A 1/3 of U.S. cities ban homeless camps, the nation’s nearly 600,000 homeless are bad for business.

For Teresa Sigerson, a former waitress who has lived under a Chicago expressway bridge for three years, the camp she shares with eight others provides shelter, companionship and some measure of security.
“There’s safety in numbers,” said Sigerson, 51, who begs during the day and sleeps between concrete bridge pillars under a highway northwest of downtown. “Everything’s convenient here – you’re by the stores, the highway.”