New homeless shelter opens at Oak Park church
Former rectory offers haven of ‘dignity, respect’
A 15-bed overnight emergency homeless shelter has opened in Oak Park, offering a refuge of housing and meals at a former local church rectory from now through the spring.
In partnership with Housing Forward, the shelter is open seven nights a week through April 30, with 15 beds in a second floor wing at the former St. Catherine of Siena/St. Lucy rectory.
The Rev. Carl Morello, pastor of St. Catherine of Siena/St. Lucy and St. Giles parish hosted a tour of the new shelter Wednesday.
“It’s an opportunity and a challenge,” said Morello. “The opportunity that I felt was, it’s the right thing to do. Because at the heart of who we are, as a Christian people … it just seemed to make sense that we would partner in this way to open up this temporary shelter.”
People hosted at the overnight shelter, at 38 N. Austin Blvd. in Oak Park receive dinner, breakfast and a to-go meal, plus personal care basics and amenities.
Some of the meals are locally sourced from restaurants and donor meal providers, officials explained.
The opening of an emergency shelter was the first in Oak Park since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly closed a similar village facility for individuals and families.
“Since March of 2020, the emergency shelter in Oak Park has been closed until Jan. 4, 2023,” said Lynda Schueler, executive director of Housing Forward of Maywood.
With 15 beds at the newly open shelter, “10 will be reserved for pre-registered clients that are connected already to our street outreach program and then five will be emergency beds,” Schueler said. She explained that the shelter operators would also take referrals from area hospitals and the police department “if they find somebody outside.”
The shelter is made possible, in part, by funding from the village of Oak Park and a grant recently received from the Illinois Department of Human Services to support the expansion of emergency shelter beds during the winter, officials explained.
“It’s a combination of village of Oak Park ARPA [American Rescue Plan Act] funding that the village received, and then the village granted us $300,000 over two years,” Schueler said, adding the money also assists in providing evening, overnight and shelter management staffing.
She explained that the church also got state money that will help pay some utilities and “a little bit more staffing as we need it.”
On the tour of the facility, mattresses could be seen stacked and ready to be placed and used. There is a room for family use that has its own bathroom. The dining room will double as a sleeping room for men. Women have a separate
bedroom with an adjoining bath. There is also a kitchenette in the main multipurpose dining room/men’s sleeping area.
John Harris, a former 25-year resident of Oak Park who now lives in the
Little Italy neighborhood of Chicago, is a core team member of the Oak Park Homelessness Coalition.
“It took a while to pull this together,” said Harris, who indicated the shelter collaboration and process
to Jan. 4 began approximately five months ago.
Harris said he is “ecstatic” that people in Oak Park who are experiencing homelessness will have a place to go.
“It’s only 15 beds,” he said. “We need more, but
(homeless and displaced people) will have a place to go where they can be treated with dignity and respect and humanity.”