I wholeheartedly agree with Wednesday Journal’s recent editorial criticizing Metra for how it handled the removal of 20 or more unhoused occupants of Metra’s Harlem Avenue passenger station. Failure to engage Housing Forward and similar agencies was, at a bare minimum, an opportunity missed by Metra to bring compassion to a problem sorely needing it.
But the situation raises more troubling questions. Why didn’t the village engage Housing Forward during the village’s paid oversight of the facility? If the village is “rightfully proud of its efforts to collaborate in solving problems,” as the editorial states, why did it let the situation linger? Could it be that, rather than looking at occupation of the station as a problem, the village enjoyed being paid by Metra and having a free shelter?
Further, if Housing Forward was aware of this situation, as is implied in its “unusually terse response,” what had it done to bring relocation services to the situation before Metra’s sweep?
Finally, what did Wednesday Journal do to ask either the village or Housing Forward about their resettlement efforts during the village’s paid oversight of the station?
Source: “Metra’s heavy hand,” Our Views, Viewpoints, April 16, p. 29.
Tom Healey
Oak Park