A homeless community

By Sara Burnett

August 11, 2000 Web posted at: 2:18 PM EDT (1818 GMT)

In this story: Teaching responsibility "I'm not going to lay down and die" RELATED STORIES

ELGIN, Illinois (Daily Herald) -- As talks begin about what, if anything, Elgin should provide for its homeless, those looking at building a permanent homeless shelter say they will look to their neighbors to see what has worked and what has not.

Among the homeless facilities a volunteer committee will be studying over the next several months is Hesed House, a sprawling shelter and transitional living community near the Fox River in Aurora.

Opened in 1985, Hesed House is a kind of "shopping center" for area homeless, said Diane Nilan, program director for Public Action to Deliver Shelter, the emergency shelter that serves as an "anchor store" in the metaphorical shopping mall.

It is the combination of services offered along with PADS at Hesed House that makes the facility a model Elgin leaders may want to follow.

	More from Daily Herald
	Jobs Autos

"(Hesed House) is not just beds," said Elgin city Councilman Juan Figueroa, who is organizing the volunteer committee that met for the first time last month. "I think we can learn from them, to find out how they have been able to succeed."

Within Hesed House, an emergency PADS shelter operates from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., seven nights a week in the winter and three nights a week in summer.

During the summer, a "tent city" made up of 15 or 16 tents is set up behind the building, near the railroad tracks. Between 60 and 64 residents may live in the tent city 24 hours a day during the summer months, but they first must pass an interview with Nilan. Tent city has strict rules about alcohol or drug use, and residents are responsible for keeping the area clean, cutting wood for fires and maintaining a nearby nature trail.

Meals are served each night by volunteers from local churches. A soup kitchen, food pantry, clothes closet and health clinic also operate out of the south wing of the building.

In the north wing is the Transitional Living Community, a dormitory-style living area where residents share rooms and take turns cooking meals for up to 50 people staying in the center.

When guests arrive at PADS, they sit down and talk with Nilan or another staff member, whose job it is to get to know the guest and assess their needs. Some of the people who turn to Hesed House need only a place to stay for the night. Others need medicine or other health care, while some are referred to the local veteran's administration hospital.

Those longer-term guests who Nilan thinks "can make it" are invited to stay in the transitional wing, where they have beds and dressers, a sink in their room and a communal kitchen and living room.

When the transitional wing first opened nine years ago, Nilan feared PADS would be left with only the most troubled cases. But there has been no shortage of people with potential to move on.

"The cream rises," Nilan said. "They (transitional wing) steal the cream, and more cream rises."

Among the guests living in the transitional area in July was Walter, who drives an 18-wheeler for a living, has a house in North Aurora and a wife who is an attorney.

"Cheatin'," Walter said, is what landed him at Hesed House. Medical problems and a lack of health insurance is what's keeping him there, depressed and teary-eyed, but trying to save his money and work his way out.

Gary lost his home in Aurora after a heart attack in October left him unable to work. He arrived at Hesed House on Christmas Day.

"I wouldn't go to my family," Gary said. "I won't."

A former machinist who never worried about money, Gary credits the staff at Hesed House for saving his life, literally, when he had another heart attack last winter. He was waiting for social security and his union pension to kick in.

"I'll get something going again," Gary says. "I'm not going to lay down and die."

And while the guys sitting out back near the tent city talk proudly of Valerie, a former "roommate" who now has an apartment, a job, and recently got her picture in the newspaper, they also admit there are those who, given the choice, would prefer to remain homeless.

"You got a lot of guys who are trying, but some of them, they just don't want a job," says Willie, who has lived at Hesed House nine months and just started a new job at a nearby steel foundry.

There also are women and children at Hesed House - so many that this past winter, the women's PADS area was full for the first time.

Almost 95 percent of the more than 700 people who stayed at Hesed House last year were from the Aurora area, Nilan said, refuting worries among opponents of a permanent shelter in Elgin that such a facility would become a magnet for homeless from other communities.

"We welcome 'out-of-town guests,' for one night," Nilan said. "Then I just tell them, 'Hey, look around. I'm sorry, but we're full.'"

The success of Hesed House comes from having many services under one roof and a large group of volunteers who help run the facility every night and day, Nilan said. According to the organization's annual report, the bulk of its $2 million annual budget comes from church and individual contributions, grants, corporate and in-kind donations and volunteer service. On top of that, Nilan said, it is the volunteers who are helping to change the public's perception of the homeless.

"They have encounters with poor and homeless people here and see them as human beings," Nilan said. "Then they go back to work, or their place of worship or their neighborhood and say 'I was talking to a homeless person the other day, and he didn't have six heads.' When you have thousands of volunteers, that message ripples out."

And while the agency has no statistical data to prove its system is working, of the 700 guests who stayed at PADS last season, about 80 to 100 were still there when the emergency shelter closed its doors for the summer.

"I'm not a math person," Nilan said, "but it makes me think that sooner or later, people get back on their feet."

For more Local news, myCNN.com will bring you news from the areas and subjects you select.

CO, Colorado Springs, KKTV CO, Denver KCNC CO, Denver, KWGN IL, Chicago, WGN IL, Decatur, WAND IL, East Peoria, WEEK IL, Quincy, KHQA   IA, Des Moines, KCCI KS, Wichita, KAKE KS, Topeka, KTKA KS, Wichita, KWCH MN, Minneapolis/St. Paul, KMSP MO, Kansas City, KCTV MT, Billings KTVQ   MT, Great Falls, KFBB ND, Fargo, KXJB ON, Barrie, NEWVR ON, Toronto, CITYTV WI, Green Bay, WLUK WI, Milwaukee, WISN