Advertisements ad

October 26, 2008

Park Ridge parish school might not be PADS site after all

By Michelle Martin

ASSISTANT EDITOR

The Park Ridge City Council appeared to move closer to approving language that would allow an overnight homeless shelter in the village, as several residents spoke in support of a compromise solution to put such a shelter in the village’s public service center.

It couldn’t come soon enough for James Olsen, a man who identified himself as homeless when he addressed the council Oct. 20.

“Please approve this,” he said. “Then I could get a place to sleep and a hot meal one night a week.”

Tentative approval

Olsen left before the end of the meeting that stretched past midnight, when council members approved the first reading of an ordinance that would allow such a shelter, without formally considering any particular site. They also amended a provision in the proposed ordinance that would require such shelters to be at least 500 feet away from any school to allow shelters within 500 feet of schools, as long as the shelter was closed at least an hour before children were at school.

The matter cannot be finally approved until a second reading, which was set for Oct. 29.

The city public service center, suggested as a compromise location by Mayor Howard P. Frimark, is not within 500 feet of a school.

Some parents fearful

The issue has become a political and religious hot potato in the suburb that borders Chicago on its Northwest side, with parishioners at St. Paul of the Cross Parish lining up on both sides. The parish became the focal point of the controversy last summer, when leaders volunteered to host a Sunday night shelter to be operated by the Park Ridge Ministerial Association as part of the Journeys from PADS to Hope network, which includes 18 similar shelters in church facilities throughout the northwest suburbs.

Parents in some school families said they believed having homeless people sleeping in the same area their children use as a gym later in the day would create a hazard for their children. Some neighboring residents said they feared that the guests of the shelter would commit crimes in the area.

Sarah Horak, who said three of her four children attend St. Paul of the Cross, spoke at the meeting, saying that a shelter should not operate in a school facility.

“The most important thing is to make sure the homeless shelter is not in a place where children are present,” she said.

Elizabeth Gustafson, who also identified herself as a St. Paul of the Cross School parent, said, “We can’t have this near our children. We all want to help everybody — that’s human nature. But we have to protect our children.

Other residents asked whether there would be any way to limit access to any homeless shelter to homeless residents of Park Ridge.

Some show support

Speakers who supported allowing a shelter at a church or school site said the church was simply heeding the mandate of Jesus to shelter the homeless, and cited the experience of other communities that have hosted such shelters for years with no serious problems.

“No other community that I know of has required this,” said Barbara Bowers, who said she has lived in Park Ridge for more than 40 years. “This is a simple helping program. These are volunteers.”

The idea to bring a shelter to Park Ridge was originally raised by the Park Ridge Ministerial Association, a group of clergy from several houses of worship in the community, said Father Carl Morello, St. Paul of the Cross pastor.

Morello praised Frimark’s suggestion of having the ministerial association host the shelter at the public service center, but reminded the audience that a shelter would serve any homeless people who had registered with PADS, which operates throughout the northwest suburbs.

“What the ministers do now is send people to PADS [shelters in other communities],” he said. “They do end up helping our people, and we would end up helping people from other communities.”

Remember mission

He also reminded the audience that St. Paul of the Cross is a parish first.

“The parish does not exist because of the school,” he said. “The school is one of the ministries of the parish.”

St. Mary Episcopal Church volunteered to host the shelter, but stepped back when the fire department said it would not approve the plan because the church had no sprinkler system. Morello then suggested that St. Paul of the Cross host the shelter.

That set off a string of complaints not only to the parish but to the Park Ridge City Council, which referred the matter to its planning and zoning commission. The zoning commission recommended that any shelter be required to obtain a special use permit from the city and a license to operate. The City Council was considering ordinances to set up those mechanisms; they were to continue considering the ordinances at a City Council meeting Oct. 29.

Maureen Murphy, an attorney for the Archdiocese of Chicago, said none of the other communities in which the shelters operate requires a special-use permit. In general, the archdiocese leaves the decision over whether to operate such shelters up to parishes.

Under Frimark’s compromise proposal, the city itself would get the special-use permit because the shelter would be on city property, but the Park Ridge Ministerial Association — and the members of its congregations — would operate the shelter with the support of Journeys from PADS to Hope.

Suburban shelters

  • Sunday: Christ Lutheran Church, 41 S. Rohlwing Rd., Palatine, (847) 358-4644; Holy Family Church, 2515 W. Palatine Rd., Inverness, (847) 359-0042
  • Monday: St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 205 S. Wille St., Mount Prospect, (847) 253-0631; First United Methodist Church, 1903 E. Euclid Ave., Arlington Heights, (847) 255-5112; South Church, 501 S. Emerson St., Mount Prospect, (847) 253-0501
  • Tuesday: Kingswood United Methodist Church, 401 W. Dundee Rd., Buffalo Grove, (847) 398-0780; Christus Victor Lutheran Church, 1045 Arlington Heights Rd., Elk Grove, (847) 437-2666; First Presbyterian Church, 302 N. Dunton Ave., Arlington Heights, (847) 255-5900
  • Wednesday: Our Lady of the Wayside Catholic Church, 432 W. Park St., Arlington Heights, (847) 253-5353; St. James Catholic Church, 831 N. Arlington Heights Rd., Arlington Heights, (847) 253-6305
  • Thursday: Congregational United Church of Christ, 1001 W. Kirchoff Rd., Arlington Heights, (847) 392- 6650; Willow Creek Community Church, 67 E. Algonquin Rd., South Barrington 60010, (847) 253-6305
  • Friday: Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, 930 W. Higgins Rd., Schaumburg, (847) 885-7010; St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 795 Center St., Des Plaines, (847) 824-8144; Trinity United Methodist Church, 605 W. Golf Rd., Mount Prospect, (847) 439-0950
  • Saturday: All Saints Church, 630 S. Quentin Rd., Palatine (847) 991-2080; St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, 411 N. Wheeling Rd., Prospect Heights (847) 255-7452; Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, 1234 N. Arlington Heights Rd., Arlington Heights, (847) 255-8700, Ext. 235.