John Donahue, executive director of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH), died Nov. 17, 2003. Donahue – known to his many friends as Juancho – was hospitalized at Illinois Masonic Medical Center after recently being diagnosed with lung cancer.
Juancho, 64, was the CCH executive director since 1990. During his more than 40 years of work in Chicago and Central America, his intelligence, warmth and energy enabled him to mobilize people for change. Under his leadership, the Coalition’s work focused on finding ways to prevent and end homelessness, pushing for workable solutions that create more affordable housing and living wage jobs.
Prior to joining CCH, Juancho worked for three years in Panama as project director for Agro Bia Mundi Yala, where he organized indigenous tribes to protect their habitat and crops in the Panamanian rainforest. From 1982 to 1987, Juancho founded and held the executive director position at Comité Latino. There he advocated for jobs, housing and fair immigration policies among families and religious groups in Chicago’s Uptown and Rogers Park communities. Before this, Juancho was a division director at the Association House of Chicago, overseeing youth employment and employment training programs.
A former Catholic priest, Juancho was vicar of the Archdiocese of Panama from 1971 to 1979. In those years he lived in a squatters’ community, San Miguelito, near Panama City. He organized and developed a national preschool project, a credit union, a housing project and various cooperatives.
Before going to Panama, Juancho also worked as a priest, administrator and teacher at Chicago’s Visitation High School. He held a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a master’s in divinity from St. Mary of the Lake University in Mundelein. A graduate of Quigley Preparatory Seminary, he was born John “Jack” Donahue on July 16, 1939, the son of a Chicago firefighter.
Juancho is profiled in Studs Terkel’s new oral history, Hope Dies Last: Keeping the Faith in Troubled Times (October 2003). His many honors include the first Daniel Berrigan Peace Award from DePaul University, True Patriot of the Year award from The Coalition for New Priorities, and a 2003 human rights award from Casa Guatemala.
Juancho held volunteer leadership posts at the National Coalition for the Homeless, the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support, Jobs with Justice, the Foundation for Self-Sufficiency in Central America, Service for Popular Education in Latin America, and the Chicago Grassroots Collaborative.
His presence and commitment will be missed deeply by all.
”Some people who are better off have the luxury of losing hope. But poor people never lose hope. They can’t afford to. That’s the only thing they can hold on to, and that’s where hope springs eternal. Some people say, ‘How can you continue to work with the homeless and the poor?’ That’s where I get my energy because they never lose hope…”
“I’m not practicing as a priest, but my ministry, remember, is organizing. My job is organizing hope. There are people in the community who still have hope. That’s the last thing they lose. I’m organizing hope for change.”
John Donahue, from Studs Terkel’s “Hope Dies Last”
