Deborah's Place

09/04/2026

🔥 Stay cool, Chicago! 🔥

DFSS’s Cooling Centers will be open TODAY, Friday, September 4, during standard operating hours.

📌 For a full list of citywide cooling center locations, visit 🔗 chi.gov/cooling
📌 For shelter placement, to find the nearest cooling center, and for well-being checks for seniors and unhoused neighbors, please contact 3-1-1.
📌 During hours of operation, residents can also find relief at Chicago Public Library locations, City Colleges of Chicago main campus locations and Chicago Park District fieldhouses located throughout the city.
📌 Also, the Chicago Police Department 's 22 district stations are available 24 hours for relief from the heat, and to be connected with a shelter.

For more information on how to stay cool in warm weather, a list of all DFSS cooling centers and other resources, please visit DFSS’s cooling centers page 🔗 chi.gov/dfssextremeweather

09/02/2026

Welcome to the Deborah's Place Board of Directors, Lisa Gunderson! As a Certified Chief of Staff, she brings experience in leadership and governance to her work on our Board, and a leadership approach that pairs authority with empathy, creating environments where people feel respected, connected, and empowered to contribute. Outside of work, she's a mom of two and enjoys traveling, exploring coffee shops, gardening, and finding simple ways to bring people together. We're thrilled to have her on our Board!

09/01/2026

Help us out?
We need to restock our shelves of hygiene and cleaning supplies. Swipe to see the complete list ➡️
When a woman moves into Deborah's Place, she usually comes with nothing more than what she can carry. A few bags of clothes, documents, some treasured items. After a long time (often years) of living transiently, Deborah's Place offers stability: an apartment with a closet, with a bathroom, with a kitchen.
Laundry detergent, paper products, and more help her make that transition with confidence and dignity. All donated items must be full-size and new. Learn about how to donate, including drop-off instructions, here: https://www.deborahsplace.org/donate-2/in-kind-donations-2/

08/31/2026

It's amazing how quickly the unimaginable becomes mundane. While Katie was housed, she could never have imagined sleeping outside. But when she lost her apartment, it was only a matter of time before her tent on Lower Wacker was completely normal, complete with familiar faces and her own routine. It was hard too, of course—loud, vulnerable to the weather and to strangers—but it was the best option she had at the time, and so she took it.
It took six months from the time she got on the waitlist until she was home at the Conservatory Apartments, but she says the wait was worth it. "Here, it's a community. We take care of each other." With the support of her newfound community and Deborah's Place staff, she's making progress to return to her work in home care, which she feels passionately about. Employment and self-sufficiency are within reach for the first time in many years.
Housing isn't the end of the journey. It's the beginning, the foundation that makes everything else possible. A whole world opens up when you find a baseline of stability.
Hundreds of women at Deborah's Place are housed and healing. Hundreds more have already moved on to more independence and the next chapter of their journey. Katie's healing, and her bright future, are possible because people like you give to Deborah's Place.

08/31/2026

08/28/2026

Please join us in welcoming Sheryl Markov to the Deborah's Place Board of Directors! We're so grateful to benefit from her expertise and experience as Head of Demand Generation and Performance Marketing at Northern Trust. She's passionate about applying her professional experience to mission-driven work and is committed to advancing our impact for women experiencing homelessness in Chicago. Welcome to the Board, Sheryl!

08/27/2026

08/25/2026

Here's what they don't tell you about the impact of potentially losing Housing First programs like Deborah's Place—the impact on the WHOLE COMMUNITY.
CEO Kathy Booton Wilson sums it up perfectly ⬇️
We're confident that Deborah's Place programs will be able to continue our evidence-based work in the coming years, but every unit of housing lost sets the whole community back in this ongoing struggle. Stand up for housing! Stand up for your community!

"They [the federal government] are shifting from a focus on long-term solutions to shorter-term approaches that give arbitrary time limits for people who maybe have some significant barriers—like mental health issues, like they're struggling with addiction, physical health issues, chronic conditions—all of those things that many of us struggle with. But it's certainly a lot harder to deal with those things when you're living on the streets."

Thank you to George Blaise and 26 North Halsted for taking the time to spotlight Deborah's Place!

08/21/2026

Deborah's Place will be featured on the 26 North Halsted program on WCIU tomorrow morning at 8am! Find where to watch: https://www.wciu.com/schedule/2026-08-22

Send a message to learn more

08/21/2026

All the best things happen in community. At Deborah's Place, that community consists of our participants, staff, Board members, volunteers, donors, neighbors, and more. We come together with a shared goal: to provide housing and hope for women who've survived homelessness. We know that we're stronger together—that together, we can achieve amazing things.
We want you as part of this community. Find all the ways you can get involved at deborahsplace.org.