Evanston’s first overnight shelter enters a new era after more than 40 years  

Connections for the Homeless is bringing overnight shelter back to Hilda’s Place, renewing a more than 40-year commitment to providing a safe place for people experiencing homelessness to rest and reset. 

Housed in Lake Street Church, Hilda’s Place will reopen in spring 2027 with 30 overnight shelter beds and the capacity to serve people of all genders and family configurations. The $6.7 million renovation will transform the space and feature 11 new bathrooms, showers, and laundry facilities, in addition to a new elevator and kitchen, making the shelter more accessible and welcoming to unhoused neighbors. 

That history came full circle at a recent groundbreaking ceremony in August, where Danita spoke about her and her husband’s stay at Hilda’s Place in 1989.  

“We were working people. We were raising our family, holding down jobs, and doing everything we could to provide for our children. We weren’t looking for someone to do everything for us. We just needed a little help bridging that final gap,” she said. 

Her story reflects a reality Connections has witnessed for more than four decades: homelessness does not have one face. People experiencing homelessness are workers, parents, children, older adults, and veterans. Sometimes, the difference between homelessness and a stable home is having support when your car breaks down or you’re hit with an unexpected medical bill. 

The overnight shelter at Hilda’s Place closed for safety reasons during the COVID pandemic, but Connections never shut its doors to people in need. The agency continued to use the space as a robust daytime drop-in program that offers a medical clinic, a food pantry, and a clothing closet. That program, which serves over 2,500 people annually, will continue to operate during and after construction. 

As Bogg told the audience at the groundbreaking, “It’s not charity around the edges, but justice at the foundation.” 

Danita

“After more than 40 years in this work, we know this to our core: homelessness is not the result of personal failure. It is the predictable result of systems that do not work for everyone—and systems made by people can be changed by people,” said Betty Bogg, CEO of Connections for the Homeless. “Restoring Hilda’s Place is part of that work. Our neighbors need shelter today, and we will continue fighting to change the systems that make that shelter necessary in the first place.”

The ambitious construction project, which began in August, marks a new era that strengthens Connections’ role both as direct service providers and as affordable housing advocates. Informed by decades of frontline experience, Connections is advancing policy solutions and zoning reforms that address the root causes of the housing crisis locally and statewide. 

The renovation is the result of years of persistence, partnership and public and private investment. U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky helped launch the effort more than three years ago by securing $2 million in federal funding for the Hilda’s Place renovation.  

Founded by advocates who refused to accept homelessness as inevitable, Connections works to end homelessness one system, one policy and one person at a time through direct services and housing advocacy. The Evanston-based agency is one of the largest direct service providers in Northern Cook County. Assisting approximately 5,000 people annually, Connections offers programs that include eviction prevention, housing placements, food pantries, medical care and shelter for transitional youth, adults, and families. Aimed at changing the systems that cause and perpetuate homelessness, Connections’ advocacy works locally and statewide on reforms that expand affordable housing, remove barriers to housing development and access, and strengthen protections for people at risk of homelessness. 

Read more about the changes to our daytime drop-in services, volunteering, and in-kind donation drop off during construction.