As most of you know already, the city's Planning and Zoning Commission will hold a public hearing tonight at Emerson Middle School, 8101 North Cumberland Avenue, Niles, IL 60714 at 7:00 pm to Consider Regulations for Temporary Overnight Shelters -pdf. We strongly encourage people to attend this meeting.
With any luck, Park Ridgians will persuade the Planning and Zoning commission to recommend real regulations and procedures for regulating homeless shelters within the borders of our town.
The PRU Crew is aware of several recommendations that will be offered by community members, but we aren't willing to steal their thunder here and now. We would like to offer a few items for consideration we feel the community should not be shy about asking for --
1. Because it is documented fact that many sex offenders use homeless shelters, we feel no homeless shelter should be allowed to operate within 500 feet of any school. The State of Illinois law says that a registered sex offender may not reside within 500 feet of any school -- such a regulation for an overnight homeless shelter would be no more stringent than what the State of Illinois demands.
2. Because it is documented fact that many "clients" of homeless shelters have addiction and mental health issues, in addition to criminal backgrounds, every overnight homeless shelter guest must be subject to having their belongings checked for contraband and their persons subject to being wand searched. These types of searches are done at other shelters.
3. Because it is documented fact that many sex offenders, other criminals, addicts, and those with mental health issues use overnight homeless shelters, we feel that any overnight homeless shelter should be required to hire their own professional on-site security.
4. Because of the nature of homeless shelters and the "clients" using such services, we feel no homeless shelter should be allowed to operate within any R (residential) zoning district.
And with that, the PRU Crew offers everyone good luck for a good meeting!
August 25, 2008
Another Chance To Stand And Be Heard!
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44 comments:
I'm not being cynical--God knows there is enough of that in our town to go around--but I really am wondering if this hearing is just to appease the citizens of our fine town. Is the decision already made? Has the lame duck pastor put the pressure on the city council and they've just caved?
Good guess, Manchester. If you read the draft zoning amendment on the city's website (drawn up by Carrie Davis? with help from the city attorney?) it looks like they're trying to make the standards as minimal as possible - little more than buying a vehicle sticker.
So it's up to the people who want something more stringent to show up and say their piece, because you can bet the pro-PADS people will be there.
Not within 500 feet of a school? Not in a residential district? That essentially would outlaw homeless shelters in your precious Park Ridge! It is clear what the POO crew is trying to do here. You are trying to gerrymander shelters right out of possibility! It is ridiculous! Homeless people have rights and should not be treated like criminals without cause! People should care enough about other human beings to be willing to offer the miniscule assistance that shelters provide from the elements. We are talking about one lousy night a week! For a lousy 6 months! May the Lord forgive all of you with your heartless inconsideration for your fellow human beings.
We don't WANT shelters here.
Stop making it a religious issue.
This is a ZONING issue in the City of Park Ridge.
Peace be with you.
I wish I was homeless.
I don't see that the Archdiocese has gassed up their media machine yet. Hmmm. What do you think? About 2pm?
The Park Ridge Community Church is not in an R district, has no regular school that we're aware of, and by our quick review isn't within 500 feet of any other school.
Bonus! We also hear it is Benedict Alderman Robert Ryan's church. Maybe Ryan would like to persuade his fellow parishioners of the benefits of bringing in a homeless shelter.
The word went out at the area churches yesterday to wear white again if you support PADS. There's only one word that describes this behavior - moronic.
OK here is my frustration. You seem to make these suggestions with a complete disregard to any prior objections. One of the prior suggestions made on the blogs (forgive me for it may have been on watchdog) was the senior center. What a joke!
When this thing was going to be at ST. Mary's there was huge uproar, that if I am not mistaken you supported, from the neighbors about a shelter being so close. So what is right next door to the Community Church on Courtland? A house. Hell the church is only 1/2 block from the same people who were up in arms about St. Marys. It is in "the path of children" walking to Uptown.
I like the doalogue. I like the fact that people will make suggestions at the meeting tonight. I like the fact that the people are demanding a voice. But how can you ignore all these previous objections when suggestiong PR Community.
It is just because it is Ryan's church? To some degree I agree with the previous poster about making it impossible to have a shelter here (which I am not at all against). Let's just at least be honest about what we are trying to do.
Anon@1:29 --
We aren't ignoring anything. The subject of the discussion is regulations for homeless shelters that want to do business in Park Ridge.
