The Night Ministry, a nonprofit group that helps the homeless and those in poverty, will be opening the 15-bed shelter at Lakeview Lutheran Church, located at 835 W. Addison St.

Megan Groves, The Night Ministry’s communications coordinator, said the shelter will be open from January through April and is being funded by a grant from the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services.

Groves said the overnight shelter will serve dinner when it opens at 9 p.m. She said breakfast will be served in the morning and bag lunches will be provided. Youth must leave in the morning, but Groves said there’s no limit on the number of nights a youth can stay.

The Night Ministry lists the number of homeless youths in the city of Chicago at 10,000, but measuring the exact number is difficult, said Sarah Sumadi, director of communications at the Center on Halsted. She said if someone is sleeping under the CTA, that’s homeless, but if they have friends letting them crash on their couch, it’s a different situation.

“We usually call them at-risk of becoming homeless. They may not consider themselves homeless. There’s definitely a stigma around that,” said Sumadi.

Jennifer Ritter, executive director of nonprofit advocacy group Lakeview Action Coalition (LAC), said the shelter is for 18- to 24-year-olds. She said it’s the first time the city is opening a youth shelter specifically for that age group.

“It’s very exciting,” said Ritter.

Beth Cunningham, a staff attorney at Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, said the Coalition, The Night Ministry and LAC introduced homeless youth to Mayor Daley last January at an art show and asked him for help. The mayor then had other city officials develop a plan to create additional shelter beds.

Current housing options for homeless youth in Lakeview are limited and dangerous. Ritter said many of them “couch-surf” at their friends’ houses. Ritter said kids will also go to the police station, where a van will pick them up and take them to Pacific Garden Mission, a West Side homeless shelter located at 1458 S. Canal St.

“It is a brutal place,” said Ritter.

Ritter said robberies occur at Pacific Garden Mission and it’s hard for youths to keep their bodies safe. She said kids get sent there just because there’s space.

Sumadi said living situations intensify over the winter.

“My inkling, and I don’t know there are statistics to support this, is that sex work goes up because the situation is really dire. Anything they can do to get a roof over their heads, they’ll do,” said Sumadi.

Sumadi said the Center, located at 3656 N. Halsted St., doesn’t have beds but does have a breakfast club Monday-Thursday, from 8 to 11 a.m. Sumadi said hot meals are provided and a case manager helps the kids get medical services.

Homeless youth in Lakeview also go to the Dunkin’ Donuts at 3200 N. Clark St. to escape the cold. Store manager Carla Vasconez said the owner doesn’t want homeless youth in the store, but she lets them stay 15 minutes when it gets cold outside. Vasconez said she lets them stay longer if they buy something and don’t disturb other customers. She said some youths start fights in the Dunkin ‘N Donuts, and chairs have been thrown.

“I don’t know what they’re on,” said Vasconez.

Vasconez said police have been called a few times, and they want her to fill out restraining orders against the chair throwers.

“I don’t have time to do that,” she said.

The center, located at 3656 N. Halsted St., will host four speed dating soirees throughout April and June 2010. Two of the four get-togethers will focus on lesbians while the other two are geared toward men.

The programs cost $10 in advance and $12 at the door. The second women’s event is scheduled to take place June 17 — the first was held April 8 — and men will have an opportunity to speed date on April 29 and June 10. All four will begin at 6:45 p.m. and end at 8:45 p.m. Proceeds will go toward general funding and programming for the Center on Halsted.

“We like doing the speed dating events because a lot of people [who come] don’t want to try to meet people through the bar or club scene,” said Christine Forster, intern for transgender and women’s programming at the Center on Halsted and a senior at Loyola University. “It’s a nice alternative for people who are a little more shy, who aren’t into heavy drinking and who aren’t into that sort of scene.”

Many people think it’s easier for heterosexual men and women to find dates than it is for homosexual men and women. Even though society has come a long way since the days of Anita Bryant and the unforgettable Christian-based slogan, “God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve,” many cultures still don’t accept same-sex relationships.

“I definitely think dating is 10 times easier for heterosexual men and women,” said Donté Rogers, 21, a resident of the Greektown neighborhood. “I feel like our history and our traditions have been shaped around a heterosexual view. There’s more straight bars than there are gay bars, there’s more areas where you’re going to have heterosexuals living in because there aren’t necessarily that many gay communities. It’s based around the way our society’s governed.”

Since blind dates can sometimes be a potential formula for disaster and online dating services attempt to create chemistry based on profile pictures, regular, old-fashioned dating seems like a thing of the past.

“I absolutely think homosexual men resort to online dating much more than heterosexual men,” said Alex Johnson, 22, of Old Town. “It’s harder to ascertain a man’s sexual preference, and it’s more dangerous to go up to a man in public.”

Santay Powell, 24, of downtown Chicago, on the other hand, feels that “heterosexual women prefer online dating more over lesbian women because most women don’t like to make the first move.

“If no one is making moves on them, going online gives them more opportunities,” Powell said.

Supporters say that speed dating serves as a fun and social alternative that takes men and women out of uncomfortable situations and encourages them to meet a large number of people. Instead of going on one long date with one person, participants go on a number of quick mini-dates.

“It offers a low pressure, low awkwardness moment to just meet people,” Forster said. “It’s quick, it’s fun, and there aren’t many queer-identified spaces that aren’t bars or clubs where people feel very comfortable going to.”

Forster also said that it’s quieter at the Center on Halsted than it is in bars, allowing speed daters the chance to really talk to one another.

The Center on Halsted has not yet conducted a bisexual speed dating event, but Forster said it is something she might consider. “There’s no point in having gay men and lesbians in the same room together because then it would be like straight speed dating,” she said. “Men expect to meet men and women expect to meet women.”

“I don’t think I would go to a bisexual speed dating get-together,” Johnson said. “It might be fun if I was looking for maybe some new female friends, but if I’m serious about it and I actually do go looking for a date, I’m going to want to be surrounded by gorgeous men, not women.”

The meaning of the word “date” has changed drastically in recent years; people nowadays can be described as a “friend with benefits” or even a “cuddle buddy.” Countless online dating Web sites are misconstrued and used for hook-ups and random sex, and some are precautious or suspicious that a speed dating rendezvous would offer the same.

“No matter what, your hormones are there,” Rogers said. “Some people are better at hiding them, but others are like,‘I need it,’ and if there is a quick way to meet somebody else who feels the same way, then why not? It’s really a personal thing and it can go either way.”

According to Forster, past events have had very high satisfaction rates for both the men and women, and there hasn’t been a situation where things have gotten too risqué.

“I’ve never actually been to one, because I’ve already got someone,” Powell said. “It would be interesting to mingle, get to know new people and see what happens. I might have to go see what they’re all about.”