Since graduating from NSPIRE in July, Shirley now has her own apartment, recently bought herself a car and is starting her own cleaning company, where she is employing other NSPIRE clients to clean houses with her.

Last year, Lawanda — a 23-year-old woman six months pregnant — and her partner, Char, sought assistance through NSPIRE.

“They had literally been living in a hole in a ditch near a construction site downtown, and they needed a place to live,” Rhein said.

Both individuals had drug and criminal histories, but needed somewhere to raise their infant. After NSPIRE sorted out their legal situations, the woman gave birth to a healthy, 8-pound baby girl. Rhein attended the birth at the hospital, where she coached the woman during labor.

Nine months into the program, the couple reunited with their families. They are now working and living with Lawanda’s sister in Alabama.

Rhein primarily deals with NSPIRE finances and operations, but she said working with people who have lived on the streets gives her a different prospective on life.

“It can be very humbling,” she said. “You take nothing for granted after you work with this kind of a population.”

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The true impact of Rhein’s work expands beyond the confines of her office. Besides meeting with clients and donors, she visits homeless outreach programs once a month where she serves meals and encourages the homeless to join her program.

Now 40, Rhein has worked in nonprofits her whole life. After graduating from the University with degrees in Women’s Studies and Communications Studies, she moved to Chicago and worked with the Chicago Christian Industrial League — the largest homeless outreach program in the Midwest at that time.

The CCIL provides short- and long-term shelter for the homeless men, women and children in the Chicago area. It was her first job out of college, and Rhein worked as a donor services person, writing thank you notes and tracking financial contributions. Although she was doing behind-the-scenes work, Rhein said the job gave her the opportunity to see how a nonprofit functions.

As it was her first experience working with the homeless, she said the job gave her a different perspective of people living on the streets.

“It was a great eye-opener because some people have this picture of what a homeless person is in their head, and as I’ve seen now as well, they’re people that have really fallen on hard times and for a variety of reasons just can’t keep an apartment or haven’t been able to secure a job,” she said.

Rhein explained that it’s almost impossible for homeless people to get jobs or apartments because they don’t have a permanent address.

Because of the bad economy, Rhein said she has seen more homeless individuals and families than ever before. She said many people — mostly the unemployed — who can’t provide for their families have had their homes foreclosed on or have been evicted from their apartments because they cannot afford the rent.

Rhein said she’s frustrated that there’s not more she can do, but said it’s more frustrating from a recipient’s perspective to know you cannot take care of yourself or your family.

“I can’t imagine how that must feel to know you’re educated, you’ve had a job, you’ve done everything right and you still can’t manage to find a way to feed yourself or feed your family,” she said.

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After 10 years of life on the streets, in the winter of 2007, Bonhart said he decided to make a change in his life. He started attending church, where he could escape his life of drugs, thefts and shootings.

“Even when I was geekin’ — it might have been a good Friday night, I might have my two, three grams of crack in my pocket, $40 to $50 — I would go to church,” Bonhart said.