of the main issues was the Vietnam War at the time. And he really helped educate me as to what our government was doing there, you know, and also ways of responding to that. And I was reading people like Martin Luther King and Dan and Phil Berrigan. So that’s, you know, that period during my first year at Lakeland and then that summer really, really was a period of change for me. And I think being turned down from VISTA really led to me then considering some other options.
Bali White [00:09:34] When exactly did you come to the Near West Side?
Jim Schlecht [00:09:37] I moved over in June. June of ’72. And the thought was Chuck had moved over. He was living with a friend on Church Street. And he said, well, why don’t you move in for the summer? And, yeah. And I said, well, yeah, I decided to do that. And that was a difficult thing because I was very close to my family. The Near West Side was foreign to them. And at that time, it was a pretty rough neighborhood. So that was, it was painful for them and painful for me to move out. But I decided that I really felt like I needed to do that and also to figure out how I did want to be of service. And certainly that experience really did help me to figure that out. So in June, I moved over there, thinking, well, I’ll spend the summer. Another pivotal thing that happened, I think, as a result of me trying to figure out what I want to do service wise, was I was working for the Cleveland Press at the time as a canvasser. You know, I did that through high school and that, and I thought, well, this. I’ve got to find something a little bit more meaningful. I want to do some kind of service. And I talked to a priest that had been at St. Williams when I was growing up. He was chaplain of Rosemary Center, which was a residential facility, Bali, on Euclid Avenue and East 193rd, for children with special needs, I mean, multiple needs, developmental as well as physical. And he called me shortly after I talked to him and said, you know, there’s a position for an aide there, a part time aide. Would you be interested? And I said, I would be very interested. So I went for an interview and got hired immediately. They needed, most of the staff was female. They needed, there was a few men working there because there were children with muscular dystrophy in that who were confined to a wheelchair, who needed to be transported to the toilet and to bed and all that. So which really kind of was pivotal for me to start, start in that job. And it was one of the most difficult experiences, but it was a wonderful experience of working with the children and developing some relationships with the other staff. And that, so that, you know, that always had a special place in my heart as well. And that’s where I met my then, you know, future wife. We are now divorced. But so that was, at that time, that was a big period of change for me in a positive way.
Bali White [00:12:54] How long were you working there for?
Jim Schlecht [00:12:57] I worked there twice. I worked there for, like, three and a half years. And then I went to a facility, the state was opening up a facility called Warrensville Center for Adults with Special Needs. And I really, as much as I really enjoyed working with children, I really wanted to work with adults. So I went over there after I worked there for a while, I did for a short period, go back to Rosemary Home, and then I transitioned from there.
Bali White [00:13:31] Are both still around today?
Jim Schlecht [00:13:33] Warrensville Center is, Rosemary Home is the facility that at that time, they had one residential facility at 193rd and Euclid that has been sold, that is now a substance abuse residential treatment program. They started group homes, which was really good. I mean, to kind of move away from the institutional setting. They, years ago started doing group homes and that.
Bali White [00:14:03] So kind of backtrack a little bit. So when you kind of first arrived to the Near West Side, could you describe what the overall environment was like?
