Neighbors sign petition to keep homeless shelter out of Valley View

A local ministry's bid to host an overnight homeless in unincorporated St. Charles has polarized the surrounding neighborhood so much that the local homeowners' association refuses to take a position on the application.

The fault lines in the community began to form last month when Angelo Valdes, who runs the ministry, first publicly spoke of the application. The H.E.L.P.S. ministry wants a permit to host up to 20 homeless people overnight. The beds for the shelter would be set up on the basketball court of a remodeled former Salvation Army community center in the Valley View neighborhood. But some neighbors fear the shelter would kick the homeless people out into their neighborhood with nothing to do and nowhere to go during the day.

That's a fear the local homeowners' association isn't ready to endorse or denounce. Such a position could bring some clarity to the Kane County Board as it reviews the ministry's request. But association President Chuck Ingersoll said the issue is too hot to dare take a stance.

"A lot of people around here are against it, and a lot of people around here are for it," Ingersoll said. "We cannot side with one group or the other. We couldn't come to an agreement among ourselves even in our own executive committee. The whole organization is very divided over this issue. How do you take a stand in a situation like that when one group of your members is against another group of your members?"

Ingersoll and the association will host a members-only meeting with the association and the ministry Tuesday evening to discuss some of the looming questions about the application. Those questions seem to be mounting as more than 200 neighbors signed a petition against the homeless shelter and delivered it to the Kane County Board Friday. The petition follows a public protest of the shelter, complete with picket signs, just one block away from the ministry last month.

Shari Mallady was one of those protesters. She's joined many of her neighbors in penning letters to the county board voicing concerns about the proposed shelter to pair with the petition.

"We already know if you give them 20 beds, they'll end up with 30 in there," Mallady said. "The facts are there isn't anything here for homeless people to do. It would just be a flop house in my opinion. We're asking the county board to come out and view this site, not just look at the application on paper. This is a rural area with no way for homeless people to come and go on their own. It's not that we're vicious people. We just already know what to expect. Our concerns aren't because it's a homeless shelter; our concerns are because it's Angelo running it."

Valdes said he wishes people who don't really know him would stop making comments like that.

"People are just saying things blatantly under ignorance," Valdes said. "People say they know me, yet I've never spoken with them. It's a just a little crazy."

Valdes said ever since the application process began people have started questioning and intimidating everyone who comes around the ministry. That even includes a disabled man from Elgin who comes and cuts the ministry's grass.

"The funny thing is that guy has a home," Valdes said. "It's just a whole us-vs.-them thing going on. People keep saying we don't want 'them' in our neighborhood, and I keep trying to identify who 'them' are. It's like a mini-Arizona over here. Nobody from outside the Valley is welcome. But I've been here 20 years. Where are my rights?"