Ground broken for new Sarah's Circle homeless women's apartment building in Uptown

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Bulldozers broke ground on a third Sarah's Circle building in Uptown, an organization that has been serving single homeless women since the late 1970s.

Hassanna Hall, 30, said Sarah's Circle gave her a second chance when no one else would

"Sarah's Circle has helped me be more stable, I'm more confident, I don't lash out so much, I really have a good support system," she said.

According to Sarah's Circle, 305 of the homeless population are single women, and on any given night there are 2,000 of them in Chicago

"Women who are overlooked are the ones who are single," said heather Lyn McGuire, Sarah's Circle resident.

The organization provides a 50-bed shelter, but its main goal is to get permanent housing for single women. With the addition of this third building, Sarah's Circle will provide more than 100 permanent apartments.

"We provide a whole continuum of services with the goal of ending homelessness," said executive director Kathy Rangar.

The new building is being financed with a combination of city, state and private funds. Some of the city money comes from a fee the developer of a big project next to Weiss Hospital paid in lieu of building affordable units. That is the same development some unhoused people were trying to stop from being built.

"Affordable rental ordinance funds went into city and that was earmarked for Sarah's Circle," Ragnar said.

Brooklyn Silas spent her childhood in foster care and was 21 years old and homeless when she got help from Sarah's Circle. No 24, she lives in one of the organization's permanent apartments.

"It's more than just housing, it's a story with victory at the end of it," she said.

The goal is to open the new building in fall 2024. Because there is such a need to help single homeless women, the hope is to build more buildings like this in the future.