Susan Buchanan, an Oak Park village trustee, is right. As Oak Park’s government and the Housing Forward nonprofit continue talking about how best to move the unhoused from local streets into at least temporary shelter and also how to fund that effort, Buchanan said at a recent board meeting, “The goal is to actually get shelter for unhoused people.”
That was in response to Trustee Ravi Parakkat’s concern that the continued presence of unhoused people along the Metra tracks in downtown Oak Park is disconcerting to some and might hamper investment in the community. Parakkat’s comments were wrapped in his expressed desire to find holistic solutions that are also affordable for Oak Park.
As cold weather and the holidays arrive, Housing Forward’s Lynda Schueler has asked the village to consider spending some $800,000 to pay for expansion of two programs that might help move people off the streets. One program would double to four the number of outreach staff the agency directs to Oak Park to make direct connections with unhoused individuals as a necessary step to finding shelter. The other investment, she said, would speed the move of people from temporary shelter — think the old PADS model of overnight cots and meals — into interim housing solutions, and those in interim housing into permanent housing. This is currently the bottleneck in the system.
Schueler acknowledges these are not foolproof solutions but are critical investments. While the proposal has supporters on the board — Buchanan, fellow trustees Enyia, Wesley and Straw and President Vicki Scaman — the board took no immediate action. The topic will likely return to the board table in January.
We are supportive, too. But we don’t dismiss Parakkat’s concerns or find them simply insensitive. One can be troubled by the presence of unhoused people downtown and still have compassion for their situation and seek remedies. And there is the reality that Oak Park by itself cannot solve this societal failing.