Our cite of the Park Ridge Community Church was an address to the poster who said our suggestions would outlaw homeless shelters in all of PR; that is clearly false.
As was stated, it is a Bonus! that the Park Ridge Community Church is also said to be where Ald. Ryan, a shelter supporter, attends services. We would have cited the Park Ridge Community Church in any case.
There is no house "right next door" to the Community Church -- maybe you are confused? We ask that rhetorically of course.
"The subject of the discussions is regulations for homeless shelters that want to do business in Park Ridge" ??? WTF does that mean ? There might be more homeless shelters that want to do business here ? Would there be discussions held for a strip club ? A tatto shop ? A massage parlor ? This is crazazy !!!!
It means that when the Planning and Zoning Commission holds the public hearing on the zoning text amendment "considering regulations for temporary overnight shelters", what they will be discussing are the REGULATIONS FOR TEMPORARY OVERNIGHT SHELTERS. We thought that was pretty clear to everyone.
If you believe that the Planning and Zoning Commission can and should not allow any homeless shelter anywhere in Park Ridge, even under the special use permit process, we are eager to hear your ideas on that and how you would defend that position in a court of law.
It is our understanding that can't be done. But we do understand that special uses like homeless shelters and other undesirable businesses can have the shit regulated out of them, and that is what we are strongly suggesting here.
Please except my apologizes. I guess I took liberties with the right next door comment. They are in fact across Butler Place. Again, all those folks who had the signs in their windows are a good 5 iron away.
Ms. Manchester:
I commend you for your honesty. You said what needed to be said in one sentence. All the rest of it is a bunch of games and window dressing.
What we have here is a great deal of people coming up with reasons to feel better about themselves for being against a homeless shelter. To all those SPC families who are against the shelter being at the school I would ask one question. Would you be for the shelter being at the Community Church as was offered as a potential alternative in one of the above posts? I certainly wouldn't.
You can peel back layer after layer. First not across the alley, next not at a school, etc....etc...etc. It all comes back to the sentence Ms. Manchester so perfectly stated.
Like I said...I think it's already decided and this "hearing" is just for amusement and for the media attention.
Anyone know if Alderman Dave has a Facebook page? I'd like to become a fan.
I don't think Alderman Schmidt knows how many fans he has.
Anon. August 25, 2008 12:30 PM -
And I quote: "People should care enough about other human beings to be willing to offer the miniscule assistance that shelters provide from the elements. We are talking about one lousy night a week! For a lousy 6 months!"
EXACTLY! All you pro-PADS shelter people can't bring yourselves to actually walk the walk an provide anything beyond "miniscule assistance" for "one lousy night a week" for "a lousy 6 months!"
Why not 7 nights a week? Why not take one into your own house one night a week instead of warehousig him/her on a cot in a school gym? Why not get together with a bunch of your same-minded friends and rent a few 1-BR or studio apts. for those 6 months?
Because you're all a bunch of hypocrites holding fake halos over your own heads while demonizing those who disagree with you. Is there a special category called "part-time Christians" or "when it's convenient Christians"?
I don't want a homeless shelter, run by PADS or some other do-gooder system milkers, anywhere in Park Ridge. My family did not move to Park Ridge because we were so enamored of an "urban-like" setting...
...but what I or any other residents might want doesn't seem to matter to the Frimark administration, his friends, and the "special interests" he continually coddles...
If PR is going to get a homeless shelter shoved up its' collective bum, then as PRU has said, regulate the s**t out of it.
I support any and all gerrymandering of shelters out of the town where I live.
All people have rights, homeless and homed alike.
I'm not trying to jury rig, fiddle-faddle or kitty whompus away any of the existing PADS shelters. I just don't want a new one established in my town.
Your blanket statements and generalities regarding the homeless population serve only to stir up fear and anxiety that is already so prevalent in Park Ridge. While there are higher instances of drug abuse, sexual abuse, and mental instability among the homeless, the overwhelming majority of the population served by PADS and similar organizations are healthy, capable individuals seeking only shelter and safety.
While shelters (wherever they may be) do not represent desirable, permanent solutions for the homeless, they are far better than a cardboard box, a doorway, or a car.
Like it or not, homelessness is a reality in our city. It's easy to forget as you drink Starbucks, drive your SUV, and fall asleep under your down comforter every night. So much of the rhetoric on this blog seems to suggest that homelessness is a minor issue that we can pretend doesn't exist. Quite to the contrary, this is a devastating issue that we cannot afford to ignore any longer.