Jim Schlecht [00:14:14] Sure. I mean, it was, there was certainly, I found the diversity that I was looking for there. You know, there were folks from Appalachia. There was Native American population. There were poor, elderly folks living in the neighborhood. Certainly the gentrification that has occurred since I’ve been in the neighborhood. At the time I moved, there was like two streets that could be, quote, called Ohio City, okay? Jay and Carroll Avenue. So it was really limited to that area. And I always, I continue, I will always refer to the neighborhood as the Near West Side because I think the term Ohio City applies to the gentrification that has occurred. And there is, at one time it was called Ohio City, but these days that I think refers to a certain part of the neighborhood and not the whole neighborhood. And that at that time, there was, there was a lot of, there was a number of SRO [single room occupancy hotels] available to people who are on low income, who could rent a room and go to the meals program that the Thomas Merton community started and get their welfare benefits and marginally survive and stay off the street. And that- So the neighborhood has changed a great deal, a lot, to my dismay, because it’s also, as the gentrification has occurred, it’s also displaced an awful lot of people, and so have, and I have to admit there’s certain institutions that have also played a role in that. Back in the 1980s and ’90s, St. Ignatius was doing a huge expansion that really, I was working at the West Side Catholic Center at the time with some of the families, Bali, who were in the- And that was a stable neighborhood. And now that all that housing stock was gone, I mean, they gave people financial resources to move. But it really, and I was living at that part of the neighborhood at the time, so could really feel that very, very strong. So, you know, there was certainly violence, some violence in the neighborhood, you know, and it was, while it was diverse in some ways, it was segregated in the others because most of the African American population was in CMHA, the projects, and that existed off of Detroit. And that, and it’s, I always felt that, and that was- The road there was awful, it was dangerous, and the city never really fixed that until the high-end apartments were beginning to be built and other people were living there. So there was certainly the racism component, I think, too. So does that answer?
Bali White [00:17:38] Yeah, thank you. So you had mentioned the Thomas Merton community. Could you kind of talk about that, who Thomas Merton was and kind of what your involvement?
Jim Schlecht [00:17:49] Sure. The Thomas Merton community was a group of people, a very diverse group of people, I wanted to add, who for different reasons decided to move to the nearest. Three of the people that were probably the core of that was Judy and Bill Corrigan and Father Bob Begin. They had been living in South Euclid. I think they had been also involved with what was going on with the war and protests and that sort of thing. And they were also, there was a social action group, as far as I know, there that they were a part of. And they were really trying to discern how they could live out the gospel. And they felt that they needed to move to a poor neighborhood. I think they considered a near east side neighborhood, but they felt, too, that they were white. That would be intruding. So they ended up moving to the Near West Side. Judy and Bill had- Well, they ended up having seven children. Bob moved to the Near West Side, and then other people came, I think, at various times. This was in 19- I think they moved in 1969, okay? And that- And so they started to do programs in the neighborhood, not only the neighborhood that they were actually living in. And one of the major programs that continue to exist today was what they referred to as the evening meal program. So that was a free meal program open to anybody in the neighborhood who could come. And like I say, that’s still going on today, not by the Merton community, but by various. Over the years, various church groups have offered to help out. And it’s been an opportunity for them to minister, you know, in a way they really wouldn’t have the opportunity to do so. The name Thomas Merton, and somebody was sharing this with me, I never really understood where that came from. And Judy, Judy told this person, well, she wasn’t sure either that, I mean, Thomas Merton was a very well-known Trappist monk who lived in Gethsemane, went through some transformation experiences in his life, did a lot of writing and a lot of spirituality work through his books and through his letters. And that was very much involved with critiquing the Vietnam War. A major focus on nonviolence and, you know, what it meant to be a Christian and live in a Christian community and that. And, you know, I mean, his, he was just prolific in his writings and people like the Berrigans and other people would go to the Gethsemane, spend time with Thomas Merton, do discernment, reflection, retreats and that sort of thing and that. So certainly a very prophetic voice in the Christian community. And then he died rather suddenly. He was at a retreat in Thailand, I think, with Buddhist monks and was electrocuted. So. But in terms of, you know, why this group picked Thomas Merton, I’m not sure. I mean, I’m certainly had to do with his involvement and his critiquing of the Vietnam War, that’s for sure. But the Thomas Merton community was- There were people who were coming for spiritual reasons, to act, to live out what they felt was living out the Gospel, serving the poor, living in community with the poor. And I think that was the core. But there were also people who were coming from a political or an anarchistic perspective where, you know, they felt they wanted to live in community. There were a number of communes that existed for many, many years from different members of the Thomas Merton community. Then there were people who had families who were living and single people who were living in the neighborhood and, you know, would get together over various issues and that sort of thing, and also get together at some of the communes where, you know, where a number of the people involved with the Thomas Marin community were living. Those communes would do the meal. Back in the day, they started a bail fund project where so poor people could get bailed out of jail. It was a revolving bail fund that was attributed to the Merton community. And then a lot of informally, a lot of the people involved in the community did a lot of anti war resistance stuff, civil disobedience, you know, that sort of thing. So it was a very. It wasn’t a large number of people, you know, probably 40 or 50 people at various times, really, but a very active group.
