Elgin warming center gets some use

You can't lie down there and you certainly can't sleep. But the four chair clusters in the Elgin police station lobby are sufficient for many of the city's homeless, who say this year's winter has been the roughest in recent memory.

"We'll walk a little bit, stop and warm up, walk a little bit and stop and warm up," said Robert Poile, a pool installer who says he's been homeless for about two years. "If they let us stay, they let us stay. With this weather they'll let you."

Poile and Jim Prow were two men who dropped by the lobby Thursday morning before heading downtown to look for a side job, like shoveling.

"That's very seldom because people can't afford it," added Prow, a former transmission repair specialist before becoming homeless about a year and half ago.

They planned to spend the night - which was forecast to be the coldest in years - at a friend's house.

Michael Lee Hargrove, a former intravenous drug user who has been homeless for four years, also stopped by the police station.

He said he likely would find shelter, too. But it hasn't stopped Hargrove, who was wearing a thick snowsuit, from sleeping under the stars in winter before.

"I've actually slept on the snow before," he said. "We get driven out of every place we go."