A woman from Chicago has performed an incredible act of kindness this week, by paying for the hotel rooms of over 60 homeless people. 34-year-old real-estate developer Candace Payne performed the amazing public service, due to her business partner of many years telling her about his experiences living homeless in the past. Candace, fearful of the freezing weather, decided to take matters into her own hands by finding shelter for vagrants.
To that end she took to Instagram to try to raise money, posting a status in which she wrote: "It don’t take much to be a blessing to someone else! It’s freezing cold and deadly temperatures outside! For the people who has nowhere to go, no money, no food, family disowned them... need help it’s not much but to get them out the cold, feed them, and provide them with warm clean clothes is a start. [sic]"
Candace's spot soon sparked hundreds of donations from the public, which included transportation, food and money from total strangers. In a recent interview with CNN, Candace stated "I had strangers from social media who are now lifelong friends helping me. I have people dropping by daily to help who have seen the story on Instagram. They have volunteered money and time and cars because we had to get them to the hotel.” I also have a real estate brokerage, so some of the agents came out to help. They cooked for the homeless, helping serve them."
She added: "I am a regular person It all sounded like a rich person did this, but I’m just a little black girl from the South Side. I thought it was unattainable, but after seeing this and seeing people from all around the world, that just tells me that it’s not that unattainable. We can all do this together."
Candace contacted hotels and found 30 rooms available at the Amber Inn at a rate of $70 per room. She paid for all of the rooms on a credit card, and also purchased toiletries, food, prenatal vitamins, lotions, deodorants and snacks and made care packages to help make the people feel comfortable, while local restaurants soon pitched in, and donated trays of food and other sundries.
Commenting on Candace's incredible generosity, Salvation Army spokeswoman Jacqueline Rachev stated: "We are thrilled that they are safe and warm. We got people from the police stations, hospitals, outside huddled around fire pits. We drove around looking for them. What inspired me was my current blessings, so I was just trying to give back."
Temperatures in Chicago plummeted to dismal lows of minus 25 and minus 26 during the middle of last week, according to the National Weather Service. Temperatures are expected to stay low over the next few weeks.
