HELPS director answers questions on proposed Valley View shelter

Concerns about opening a shelter for the homeless in the unincorporated Valley View neighborhood were aired Tuesday night at a community meeting sponsored by a homeowners association.

About 40 people attended the session, held at Bethel Baptist Church. A few wore T-shirts saying "I'm one of THOSE people," indicating they either had been a homeless person served by HELPS Ministries or worked with the organization. HELPS, or Help, Encouragement, Love, Prayer that leads to Salvation, has asked Kane County for a special-use permit to open a 20-bed shelter in its building, which formerly was a community center run by the Salvation Army.

And besides learning what kind of rules HELPS has planned for the shelter, attendees found out the county legal process will take longer than expected.

The county's development department was required to send a letter to owners of land that is within 250 feet of the center. But one property owner didn't get a letter and protested. It turns out the county sent the letter to the previous owner of the property, according to Chuck Ingersoll, president of the Riverbend Community Group of St. Charles Township, which sponsored the meeting.

He said he was told the county will have to have a new hearing, publish the date and renotify the neighbors.

An e-mail message has been left for the county's development director, but county offices were closed Tuesday night.

Participants were asked to write their questions on paper, then hand them over to Ingersoll, who read them out loud to Angelo Valdes, founder and executive director of HELPS.

People wanted to know what formal qualifications Valdes has for dealing with homeless people and those who abuse substances; how he plans to deal with loiterers; what kind of security he will provide; if he has liability insurance; how people will get to and from the shelter; what he will do if drunk or high people show up; and why place a shelter in Valley View, when there are already shelters for the homeless in neighboring St. Charles and Elgin.

Valdes said the shelter won't accept walk-up clients; the people will be driven there by the shelter's bus. Once they are admitted, they won't be allowed out during the evening. They will be required to store their bags in a locked bus outside the shelter, to cut down on people bringing in contraband such as cigarettes, alcohol and drugs.

In the morning, they will be delivered to Pace bus stops on Route 25, or Wayside Cross ministry facilities in Elgin and Aurora. Volunteers will make sure the guests get on the bus, he said.

People who just show up at the shelter's door will be driven either back to where they came from or a police station, he said.

He admitted he has no formal training in helping people but has been doing it for years. Valdes worked for the Salvation Army at the center, then for Lazarus House in St. Charles, before striking out on his own with HELPS. He ran a shelter without a permit in a church in Elgin while trying to get approval to open a year-round shelter. But after getting the city's approval, HELPS decided not to open there, because Public Action to Deliver Shelter had also gotten permission to open a permanent all-year shelter.

Valdes said another shelter is needed because of residency restrictions at the Elgin shelter and Lazarus House in St. Charles. The Elgin PADS shelter is restricted to Elgin residents, and Lazarus House takes only in people from Batavia, St. Charles, Geneva, Elburn and some parts of western Kane County.

He said he is willing to adopt guest behavior policies similar to those Lazarus House requires its clients to sign off on.

Some of the residents seemed skeptical, with one asking how the ministry is funded and another saying the neighborhood had had enough to deal with housing a state youth prison for years.

HELPS, a religious organization, gets most of its money from private donations. According to tax records on guidestar.org, Valdes was paid $10,000 to $16,000 in 2006, 2007 and 2008 as executive director. He says generous benefactors have donated vehicles and large amounts of money over the years. "It comes from God," he said.

Shelter: Director says he's willing to adopt guest behavior policies