Wheaton gives homeless shelter OK to expand

A Wheaton shelter serving homeless veterans is about to expand.

The city council on Monday unanimously approved a request from the Midwest Shelter for Homeless Veterans to triple its five-bed capacity. Councilman Tom Mouhelis, the executive director for the transitional shelter, was the only member not to vote.

The only such organization of its kind in DuPage County, the shelter provides a variety of services to homeless veterans in an effort to help them to become self-sufficient.

The shelter, operated by a staff of seven people, said it hopes to begin lodging and providing care to female veterans after the expansion to a 15-bed facility.

The agency, located at 119 N. West St., is still deeply involved in a fundraising campaign to pay for the $1 million expansion project.

But co-founder Bob Adams said he's hopeful the group can begin breaking ground on construction by the following spring.

"We've got thousands of veterans on the street on any given night," Adams said. "(Co-founder Dirk Enger) and I saw this need for a place like ours."

After the completion of the expansion, Adams said the shelter will reserve four of the rooms to serve the needs of female veterans.

The transitional shelter had a long line of supporters two weeks ago urging members of the Wheaton planning and zoning board to approve the expansion project.

One of those supporters, Dave Larson, again urged city officials on Monday to back the shelter's plans.

"Stress is a bad thing and not everyone can handle it well," said Larson, a Vietnam veteran himself and son of Marine Lance Cpl. Nick Larson, a 19-year-old Wheaton man who died in Iraq in 2004. "I've seen lives turned around."

Adams said he hopes to have the work done by the end of next year.