The ability to afford a comfortable lifestyle and reside in Park Ridge does not make you exempt from dealing with reality.
Grow up Park Ridge, and stop acting like a two year old that might have to share a crumb of your cake.
hey obama 08--
don't use that name, you are not representing him well.
your comments are unfounded and it's obvious you drank the Kool-aid at SPC.
The TWO homeless in PR don't want any help, as has been stated over and over and over.
It sounds like there is "guilt in your heart" and you need to do some work to alleviate this. So go serve a homeless shelter. I am sure you can volunteer at one of the PADS shelters in nearby communities. They've already polluted the public areas (libraries, parks, etc) there and could use someone like you for cleanup.
you should get the facts before you speak.
Quick show of hands. Who's tired of being told what a bad person you are for not doing cartwheels over having a homeless shelter? I for one have had enough.
anon 2:12 the answer is "yes" we absolutly would be discussing strip clubs tatoo parlors and massage parlors. Just try to put anyone of those within 500 feet of a school and see where it gets you.
By the way I believe those types of establishments including adult book stores are already covered in our ordinance. So addressing a homeless shelter in the same fashion should not be so alarming.
Why not put the shelter in the new police station?....build it all nice and new in a section specifically for PADS in the police station! No frettin bout crime then! ...there will be plenty room in the new station....and in jest, the other nights of the week when PADS is not being used they can lock up all the drivers who run the STOP MEANS STOP-STOP SIGNS.
There maybe homeless in town.
But where to they come from?
Most are probably from elsewhere and why are they even comming here?
This is my concern about the whole situation.
Why should we provide for those who are from elsewhere when they're are probably places for them to go where they originally came from?
Even at past meetings I've heard someone mention about shelters in the city that are often unused which I suspect where many are com ming from so we're just spreading the problem around when we open shelters for those who move around.
Now with that being said that doesn't mean that maybe we should have a shelter for anyone who's from the area. I'm am for helping out those in such situations.
But as always you get too many homeless concentrated in a certain area you're gonna have trouble.
Any of the good doers? They need help at Catholic Charities on Rand Road in Des Plaines, on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. It is Just East of River Road. They have a clothing closet, and they serve a hot meal. Always needing volunteers. They typically feed about 75 people.
They can also use people who can offer legal or counseling services to the homeless or people needing a free meal.
Can someone give me some information about where this statement about unused beds comes from. I have done some limited research and have found no conclusive data. I did find a study that stated a 86% shelter occupancy rate but it was not limited to Chicago and did not break it down by season (which I imagine would make a difference.
For those who insist that SPC parents should "walk the walk" and not question Fr. Carl's divine plan: Are you truly "walking the walk" in your white t-shirts? How many of you have used in-vitro fertilization, birth control, had sex before marriage,abortion and divorced. I know one demented pads supporter who questioned why anyone who didn't support Fr. Carl and the homeless would send their child to a Catholic school or CCD. I think she forgot in-vitro fertilization is against Church rules which she and countless others used. Good for them, I'm not questioning their faith. Yet they question ours. oops, and I wonder how many of them have actually volunteered at a homeless shelter.
In theory, yes, a homeless shelter is a good thing, duhhhh. But not in a school gym, duhhhh. Are up 30 homeless men (a few women) going to vanish into thin air 30 minutes before school starts????? They are homeless, where are they going to go??????????
anon 3:34:
The difference is that all the other "sins" you can confess away. If you disagree with the churches position just go ahead and do it anyway - it is between you and god.
The PADS thing you cannot confess away. You can disagree all you want but, at least for now, it appears they are coming anyway.
you're correct, the Pads thing is not going to go away. Its administrators make far too much money to let it go away. It's the whole United Way scam all over again.Remember how they used to garnish paychecks to meet the donation quotas? And then it came out how much its Director was making. It took a few years, and it will take a few years with Pads.
I've heard that Roosevelt School Gym is the next PADS location.
We find that rumor to be highly uncredible.
Of course it is but I will bet that within the next 24 hours at least 10 people will state it as if it were fact - and blame it on Howard.
You didn't expect to drive your SUV, keep your homes heated @72 and ignore the homeless forever, did you?
keydawg said...
You didn't expect to drive your SUV, keep your homes heated @72 and ignore the homeless forever, did you?
