Why Homeless Youth Need Lockers

As a homeless college student in the 1980s, Anne Holcomb had zero options for storing important documents like her birth certificate and social security card. She put them in a couple of baggies, dug a hole in the ground behind the abandoned building where she slept, buried them, and hoped for the best.

More than three decades later, Holcomb works with homeless youth in Chicago, and they still lack access to safe storage options. Storing one’s possessions when homeless isn’t a trivial issue. Having a secure place to keep your belongings makes it easier to stay in school or find a job or housing, and can even prevent violence. Day to day, it alleviates stress about feeling that important possessions are in jeopardy of being lost, stolen, discarded, or damaged.