In a two-part vote, a split Oak Park village board of trustees approved separate agreements to provide a new shelter space at St. Edmund School for asylum seekers.
The new shelter will be operational from Feb. 26 until June 30, according to the village. Migrants staying at the West Cook YMCA and The Carleton of Oak Park Hotel will be able to transition to St. Edmund between Feb. 26 and Feb. 29.
The school, located at 200 S. Oak Park Ave., has most recently been the site of the Catholic Parishes of Oak Park’s Migrant Ministry. The ministry has been providing clothes, snacks and other necessities.
As part of the $1.9 million Supporting Municipalities for Asylum Seeker Services grant, roughly $1.24 million has been allocated for operating this temporary shelter. The village board’s special meeting Feb. 15 was held to determine an operating and a lease agreement to facilitate shelter at St. Edmund.
The operating agreement is with West Side Service Connector, doing business as the Oak Park Family Transitional Shelter, which will manage the $1.24 million. The West Side Service Connector is an Illinois nonprofit organization that operates the new OPFTS. According to the village, OPFTS submitted a proposal in November to operate a temporary shelter at St. Edmund.
OPFTS will manage day-to-day operations of the shelter, according to the village. The $1.24 million will fund personnel, food, supplies, security, translation, travel and telecommunications, according to the village.
A bulk of the budget, $440,000, will be spent on food, according to the OPFTS proposal. The next highest categories are contractual services such as translation and security, personnel at $194,240, and shelter supplies.
“The shelter will foster a supportive environment where residents are encouraged to take ownership of their journey towards stability, and will hold residents accountable for their path to permanent housing and employment,” OPFTS said in its proposal.
It’s unclear whether the shelter would operate beyond June 30, said Jack Crowe, executive director of OPFTS. If all the migrants are able to move out early, the shelter will close. Crowe said the OPFTS will work with the Oak Park Resettlement Task Force, an organization supported by the Community of Congregations that’s working to find the asylum-seekers stable housing.
“We will be an abject failure if in June there are still 100 people there,” he said.
St. Edmund was selected as a shelter because of its ability to house between 80 and 120 individuals. Rev. Carl Morello has said the ministry would need to acquire bedding arrangements and a way to provide showers to host the asylum seekers.
According to the OPFTS proposal, classrooms at St. Edmund will be fitted with cots or sleeping mats. A shower truck will be provided at the back of the school, and residents will be given hygiene products, according to the proposal.
The OPFTS proposal also includes requirements residents must follow to stay there. For example, they must sign in and out between the hours of 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. Residents also must attend shelter English language classes for at least five hours a week, in addition to other rules.
The board approved the operating agreement in a 4-3 vote, with trustees Lucia Robinson, Cory Wesley and Ravi Parakkat voting against it.
The lease agreement for the shelter is with the Catholic Bishop of Chicago, a nonprofit arm of the Archdiocese of Chicago. The $1.24 million will also cover the CBC’s self-insured property insurance premium and utilities, according to the village. The village will not have to pay the CBC for the shelter space, excluding the monthly insurance premium.
Robinson, Wesley and Parakkat voted against the lease agreement, but it still passed in a 4-3 vote.
At the Feb. 15 meeting, the village board also approved, in the same 4-3 vote, an amendment to the SMASS grant application, asking for an additional $126,750. If approved, that brings the $1.9 million grant to roughly $2.07 million.
The additional funds would allow the village to hire and train three full-time temporary employees to oversee shelter operations, according to the village. Human Resources Director Kira Tchang said the three employees would allow for a 24-hour presence.
Funds from the SMASS grant are restricted to meeting asylum-seeker needs and can only be spent through June 30.
“This seems to be a both/and response, not an either/or response,” trustee Brian Straw said.