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Father Carl Morello, the priest at St. Paul of the Cross in Park Ridge, recently suggested turning the school's gymnasium into shelter on Sunday nights, from October through April, as part of the PADS ("public action to deliver shelter") program, a network of faith-based shelters throughout Cook County. And his plan hasn't gone over so well.
...Parents like Paul Chevlin, an assistant state's attorney, don't like the idea of running a shelter so close to their parish school."What if contraband is left on school grounds?" asked Chevlin, whose daughter attends the school and is leading a parent group opposed to the plan. "What if a guy has a knife and ditches it in the bushes by the school and a little kid finds it? Or a hypodermic needle?"
Others argue that there aren't any homeless people on Park Ridge, so there's no point in having a shelter.
PADS screens all its clients, all of whom submit to a criminal background check and have to carry PADS ID to use the shelters. Program officials say that hasn't happened at any of the other shelters in the last 25 years.
This reminds us of our favorite line from the Gospel, "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of cleanest, nicest, most attractive of my brethren, at the least possible expense or inconvenience to yourselves, ye have done it unto me." Amen. [Pioneer Press, Pioneer Press, St. Paul's PADS Q&A, Trib]
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"Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?"
I lived, briefly, in the burbs. There are plenty of poor people out in the sprawl, and they very easily end up homeless, living in their cars, camping in the forest preserves. Just because you don't see them wandering the streets as you might in an urban area, doesn't mean they aren't there.
As for kids finding bags of dope and knives and shotguns hidden in the foliage, that's just fear-mongering.
What's wonderful is the people crying 'what about the children' and blocking this shelter are likely heading to church this sunday, all nice clothes and smiles and ivory tower logic.
Jesus wouldn't be caught dead with those jerks.
This is hardly surprising. Park Ridge practically invented NIMBY. I'm just going to leave it at that.
Having said that, isn't the point about "no homeless people in Park Ridge" moot? Isn't this a shelter that transports people TO the shelter, a different one each night (hence the shelter only being open on sundays)? Not that it matters, they don't actually CARE if there's a need for the shelter, as long as it isn't near them. What an excellent lesson for their children on living the message of the gospel. Good on ya, Park Ridge.
Paul Chevlin: you are an ass hole. Great job embracing the spirit of community that exists in a faith based school (and church) and why you should want your kid to attend it.
If he doesn't like the homeless folks in a shelter on the weekends he can wait for them to camp out in HIS bushes leaving behind the telltale knives and needles. FYI, Paul, there is a big difference between homeless and junkie. I would think a state's attorney would know the difference.
I did enjoy the karmic thought of this overprotective dad meeting his daughters first boyfriend. May the boyfriend arrive on a motorcycle. With tattoos.
I used to work for the Parks Department of a northwest suburb that hosted a PADS shelter. While I never came across needles or knives, some of the homeless did stash an alarming amount of booze in the public parks around the shelter. