Rita Canning had an idea for a house, a big one.
As president of Women in Need Growing Stronger (WINGS), a Palatine-based non-profit group which supplies resources and emergency housing for families facing homelessness, Canning dreamed of an emergency shelter where those fleeing domestic violence could find immediate refuge.
“We looked for property for four years, ” she recalls. “You have to have the right spot.”
Once the property was located, it took another two years to win municipal building approval. Today the “safe house” is taking shape, thanks in large part to HomeAid Chicago, a charity sponsored by the Home Builders Association of Greater Chicago, which is donating time, service and materials to the $1.6 million project.
As the trusses for the roof of the two-story building were hoisted into place by a big crane on a drizzly morning recently, Canning was on hand to see the “roof raising” as were representatives of HomeAid and its builder captain for this project, Kimball Hill Homes Inc.
It was a ceremonial moment, to be sure, but one with the potential to help, maybe even save, lives as exemplifed by Yvonne Wiebe, who stood watching the cranes in the construction site parking lot.
She remembers the exact day–Nov. 3, 1998– she took her children, then 4, 2, and two months old, and fled her Wauconda home after a vicious, ugly fight with her husband.
Wiebe had few resources and no place to go so the family lived in the domestic violence shelter in Elgin–the closest one at the time– for several weeks until she moved into transitional housing provided by WINGS.
“I was in the WINGS program for two years. They provided food, shelter and clothing for my family” until she could provide for her family on her own, she recalls.
The new 15,000-square-foot facility in Rolling Meadows will provide “safe haven” for women like Wiebe when completed next summer.
It will have room for up to 45 people, mainly women and children, each night and will be outfitted to provide safe, warm beds, hot meals, crisis counseling, medical and other services to those housed there for a few days to a few weeks.
Some of those families may move into one of the 19 scattered site apartments and three homes WINGS operates as longer-term transitional housing until they can get back on their feet financially.
The WINGS shelter is the inaugural project of HomeAid Chicago, organized to leverage the time, talent and materials from area builders and trade partners to build shelter for the temporarily homeless.
The Chicago group works to bring together in-kind donations of labor and material from members of the Home Builders Association with non-profit shelters. Its members are in nine counties of northeastern Illinois.
The Chicago group is part of California-based HomeAid America, with 22 chapters in 11 states, which has built 80 projects ranging from group homes for the mentally impaired to group homes for young people leaving foster care but have no place to live.
The Chicago WINGS project is the largest in terms of square footage and cost of any HomeAid project in the country.
While the terms “community service” and “building trades” are not often lumped together in the same category, the leaders of this project say there has been an outpouring of time and materials by local tradesmen and suppliers.
“We connect the non-profit with the subs (subcontractors),” said David K. Hill, Jr., chairman of Kimball Hill.
Hill said he was introduced to HomeAid by a builder friend in Atlanta.
“We jumped at the opportunity” to serve as builder captain, he said, because he was familiar with the work of WINGS and because his firm is based in Rolling Meadows, where the shelter is located. “It has been an inspiration to watch so many people come together giving their time and their talent” said John Wozniak, board president of HomeAid Chicago and region president for Summit Homes. “We have literally more than 75 trade partners and suppliers donating labor and/or product for this project.”
Those donations range from every type of trade that goes into building–roofing, insulation, carpentry, paint, framing, electrical work, plumbing– to components such as concrete, windows, cabinets and plumbing fixtures.
HomeAid Chicago is now reviewing project candidates for 2004.
Peering at future home
If you have children and have signed a contract to build a house or are thinking about building a house, you might like to check out “That’s How We Build a House.”
Produced by Chicago-based Spots Video, the 28-minute production available in VHS or DVD (in English or Spanish), aims to explain to children in a kid-friendly manner the whys and hows of home construction from design phase to completion. Parenting magazine has nominated it as one of the best children’s live action videos for 2003.
More Top Picks Rowing Machines
Local film maker Bruce Frankel, who usually does television commercials, made it after watching how fascinated his own children were by the building in their Northbrook neighborhood.
Guides Dan and Gwen explain the construction of a Buffalo Grove home built by Samuels Homes, an affiliate of Northbrook-based Red Seal Development Corp.
Some adults will find the groaner jokes for the kids a bit painful and the explanations simplistic. But, if you are a little hazy on the definitions of construction terms or the outline of the steps in the building process, it might be a useful pre-construction primer before talking with your builder.
You can give it to the kids to watch or view it privately. That way you will be ready with all the answers when the kids ask “why are they doing that, Daddy (or Mommy)?”
That’s How We Build A House (VHS, $14.99; DVD, $17.99) is available at www.spotsvideo.com, www.amazon.com or www.barnesandnoble.com.
– – –
HomeAid Chicago
Sponsor: Home Builders Association of Greater Chicago
Purpose: To build or renovate shelters for temporarily homeless, men, women and children in the greater Chicago area.
Current Project: Partnering with Women in Need Growing Stronger (WINGS) program that serves victims of domestic violence.
Description: Building a $1.6 two-story 15,000-square-foot facility with 45 beds in Rolling Meadows. The emergency shelter will have kitchen, crisis counseling and medical services. The builders and 75 trade partners are donating time, labor and materials.
Organization: The Chicago chapter is one of 22 HomeAid America groups in the nation. HomeAid is one of the nation’s largest providers of shelter beds for the temporarily homeless.
For more information: www.hbagc.com or www.homeaid.org
———-
Past House Hunter columns: CHICAGOTRIBUNE.COM/HOMES