Elgin planners support relocating near school a facility that counsels domestic abuse convicts

One of the main facilities in Kane County offering court-mandated counseling for people convicted of domestic violence wants to move to a larger facility near a middle school.

The proposal to move the Elgin-based Community Crisis Center program to a building across the street from Kimball Middle School on McLean Boulevard comes in hopes of serving more clients, after a spike in domestic and child abuse cases throughout the county last year.

The Elgin planning and zoning commission unanimously recommended the plan Monday night, with few questions.

Kane County prosecutors filed charges in more than 1,000 misdemeanor domestic battery cases in 2020, a 5.4% increase from 2019, according to the most recent annual report from the Kane County state's attorney's office. That jump follows nearly a decade of declining domestic cases.

There were nearly 300 felony domestic violence cases on top of that, including more than 100 cases involving strangulation or great bodily harm, a 15.5% increase in such cases from the year prior. The report attributes the spike to financial and employment difficulties during the pandemic as well as being quarantined at home with abusers.

The Community Crisis Center program runs out of the Ecker Center building on Larkin Avenue. But Maribel Duran-Mendez, the abuse intervention program coordinator, told Elgin's plan commission Monday night that she needs more space to accommodate the increased number of clients.

"We want to stop domestic violence," she told the commission.

The potential answer is a vacant office on the first floor of a building at 452. S. McLean Blvd. The two-story building is already home to the Illinois Department of Human Services' Division of Rehabilitation Services, on the second floor.

The space would host up to four employees and 10 clients at a time. Counseling sessions run Monday through Saturday from as early as 8 a.m. to as late as 9 p.m.

Duran-Mendez said the location is much easier to navigate because the program would have an entire floor, and clients have two nearby bus stops to help them reach the site.

The location is adjacent to existing multi-tenant office buildings to the north and south. There are three single-family homes to the west. Kimball Middle School is across McLean Boulevard to the east.

The city council must take a vote before the plan can move forward.