Recently, homeless people across Chicago faced freezing to death if they couldn't find shelter for the night. Thankfully, one local woman refused to let that happen.
In late January of 2021, Chicago experienced some of the coldest temperatures that the city has seen in decades. Sadly, more than 100 homeless people were left outside directly exposed to the deadly environment.
Candice Payne was lucky enough to have a shelter from the dangerous conditions. However, she couldn't stop thinking about the homeless people in the area who had nowhere to go. Payne started brainstorming different ways she could possibly help. At last, she decided to see if there were any rooms available at local hotels that she could purchase for the people on the street.
However
many of the local hotels refused to allow her to pay for the rooms. "No one wanted them, but one hotel, the Amber Inn, that was nice enough to allow me to buy the rooms," Payne told TODAY.
According to Payne, each room cost $70 per night. Without hesitating, she purchased 30 rooms for the night with her credit card. She then reached out to strangers, asking if anyone would like to help out with paying for more rooms. Strangers donated money, which helped Payne pay for a total of 60 rooms for five nights.
Payne's selfless act made news across the country, however, she insisted she never did it for attention. "I am a regular persons," said Payne, who spent thousands of dollars of her own money helping complete strangers. "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 impossible, but after seeing this and seeing people from all around the world, that just tells me it's possible. We can all do this together."
