Housing Forward is working with partners to expand the emergency overnight shelter at St. Catherine – St. Lucy Rectory for individuals experiencing homelessness. But they need the funds to do it.
The expansion will double the number of beds available from 20 to 40. The shelter operates from 7 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. and provides visitors with meals and basic hygiene facilities in addition to sleeping accommodations.
The emergency shelter has been operating since 2023. Housing Forward’s Public Action to Delivery Shelter, where faith-based and community organizations provided overnight shelters on a rotating basis, had to be stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the rectory needs certain enhancements before the expansion can take place, including updating zoning requirements, improving the HVAC system and roof, and ensuring fire safety and Americans with Disabilities Act compliance. That work won’t come cheap.
Vanessa Matheny, the village’s grants manager, said rehabilitating the space for code compliance and fire safety is estimated to cost about $795,000.
Funding
On Tuesday night, the Oak Park village board authorized a grant application to be submitted for Community Development Block Grant – Coronavirus funds in the amount of $637,166. That alone, if approved, won’t be enough to fund the project.
However, Housing Forward also received a commitment of $500,000 from the State of Illinois for the shelter rehabilitation.
If the CDBG – Coronavirus funds are not approved, Housing Forward might be asking the village board to put up money to help expand and improve the shelter. The shelter, located in Oak Park at 38 N. Austin Blvd., ensures individuals experiencing homelessness in this area have a safe space to land, rather than having to potentially travel miles to another, which could easily be at capacity, Matheny pointed out.
The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity allocated $15 million in CDBG – Coronavirus funds to shelter construction in “urban entitlement areas,” for which Oak Park qualifies. This means Oak Park has its own programs and funding.
But this is not the only CDBG – Coronavirus fund application Housing Forward is partnering with the village to apply for. The entities also came together to ask for $2 million from the same fund to rehabilitate The Write Inn, a temporary shelter site for those experiencing homelessness.
Matheny said Housing Forward does have competition with other similar organizations applying for the funds from this pool. The application status should be known in the next few months, she said. Trustees indicated Tuesday, however, that they would likely support funding for the project if needed, although no dollars are requested or approved from the village at the moment.
The other possible financial backing could come from a third round of Supporting Municipalities for Asylum Seeker Services funding. In this third round, Matheny said the funds could be used to support unhoused residents, too. Oak Park had received SMASS grant funding in the past to aid migrants in the village.
Individuals experiencing homelessness
Matheny told the village board Tuesday that 371 individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness were aided by Housing Forward in 2023, a 26% increase from 2022. Of that number, 112 were in Oak Park. So, the need for an emergency overnight shelter here still exists and might even be growing.
Individuals experience homelessness in Oak Park, according to the statistics, might have a low income, they might be a veteran, might be a survivor of domestic violence or could have a disabling condition. But the narrative that individuals experiencing homelessness have issues with drugs, and that’s why they are experiencing homelessness, is one that needs to stop, Trustee Cory Wesley said.
“We really do need to approach the situation with a level of empathy for folks who need the assistance,” he said.
Of the 112 unsheltered individuals Housing Forward worked with in Oak Park in 2023, at least 95 had an area median income of 30% or less. That would be anything up to $26,000 of yearly income, said Lynda Schueler, Housing Forward’s chief executive officer.
Opening up space in the emergency shelter by moving individuals through interim housing and on to permanent supportive housing needs to happen, too, Schueler told the board Tuesday. But to do that, Housing Forward and the unhoused residents it serves need access to more housing.
The answer to homelessness isn’t just more emergency shelter, Trustee Brian Straw said. That’s just the first step in a process
“It’s important that we keep that pipeline moving as we want to create a pathway from homelessness to independence,” Straw said.
The village process
Wesley also asked to streamline the process for projects like this as much as possible, potentially by waiving some village fees or having permit applications skip commission reviews and come directly to the board to approve.
“We’re trying to get people off the street,” Wesley said. “If we’re going to vote on it anyway, I’d rather us just vote on it and not have to go through three, four layers of bureaucracy.”
It might not always be possible to skip those steps, however, Village President Vicki Scaman pointed out. But certain projects can be prioritized when directed, she said.
Wesley also motioned to have a study session on another way to help Housing Forward connect with individuals experiencing homelessness – by requiring landlords to attach resources available in the village to eviction notices. Straw seconded.
There’s more work to be done.
“We are not in the business of managing homelessness,” Schueler said. “Our vision is to end it. And you can only do that by having housing at the end, or to prevent it at the outset.”