Daily Herald opinion: Coming together: DuPage groups should be applauded for uniting to house homeless
More than two years after DuPagePads transformed a former hotel into an interim housing center for people experiencing homelessness, the demand for rooms this winter has been extraordinary.
Even though the Downers Grove facility can provide a safe place to stay for roughly 300 people a night, there’s a waitlist for a spot.
“We are at four times our regular numbers for winter in terms of those waiting for shelter,” DuPagePads President and CEO April Redzic said.
In response, the Wheaton-based nonprofit organization set aside $150,000 to provide winter emergency shelter to people on the waitlist. However, as senior writer Katlyn Smith reported last week, that amount would not be enough.
So DuPage officials got involved. The county also contacted the DuPage Foundation, which provides grants to not-for-profit organizations. After appealing to its donors, the foundation quickly raised $190,000. DuPage County Board members, meanwhile, plan to vote in January on a resolution to provide an additional $200,000.
As a result, DuPagePads will have the funding necessary to house 70 people from the waitlist through the winter months.
“People were just really incredible in terms of understanding the urgency and the life-threatening nature of what was happening and wanting to help out to save lives here in DuPage County,” Redzic told Smith. “I am blown away with how quickly and how kindly people responded to this need.”
Of course, the county government in DuPage has a history of supporting DuPagePads’ efforts to provide emergency shelter to individuals and families experiencing homelessness. During the pandemic, the county provided financial assistance to DuPagePads when it started renting hotel rooms to protect clients from COVID-19. When DuPagePads pitched an idea in 2021 to buy a Red Roof Inn to create the interim housing center, county board members awarded $5 million to help the group acquire the hotel property.
DuPage raised that money by using $2 million in American Rescue Plan money and $3 million from the Community Development Block Grant fund, which are federal dollars that pass through the county. The $200,000 the county board expects to contribute next month would come from a fund DuPage established to find affordable housing solutions.
Redzic pointed to the lack of affordable housing as a reason so many are experiencing homelessness. She says the best long-term fix is to get enough housing to meet the demand.
Homelessness in the suburbs is a complex problem. While the search for solutions continues, we applaud the way groups in DuPage are coming together to provide a safe place to sleep for those who need it this winter.