Bali White [00:23:18] Was there, like a central, like, meeting spot for the Thomas Merton Community?
Jim Schlecht [00:23:23] Yeah, I think actually the house that I live in now was one of this. One of the central places where people would gather. There was 32nd Street Commune. It was referred to by the hippie house then. Okay. And then there was a house at 38th and Clinton, which was another commune where I’d say six or seven Thomas Merton folks lived there in community. I think those were probably the two main ones. Well, I should say the main one was actually Bill and Judy Corrigan’s house. We would gather there regularly socially, but there was always, you know, politics and religion talked about. We would gather. I can remember I would work at Rosemary Home till 8:30 and take the bus back. And then we would gather with, with some beer and some in their kitchen table and just have these wonderful conversations, you know, about a lot of different things. So that that was the central. And people still get bills passed on, but people still gather. Every Thursday, Judy does a lunch where people bring a little, with a potluck and people, you know, not necessarily just the Merton people, but other people gather. So that really was a central place, too.
Bali White [00:24:47] Sure. So you had mentioned the West Side Catholic Center. How did you get involved with that?
Jim Schlecht [00:24:55] Well, previous to the Catholic Center, I was working at the West Side Community House, which was a neighborhood settlement house on the near west side at West 30th. And it was quite a lot of activities, Bali, happened out of that. I worked with the older adult program as the outreach worker, and we did meals and we did a lot of activities and social services. There was also a daycare. There was a program, a youth program that built winterization equipment for elderly folks homes. And that there was a program called Low Income People Together, which was an organizing advocacy group for poor people. So they worked on a lot of issues, like with utility shutoffs and just the welfare department and a lot of different issues in the neighborhood people were facing that were a part of this group as poor people, and the group would take on some of these issues that really impacted the people in the neighborhood. I had worked there for eight years, and then I wanted to, we had had our first child, and I wanted, I had cut back. I wanted to cut back to three days a week so I could share in childcare. And I, and so I had volunteered at the Catholic Center when it first started, and they had no outreach person there. They had a shelter, and they had a staff there, but they really had nobody who could transport people to look for housing and do other things outside of the center. So I talked to Sister Kathleen Kilbane, one of the founders, who was still director at the time, and said, you know, if I could work three days a week and be home, too, I would love to be the outreach worker here. And she really embraced that. And so I worked there for about eight years and that, doing outreach with folks at the drop-in center and then at the shelter.
Bali White [00:27:12] So another layer of this is kind of your involvement with the Cleveland Catholic Worker. So how, and I guess, when did you get involved with the Catholic Worker?
Jim Schlecht [00:27:22] Okay. Going back- Well, Judy Corrigan called me one day and said she had talked to Joe Lehner. And Joe came from Indiana and was a Jesuit volunteer that– I don’t know if you’re familiar with that program, but folks, young people who mostly who have graduated from college who wanted to do a year of service through the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, they would live in community for a year on the Near West Side, and they would be placed at various organizations, such as the Catholic Center, or if they wanted to work with children, it would be a children’s organization. They would try to match people up. And Joe came as a Jesuit volunteer – he graduated from Notre Dame – and started working at the West Side Catholic Center. And Joe talked once he moved here, he talked about wanting to establish a Catholic Worker community. So I see Joe as really the impetus and the founder of the Catholic Worker community. Now, historically, though, back in the forties, there was, there was a family, the Gauchats. They had- They opened up a house of hospitality on Franklin Hill off of West 25th Street. They did hospitality there for many, many years. They had a soup kitchen. So they were really the first. And they did it for many years. They were, to me, the first group of persons to establish a Catholic Worker community in Cleveland. And I’m not sure a lot of people remember them, but what they did, too, they continued in a different format. They actually founded Our Lady of the Wayside, which I think is in Avon still, which was a home for special needs children. And so they went from doing hospitality there to that type of hospitality. And, I mean, that has been in place for all these years, and people are still referring children there. So going back to Joe, I remember Judy Corrigan calling me one day and saying, you know, I talked to Joe Lehner. Joe really would like to start a Catholic Worker community. You know, I suggested that he might want to talk with you. So I said, well, I would love to talk to him about that and some other people. So I remember I had a conversation with Joe, with Bill, with Bill and Judy, and how all of us talked. And January 2 of, I think it was ’84 or ’85, Bali, I can’t remember exactly, but I remember we gathered at Patty’s in my house on Monroe. It was Bill Corrigan, Chuck Ackerman, myself, Joe Lehner. And there was another person there. Her name was. I can’t think of. I can’t believe her last name was hinders. Okay, we. That, to me, was the first informal gathering from then other people, you know, from that meeting, people said, let’s pursue this. So there was. There was a gentleman by the name of Jim McHugh who actually was doing hospitality in his apartment. He had invited in two folks with mental wellness concerns to live with him. He had been doing this for quite a while, and as a result of that, I think people started talking about, could we open up a house where we could invite folks where Jim could bring, he could live in community with these two folks, and we could invite other folks in. I mean, that really provided the focus for trying to find a house where we could do hospitality. So people continued to meet every two weeks for a few, a couple of months at our house. And then people- Actually, there was- There’s a 13-bedroom house behind St. Patrick’s on Whitman where actually it was. The nuns had lived there years ago, so that was vacant at the time. And a group of people – I wasn’t a part of this – but a group of people went to talk to Father Mark DiNardo to say, could we open up a Catholic Worker house at that facility? And he agreed to do it. So shortly after that, people, myself and Patty and our kids didn’t move in, but Joe moved in. Jim with his two guests moved in. Jim Doherty, Jane Schick. There were a few other people who moved into that house to form the core community of the Catholic Worker community. Now, that’s from my perspective, and I know each person who was a part of that would have a perspective to what their experience was, but that was mine. And then people began to gather at that house for meetings. And, I mean, a lot of things transpired out of that for many, many years. They had volunteers stay there, too, who were involved with the community. They opened it up. Many, many folks who suffered from mental illnesses stayed there long term and really provided a family setting for those folks. And it was very challenging and difficult, but it was just, that was, I think, just a wonderful thing for folks to do.
Bali White [00:34:10] Can you recall the year that the Catholic Worker moved from Whitman over to Fulton?
Jim Schlecht [00:34:17] I think- Good question. I think it’s been- My guess has been, like, I’d say, I guess like six years, maybe five or six years they were there. They were- So they probably moved into Whitman around ’85 or ’86. And so they were there a very, very long time, you know, and not everybody, you know, stayed that whole time, but in the community got some other properties, too, so. But that was, yeah, that was certainly the focal point.
Bali White [00:34:55] So what would you consider to be the goals of a Catholic Worker?
