Cook County Commissioners approved the use of federal COVID-19 funds for the Evanston nonprofit Connections for the Homeless to purchase the Margarita Inn, a former upscale hotel very near downtown Evanston that has operated as a long-term homeless shelter since the early days of the pandemic.
Despite concerns from some neighbors, Connections is set to receive $7 million to help secure the purchase of the Margarita Inn, located at 1566 Oak Avenue, Evanston, in a grant which is being described as a no-interest, fully forgivable 30-year loan. The county has helped Connections pay for day-to-day operations over the past few years as well, according to Director of Development at Connections Nia Tavoularis.
“They have been partners with us almost from the very beginning,” Tavoularis said. “We had been having an ongoing conversation with them for well over a year and a half — probably close to two years — about making an investment like this here in Northern Cook County.”
The funding will also go toward paying for some of the predevelopment costs, according to Tavoularis, which include legal fees accrued during the city’s zoning approval process.
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The county is also donating $6.5 million to Housing Forward LLC and the Oak Park Residence Corp. for the purchase of the Write Inn in Oak Park, where a similar operation has been held for two years. Tavoularis said the county is also working with organizations in the southern portion of the county to house the homeless.
Some neighbors said they felt left out by the agreement and argued the city would lose potential property taxes on the former hotel. Another neighbor to the property, Cameel Halim, who owns both the Halim Time & Glass Museum and King Home, has filed suit alleging the city didn’t follow state supreme court standards when considering the special use permit application and the zoning change diminishes neighboring property values.
Neighbors have also raised concerns in the past about locating a homeless shelter at the Margarita Inn.
Councilmembers Clare Kelly and Thomas Suffredin voted against the special use and operating agreement with Kelly stating more specific protections for residents should be included.
Tavoularis suspects this could be from misunderstandings around how Connections funding serves its patrons.
“If we have $1,000 to spend, we get to spend $1,000 on five people or we get to spend $1,000 on 500 people,” she said. “We don’t get more than $1,000 because there’s 500 people.”
Tavoularis also noted that rent prices in the area are rising, pushing more people into homelessness and shelters.
“I thinks it’s a lot of things,” she said. “I think it’s people not understanding that homelessness and housing insecurity are ultimately system failures and not personal failures.”
Evanston City Council voted in May to approve both a special use permit and operating agreement for The Margarita Inn. Connections worked with 4th Ward Alderperson Jonathan Nieuwsma and nearby residents to help craft a Good Neighbor Agreement to outline what is expected of all involved.
Halim’s lawsuit is ongoing, according to Tavoularis, but she hopes to finalize everything and get the deal closed by the end of the year. Once finalized, costs for the shelter will drop significantly without rent payments, she said, and Connections will be able to operate the shelter permanently.
“There is still going to need to be some rehabilitation work to the building,” she said. “We are in the process of phasing out what’s phase one, phase two.”
The agency is hoping that funding for the rehab will come from remaining state- and city-level American Rescue Plan Act coffers. Other long term plans for Connections include a capital campaign. The organization hopes to raise $21 million to fund the campaign, half from private donations and half from public partners such as the state and county.
This would enable the agency to reopen and rehabilitate Hilda’s Place, a shelter in the basement of Lake Street Church in Evanston. Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s office helped to get $2 million in funding allocated to Hilda’s Place in July. The health care program at Hilda’s Place has been expanding with the addition of an on-site physician, expansion of clinical spaces and growing the aftercare program, according to Tavoularis.