Homeless families in Lake County will soon have the opportunity to share a room with its own bathroom, a refrigerator, and a microwave oven in a one-time motel in Waukegan, where a variety of services will also be provided on the premises for both adults and children.
PADS Lake County began working on the effort to create a homeless shelter where families can remain until they can live in their own home more than two years ago when the city of Waukegan overwhelmingly approved a conditional use permit.
Allen Swilley, PADS Lake County’s executive director, said families staying in the permanent residential shelter can prepare some meals, eat in a communal dining room, get employment counseling and even appropriate clothing for a job interview at no charge.
“We offer wraparound services, and it’s all here,” Swilly said. “There is medical attention, mental health care, employment counseling; we help them find permanent housing, get a state identification card. We have a play area for children and a lounge for teens.”
The Pathways Family Shelter officially opened with a ribbon-cutting Friday where local officials and community members who supported the project over the past two years got a glimpse of the future of making homelessness far more rare.
“Our success rate with the revolving churches was 4%,” Swilley said. “When we used motels during COVID, it was 60%. I expect the success rate here to be 85%.”
Besides living conditions more conducive to family life, if someone does not feel well, they can go to the nurse’s office, which will be staffed. There is a food pantry where residents can shop at no charge, and a clothes closet which includes gently used garments.
Services are provided by a variety of community partners. Swilley said children’s programs will take place in a room designed for the youngsters and operated by Family First Center of Lake County. The Waukegan Public Library will stock the bookshelves.
When residents want a little more space and company, Swilley said there are “living rooms” with couches, comfortable chairs and tables where people can connect. There are also areas with washing machines and dryers where individuals can clean their clothes.
When residents in other communities were trying to keep PADS from creating permanent shelters in their municipality, Waukegan placed the request on its consent agenda as a routine matter.
“Waukegan is leading the charge,” Swilley said, “They are definitely leading the charge in developing solutions to control homelessness.”
Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham said before the ribbon-cutting that the families who will soon be living in the shelter as they transition to a permanent residence are part of the community and deserve respect.
“Talking about this population, it is easy to say ‘not in my neighborhood,’ but the economics say different. When we serve this vulnerable population, we are helping our community,” Cunningham said. “My mother did so much for them in her lifetime,” he added, referring to the late vice chair of the Lake County Board Mary Ross Cunningham.
When it was Cunningham’s turn to speak to the standing-room-only crowd of more than 100 before the ribbon-cutting, he said he was discarding his prepared remarks to talk about his mother’s contributions. She died on June 23.
Cunningham said he was raised in public housing after his father was murdered when he was 1, and his mother was left to raise him and his siblings alone. When she saw people on the street who were unhoused, she immediately helped.
Countless times when she took to the streets to help with the county’s census of the homeless population in the midst of winter, she would go further, he said. She gave them suggestions about how to get resources to become housed.
“She saw them as people who needed a hand up, not a hand out,” Cunningham said. “She would call me and tell me what to do. She followed through with them. If she was hard on them, it wasn’t out of anger; It was out of love.”
U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Highland Park, said the permanent shelter is a community effort. He helped provide $11 million in funding, with $7 million coming through Lake County in COVID relief funds and another $4 million directly from Washington, D.C.
“You’ve heard the saying it takes a village,” Schneider said. “Here it took a city. No one person can do what was accomplished here. This shelter will help people develop dignity and confidence so they can be successful. This will shine a light on the future.”
Lake County Board Chair Sandy Hart said homelessness can come because someone is between jobs and must make difficult economic choices. Children must be fed. The permanent shelter will make a significant difference. She also praised Mary Ross Cunningham’s dedication.
“She would be out there helping people when it was freezing, and we were all sleeping,” Hart said. “This shelter will provide the essential resources for families when it matters.”