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Editorial: PADS, housing authority failed to trust public about homeless project

It would be easy to dismiss the squabble over a plan to move a residential program for chronically homeless people with mental illness into an Ela Township neighborhood as a classic NIMBY dispute.

Not In My Back Yard often refers to a project that may provide some social good, except to people who live nearby and worry about its affect on home values and other issues.

In this case, neighborhood residents were the winners in a Lake County panel's decision to block use of the vacant Midlothian Manor facility by PADS Lake County for its Safe Haven program. The losers were that program's 13 clients. Once the lease expires this month on their current facility in North Chicago, they face an uncertain fate without stable housing.

But we wonder if the outcome might have been different had PADS and the Lake County Housing Authority been upfront about the proposal from the start.

News of the project surfaced in a Daily Herald story by Bob Susnjara in November after he saw a vague reference about it on a housing authority agenda.

With some digging, he discovered the proposal to lease to PADS the former Midlothian Manor building the housing authority owns in the residential neighborhood and once used for senior housing.

With a few calls, he learned officials in Ela Township and the village of Lake Zurich knew nothing about the project.

By that time, the housing authority had spent $100,000 on building renovations, and PADS was planning to move in by early 2015.

Only an occupancy permit was needed, housing authority officials said, so there would be no public hearings or votes. An informal meeting would be held at some point to talk about the project, officials said.

When that meeting finally was held, it was an open house, not the detailed presentation neighbors wanted.

They formed an opposition group and filed a lawsuit. They objected to the government use occupancy permit that had been approved, and forced public hearings.

The issue ended last week with the Lake County zoning board of appeals' denial that now has PADS officials scrambling to find stable housing for this fragile group of people.

But could the result have been different?

What if PADS and the housing authority had notified township and village leaders and the neighborhood from the start?

What if they had scheduled meetings to explain the project, answer questions, allay fears and solicit ideas to make this important program work?

Did PADS and the housing authority forget to include the neighborhood or did they sidestep it to avoid a tussle?

All are good questions.

We'll never know what a little outreach and inclusion would have done, but we're sure this isn't how it should have been handled.

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