Residents protest proposed shelter near St. Charles

Shari Mallady didn't let a single driver get by her without shouting at them to sign her petition Friday night.

She frantically waved signs, one in each hand, that read, "This is a bus stop, not a homeless stop," and, "Keep our kids safe, keep beds away."

Mallady and about 40 neighbors staged a protest near St. Charles Friday night in hopes of defeating a local ministry's plan to shelter up to 20 homeless people overnight in a community center.

Mallady and her neighbors know that sounds a little merciless. But Mallady said her mercy started running low when homeless people starting sleeping in her shed. It started to sputter when homeless people began shaking down kids at bus stops for money and food from their lunches.

And her compassion bottomed out when her dog bit a homeless man peering into her back door.

"The stuff they are doing up there at the community center, as far as the church stuff, the basketball, that is great," Mallady said. "And my heart goes out to a guy if he's homeless. But I don't want them living in my shed, not when my daughters come home from school before I come home from work."

Other neighbors reported problems with homeless people stealing their mail, traipsing through their private property in the middle of the night and loitering around the neighborhood all day instead of looking for jobs.

All of those are reasons why neighbors hope to convince Kane County Board members that the H.E.L.P.S. Ministry is the wrong place to send homeless people.

"Everybody here wants homeless people to have a place to stay," Donald Sorensen said. "But I can't think of a worse place to have homeless people. There are no places for them to find work here. It's all residential houses."

Neighbors said they usually don't bother to call the police when trouble pops up with a homeless person because it takes at least 20 minutes for Kane County sheriff's officers to arrive. By then, the homeless people are long gone.

Instead, neighbors have tried to speak directly with Angelo Valdes, the man who runs the ministry. But Valdes said Friday neighbors rarely interact with him or his ministry.

Indeed, the community center didn't have a single member of the community in it, besides Valdes, Friday afternoon. Valdes recently filed a police report alleging threats from neighbors about burning his church down if he proceeds with his homeless shelter plans.

Mallady said she is not aware of any threats made to Valdes.

"I don't know where he got that from," Mallady said. "We just told him, 'I hope you know the consequences of this. People in the community are going to be angry with you. You're not going to have the community's support.'"

Protest: Residents say homeless invade their properties