Jim Schlecht [00:34:59] I think a number of things. I think Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin talked a lot about personalism, that idea of, again, living out the Gospel and doing it in an individual way, too. Like, for each person to take responsibility for the needs of others, you know, and I think what’s important to understand about that is not only to assist others or to impact others, but how that has a transforming effect on us who enter into relationships in that way. I think, you know, their agriculture was also a part of the Thomas Merton community. Peter Maurin talked a lot about farming communes and bringing people from the city, you know, to work on the farms and that sort of thing. Certainly nonviolence, a Gospel nonviolence of loving your enemy and responding to violence in a loving, compassionate way, forgiving your enemies, doing good where there is evil, responding in that fashion instead of responding with more evil, which just kind of perpetuates evil. Living a voluntary poverty lifestyle, I think, is certainly one of the core values of the Catholic Worker community. And Dorothy would talk about creating a new society out of the old, within the old. And certainly her views on capitalism and that were like, we have to create a more just, caring system. And that begins with individuals taking responsibility for the needs of others, you know. And certainly her faith was, you know, she- While she- She described the church as a whore but as our mother. And I think she was able to work through the inconsistencies that the churches, the institutional church manifests oftentimes, and was able to look at the teachings of Jesus and how that’s got to be as Christians, as Catholics. That has to be the foundation and not the institutional trappings of the church.
Bali White [00:37:47] So kind of switching gears a little bit, you had mentioned. Well, you haven’t mentioned, but prior to this conversation, we talked about Elizabeth House. Could you kind of share your involvement with that, what exactly it was, and kind of how you got involved?
Jim Schlecht [00:38:04] Sure. I’d be glad to. Well, Elizabeth House was- I’m just thinking maybe we should talk about Monroe House first, because I think it came out of that experience, if that’s okay.
Bali White [00:38:25] Yeah, no, totally fine.
Jim Schlecht [00:38:27] You know, when, as a result of me living in a house of hospitality, when I moved to the Near West Side, that was pivotal for me, transforming for me, because it really helped me discern that I wanted to continue to do hospitality where I continue to live and how that would look very differently than the hospitality I did as a partner of a group with the Thomas Merton community on Clinton. But that, that experience just was powerful for me. So I think when Patty and I were talking about getting married and having a family, which was really important, you know, to me and to both of us, how could we incorporate that, you know, in our lifestyle where we would be living and having children? So as we- We got married, and we lived over on Monroe in a double house. And what we wanted to do was, somebody else was living on the other side, we just were renting the one part of it. And what we wanted to do was find a double house in the neighborhood where we could live with our children, and then we could do hospitality for men. In the other part of the house. It would be separate, but we would operate that and that- So we were looking at all these places and how God works, there was a house right behind- There was a double lot where we were living, and right behind us, there was an elderly woman living there, and she could no longer stay there and wanted to sell the house and actually had somebody who was interested in buying it. Right next door to us, where Elizabeth House ended up was an elderly couple who we got to know very, very well, who loved the kids, and we really had a friendly relationship. And it was, also, she had a very good relationship with the woman who was in the process of selling her house behind us. Well, when Elizabeth found out that we wanted to buy a double house, she went and talked to Mrs. Nementh and said, could you hold off selling to that person? Jim and Patty would be interested in buying your house. It was a double. It was perfect for what we wanted to do, same street and everything. So we eventually bought that house. And shortly after that, after we got settled in, there was a three-bedroom upstairs that we started taking home homeless men in. Mostly, I had- I was working as the outreach worker at the West Side Community House, and so I would invite folks that we were working with there to stay in the upstairs. And that went on- We opened that up in 1983, and that continued to 1990 when we moved to West 32nd Street. Now, in 19, in 1980, it was ’85 or ’86, Bali, Elizabeth and Lou, the couple that were staying there, said, you know, we can’t continue to live on our own anymore. We would like to sell you this house for a minimal amount. And we said, well, we’d be very interested. We thought about doing, since we had a house for men, and I was running into women who were in need of housing, who were on the street, so we thought about opening up a house for women. So we went to Near West Housing Corporation and said, could you give us a small loan to buy this house? And, you know, we would make payments, which they did. And at that time, the way the family shelters were set up or shelters for women were that they would the women every two weeks because they didn’t want them to get too comfortable, which to me, made awful sense. So while we couldn’t take children and if the house was way too small, we couldn’t take on that responsibility. We sta
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