Naperville: A “Stagecoach Stop” to Support Homeless Families

[Naperville, IL, 3/29/21] Headquarters for HEAR US Inc., the unique national nonprofit supporting homeless families and youth, Naperville is like a stagecoach stop for founder and sole employee Diane Nilan. It’s her opportunity to re-stock books, get replacement signs for her van, touch base with board members, and to call attention to her new book and film. 

Her van, dubbed “Tillie the Turtle,” or T2 (now her second vehicle), serves as her home, office and vehicle for cross-country travels which she’s been doing since November 2005. As turtles do, Nilan carries almost everything she owns in her van, her only home. Her travels have taken her to 49 states, chronicling hundreds of stories shared by children, youth and parents experiencing homelessness. 

Nilan, the former founder of the homeless shelter in Joliet (Daybreak, formerly Will County PADS), and director of the PADS shelter at Hesed House in Aurora, created HEAR US to fill what she saw as a tremendous gap—the voices and visibility of homeless families and youth. She has been instrumental in attaining, protecting, and promoting educational rights of homeless students, legislation with its origin in the Fox Valley, since 1993. 

Tillie1, Nilan's first van, bore a sign saying 1.5 million kids
were homeless in the US.

She points to a disturbing fact, depicted on the sign on her van’s back door. “My first sign reflected the estimated number of homeless students—1.5 million in 2007,” Nilan stated. “I just ordered a replacement sign and the number is now 7 million.”

Part of the dramatic increase is due to the work of HEAR US, filming and producing short videos featuring kids and parents sharing their stories of homelessness, including their hopes and dreams. Her films raise awareness of the still largely invisible homeless families and youth who don’t typically stand on street corners asking for help. They bounce around from friend’s couches to motels to parking lots and more. “My all-time favorite is my first film, My Own Four Walls, when I knew nothing about filmmaking.”

Nilan credits Professor Laura Vazquez and her Northern Illinois University students for their production expertise of that film. She and Vazquez then teamed up to film and produce award-winning on the edge: Family Homelessness in America, which screened at the Naperville Film Festival and was shown on PBS stations. They’ve collaborated on other films, but Nilan says her professor-friend-guru has taught her enough to be on her own. 

The pandemic put the brakes on Nilan’s travels for a few months, giving her time to write her memoir, Dismazed and Driven - My Look at Family Homelessness in America, which she hopes Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville will carry. 

HEAR US just released a poignant new film, Capital Failure: Family Homelessness Surging, which Nilan filmed in Raleigh, NC in the first part of 2021. This 12-minute film focuses on homeless families stuck in motels. “Jamie, the mother who shared her story, gave a striking description of what millions of families in similar situations endure,” credits Nilan. “Anyone who watches this eye-opening film will better understand the debilitating nature of family homelessness.”

The virtual world has opened up possibilities for HEAR US presentations. She’s recently presented at a state conference in Minnesota, Columbia University graduate social work students, and to a forum on homeless students at North Carolina State University. This month, Nilan will address audiences in Ft. Worth and Austin, Texas, and will speak to a virtual gathering of state coordinators for homeless education across the country. 

She and a colleague are planning a rare joint tour in September from Texas to California, one which promises to get them in “good trouble” in memory of Congressman John Lewis. 

Information about HEAR US, www.hearus.us. 

                                                        # # #