It’s a funny thing about names. Names can mean different things to different people.
Take the word PADS (acronym, more accurately). My wife was a PADS volunteer, but sometimes I would help out. And it always seemed to me that PADS was an apt description of the mattresses clients were given to sleep on at the emergency shelters.
I knew that wasn’t so, But that’s what the name suggested to me.
When I looked up PADS I learned it meant Public Action to Deliver Shelter.
The local PADS has had different names over the years, but always the mission of helping homeless people.
In its first incarnation in 1992, Tri-Village PADS was the name because it served the villages of Oak Park, River Forest and Forest Park. The name was changed in 2000 to West Suburban PADS to denote the group’s expanded service area.
Over the years, PADS became more than a provider of temporary emergency shelter because the needs of homeless people were more than temporary shelter.
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The organization offers short-, medium- and long-term housing assistance and employment programs. More than 900 people were served by PADS last year.
Other new or growing programs include permanent supportive housing and a focus on employment readiness that connects clients with job counseling and training programs as well as a career program.
A street outreach program is aimed at connecting people on the streets of Oak Park, Berwyn and Cicero who haven’t come into an emergency shelter by bringing them water, food or a sleeping bag.
Because PADS is so much more than emergency shelter, its leaders decided a new name was needed that would convey that message. As of April, West Suburban PADS now is Housing Forward, though PADS will remain the name of the emergency shelter.
And – unfortunately – there is and will be plenty of work for Housing Forward. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development put the number of homeless Americans in 2013 at more than 600,000 on any given night.
Housing Forward can use help in providing help to the homeless.
To find out about volunteer opportunities, call Housing Forward at 383-1724, or visit its website http://www.housingforward.org. Housing Forward’s office is at 1851 S. 9th Ave., Maywood.