Home for pregnant women in crisis could open in Wheaton

The Wheaton City Council appears likely to issue a special use permit to allow a mother and infant support center for young, pregnant women in need to open in a vacant office building on Roosevelt Road.

A local nonprofit group called The Butterfly Garden hopes to open the center in the former three-story Wheaton Inn on the northeast corner of Roosevelt and West Street. The building has been vacant since 2014, when an investment company that used it as an office moved out.

Founder Yvonne Florczak-Seeman said this would be the nonprofit's first location, but she has worked for an organization with a similar program and carry forward its best practices, such as setting up a no-visitor policy. The Butterfly Garden will be even stricter, she said, by accepting women only 18 to 26 years old and requiring them to be registered in college to participate.

"We are looking for applicants who are looking to use us as a steppingstone," she said. "It's not going to be a sorority house. We are teaching these young girls who are in an unplanned pregnancy to either learn how to become a mother or make the decision of adoption."

The center would house a maximum of 12 women and their babies. The women will live in the home for two years, giving them enough time to obtain an associate degree.

Participants will have access to counseling and receive on-site training in culinary skills, clothing construction, child care and personal finance. The Butterfly Garden's corporate offices will be on the first floor.

Joel Selvey lives just north of the building and expressed concerns about privacy and intrusions onto his property with so many people living in the building.

Council members said they would like to see an additional buffer constructed along the property line to address Selvey's concerns, such as more landscaping and increasing the height of the existing fence.

Other residents said they would like more information about how the nonprofit will guarantee its success and would instead prefer to see the space occupied by something that generates tax dollars.

Councilman John Rutledge said having a commercial use in the building would be ideal, but it's not realistic because demand for office space has decreased significantly.

"An empty building serves no one's purpose. It will deteriorate and deteriorate," he said. "I see a social need here that we can meet. This is a caring community and I think this is an opportunity to meet a need."

The council will take a final vote in December.