Joe Hodge stood outside the PADS Lake County office in Waukegan Wednesday afternoon and doubted whether he’d get a place at one of the organization’s homeless shelters after sunset.
“I’m going to be on the street tonight,” he said, noting space was at a premium, and those with families and children might be given a place before him. He said he recently became homeless after leaving the place he was staying for fear the surroundings would draw him back into crack addiction.
Another inconvenience: Hodge, 50, said he had a job interview the next day, and instead of taking a shower at the PADS office, which used to be allowed, he would have to take a shuttle to Bethel Lutheran Church in Gurnee to bathe.
“I don’t know how I’m going to get there and make a shower arrangement,” Hodge said.
As winter approaches, officials at PADS — which stands for Providing Advocacy, Dignity and Shelter — are asking Waukegan Mayor Wayne Motley to reconsider a position he took earlier this year when he disallowed the use of showers at the agency’s Grand Avenue office in response to complaints from surrounding residents and businesses about the center.
But Motley held firm in an interview on Wednesday, saying showers and a shelter for the homeless don’t belong in a business district.
“I am not opposed to PADS,” Motley said. “What I’m opposed to is putting a PADS shelter in a business district.”
Motley pulled PADS’ business license in April after determining the nonprofit was violating its business license by allowing clients to shower at the office. Motley said he has had “complaint after complaint after complaint” from nearby businesses and residents about panhandling, littering and drug use around the facility. The license allows PADS to operate an office at the location, not a shelter, the city ruled.
Motley and PADS eventually reached an agreement that would allow the organization to keep the office open as long as clients did not shower there and had a reason to be on site rather than simply hanging out. Homeless PADS clients catch a bus each night to a rotating cast of shelters, where they can eat a meal and sleep. The program operates between October and April.
PADS Executive Director Joel Williams said he accepted the deal in a “spirit of cooperation” because it was a way to keep the doors open. But losing the ability to provide showers “wasn’t anything we were too happy about,” he added.
The new arrangement also presents logistical challenges. Transportation to and from the church in Gurnee is an additional cost for PADS, which operates on a $1.7 million annual budget, Williams said, adding that about 20 percent of the budget comes from government sources.
In addition, the organization only has access to the church’s showers for an hour each morning, so clients bathe on a first-come, first-served basis, according to Williams.
Some clients need to report to their jobs upon returning to the PADS office each morning, Williams said, and don’t have time to travel round-trip to Gurnee for a shower.
“It does really become a public health issue in many ways, to stave off infection on certain things, especially with clean feet,” Williams said. “Homeless individuals tend to have many more problems with their feet.”
Also, Williams said, for women going through their menstrual cycles, “not having access to a shower is very detrimental to their well-being.”
Representatives from PADS and Bethel Lutheran Church addressed the mayor and Waukegan City Council during public-comment time last week, asking the city to reconsider allowing showers at the PADS office or at the building immediately to the west, which the nonprofit recently acquired.
Motley said on Wednesday that PADS submitted plans for sleeping quarters and six showers at the new building and that he “will not allow” such an arrangement.
“I’d certainly be willing to discuss having a PADS shelter outside of a business district, with the proper zoning,” Motley said.
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A homeless person or case manager with access to the Internet can find resources at www.findhelplakecounty.org, said Jodi Gingiss, community development administrator at Lake County. There are five soup kitchens in Waukegan and three organizations providing shelter facilities throughout the county — PADS, A Safe Place (which is a domestic violence shelter) and a drop-in center for veterans in North Chicago.
“Emergency assistance is also offered by local townships, Catholic Charities, Maristella, Salvation Army and Community Action Partnership,” Gingiss said in an email.
In January of this year, volunteers found 14 people sleeping outdoors around Lake County one night, the most documented during the annual survey since 2010, when there were 20.
“The overall numbers are probably pretty steady as to the number of people who experience it,” Williams said of the homelessness statistics. “But I think it is becoming a more visible problem for people. It’s not as hidden as it once was in the suburbs.”
Twitter @lucashammill