some of the coldest temperatures in US history,

making the city of Chicago colder than Antarctica.

Our next guest used money out of her own pocket

to buy hotel rooms for more than 100 homeless people

in her community.

She did it with no expectation of anything in return.

And that is the type of person I want to meet.

From Chicago, Illinois, please welcome Candice Payne.

[APPLAUSE]

[MUSIC - BEYONCE - "HALO"]

You're everything I need more.

It's written all over your face.

Baby, I can feel your halo.

I know you won't fade away!

I can see--

Hi!

Hi.

So nice to meet you.

Candice, you're just amazing, you're awesome.

OK, you live in Chicago.

And how cold was it, actually, when you started this idea?

On Tuesday, it was negative 20, already.

And Wednesday, we were looking at negative 50.

So freezing.

Wow.

So you planned on staying in.

And then what happened?

What changed your mind?

Because this is just brilliant, what you did.

So I called my office and told my assistants, look,

don't come in tomorrow.

It's going to be too cold.

Because I'm not coming in.

And this is just going to be a regular workday in the house.

I get to watch TV.

And then I started thinking, what about the people

who live outside, who don't have a home to go to?

And it was a no-brainer.

I picked up the phone.

In my mind, I'm like, OK, I can go and charge 20 hotel rooms

on my American Express.

And as I get to calling around, no one wanted them.

It wasn't good for business.

And--

None of the hotels wanted homeless people.

They were not-- no.

Yep.

No.

One motel actually, when I called--

it's the Amber Inn--

the manager picked up and said, absolutely, whatever you need,

whatever you want.

The Amber Inn Motel.

Good for you, Amber Inn Motel.

[APPLAUSE]

All right, so how many rooms did they have?

I asked her how many she had available.

And I think--

I don't remember the number that she had.

But I know I secured 30 of them.

And then, as I get off the phone with her, I'm thinking,

like, OK, now, how do I get these people to this room?

I got one truck.

So I went to social media.

And I posted, hey, I just secured 30 rooms, 30 hotel

rooms for the homeless.

And I'll pay you if you have a truck or a van

to come help me transport them.

That post went viral.

It was absolutely amazing.

That's amazing.

OK, so now, it seems like you needed more rooms.

So then what happened?

Yeah.

So with that particular post, it also

got people to coming in, pitching in,

helping to purchase rooms.

So initially, I started off with 30 rooms.

And it was only going to be one night.

By the time that we looked up, we

were able to secure five nights and 72 rooms.

We helped over 122, it was 122 people.

[APPLAUSE]

And describe some of the people that were homeless.

You said there was a pregnant woman, or pregnant women.

Oh, yeah.

We had all type of people.

We had pregnant women.

We had children.

We had disabled people.

We had people who just got out of the hospital

from having surgery and, was just going

to try and live on the street, and was really overwhelming.

You know, we've got to do something

about the problem of the homeless.

Because I know you have a relationship,

that your boyfriend was.

Is that right?

Yeah.

Homeless.

He was homeless.

And the misconception about homeless people

is they think that they're lazy, or they just don't want a job.

And truth be told, a lot of people

are one paycheck away from their same situation.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, I think, now, more than ever, with the weather the way

it is, all the disasters, people losing their homes in fires,

there's a lot of reasons-- like you said,

they're one paycheck away.

So we have to do something about this homeless situation

and help them.

And the fact that you did this is--

just out of the kindness of your heart.

And I know that you went to Walmart for a lot of supplies

to help them out.

Walmart heard about this.

And they want to give you a check for $25,000

to thank you for [INAUDIBLE]

[APPLAUSE]

Oh, my god.

More Candice after this.

We'll be back.

OK, what is next for you?

Now, what are you going to do?

So two years ago, I started a not-for profit.

It's called to Action for Calls.

I didn't do anything with it.

Because I didn't know what I wanted to do.

Feeding homeless or buying hotels,

I can do that out of pocket.

I didn't know what I was doing with it.

I've now found my new purpose.

And I'm in real estate.

So I can use my passion for real estate

to help house the homeless.

So I'm buying multi-units, and I'm rehabbing them.

I'm buying distressed multi-units, rehabbing them.

And I'm going to give--

I'm going to house homeless.

And hopefully, others will jump on the bandwagon and help.

I bet they will.

I mean, it's a great idea.

And especially being in real estate,

you know what's available.

And you can get things for a good price, and rehab them.

And, well, I decided during the break, I made a phone call.

And I called Walmart.

And I asked them to give you another $25,000.

So I--

[APPLAUSE]

Oh, my god!

I know!

You're already up [INAUDIBLE].

Oh, my god!

Thank you so much!

Thank you so much!

Help out Candice Payne.

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