The hardworking and respectable people of Park Ridge have the right to keep what they have earned and continue to pay for -- that includes their quality of life, free from the forced intrusion of the importation of a risky population that is exploited by co-dependent, enablers like the PADS organization and hypocrits in clerical clothes. Next question?
Please - stop attacking the clergy. Everyone has the right to his or her own opinion regarding PADS, and I sympathize with arguments both for and against bringing PADS to our city. However, to attack and demean individuals who have dedicated their lives to the service of others is utterly shameful. Show some respect for those who work so hard in exchange for meager pay and little thanks.
Maybe you overlooked our header when you sought out our site. We refer you now to the subcaption in the banner above.
We have plenty of respect for all people in and out of clerical garb, who have "dedicated their lives to the service of others", when we feel that respect is merited.
We have seen nothing that would change our minds, with respect -- pun intended -- to the very selfserving members of the PRMA.
I will freely admitt it, I just don't get some things about organized religion in general. They are to many to list here but that is OK. After all, I can find hypocricy in all segments of society, religious public and private, without looking very hard. Some days all I have to do is look in the mirror.
Selfserving is a interesting word. I would submitt it happens on both sides of any argument. You have a position and you want to win so you use the data accordingly. I would love to thing that some how the clergy is above that but I am not that naive.
With all do respect those against PADS are every bit as self serving - they just have a different goal.
Who gets labeled as selfserving just depends on what side of the issue you are on.
Show respect and stop attacking the clergy,because they have dedicated and devoted their lives to the service others?
That's the same attitude that got the Catholic children victimized all those years. I don't even know why I'm still a Catholic. My friend's husband was abused as an altar boy. My husband, at a different Parish, served as an altar boy w/a priest who was convicted and served time as a child molester. I'm not going to let some moronic clergy affect my beliefs, but if they are telling us we have to do something because they are our "spiritual leader" that raises a red flag.
Fr Carl is not putting children first. All it takes is one "incident" to ruin a child's life. Fr. Carl has lost my respect insisting that we need to do this here and now. He's never been a parent and is clueless to how the parents feel. I wonder if he's taken the Vertess training all the moms are required by the Archdiocese to be certified to be volunteers at School.
There are other solutions for the 5 "homeless" in PR. No, not euthanasia, what about the Public Works facility, up and down Busse there are buildings I'm sure parishioners of all the churches would donate to fund a shelter.
To PRU,
I'm sorry I don't write satire well.
I do believe in keeping my SUV and my home heated at 72 forever.....as long as I continue to pay for it.
I'm undecided about pads. Maybe a homeless shelter at the VFW hall not run by pads?
It also depends upon what any given side of the issue has a right to claim.
We would strongly suggest that it is not hypocritical for the residents of Park Ridge to want to protect their children, themselves and their property from the risks the PRMA is insisting they take.
We would strongly suggest that those residents have a right to that selfserving interest.
We would also strongly suggest that the members of the PRMA and others have been liars in their attempts to force a homeless shelter on residents under the guise of "serving others", when they have remained hypocritically stone cold silent on the many alternatives offered; including taking a homeless person into each of their own dwellings, possibly for more than one night a week for a mere six months -- which would allow them to "serve others" free and clear of any government oversight, and increased demands on taxpayer funded resources.
Keydog,
Our apologies -- your original statement was clearly not clearly read and understood.
Our response stands for itself.
PRU:
You will get no disagreement from me on anything in your reply. There is no question the PRMA is trying to push this through against the wishes of a group of PR citizens.
Of course I am sure they are all looking at the arguments presented by those of us against PADS and doing the same labeling. With a few assumptions, either side can be labeled as selfserving liars (me included).
Obama 08 sounds like an alias for the PRMA. the ramblings of Obama 08 sound like the ramblings of the PRMA.
Father Carl (and for sure one other member of the PRMA who will be leaving soon) is trying to thumb his nose one last time at the people of Park Ridge by insisting on SPC being a PADS site while so many are against it.
What I want to know is how one person can cause so much anger and distress and get away with it?
What I want to know is if the neighbors at St. Mary's are afraid to have their kids walk past a homeless shelter why would the PRMA think SPC and SCHOOL would house such a shelter.
If kids shouldn't walk past a homeless shelter why would the PRMA think it is OK for a school to house a homeless shelter.
If you think the patrons of the shelter will be gone before school starts - think again.
Bravo!!! August 25, 2008 5:51 PM!!! You could not have said it better!
-Young Physician
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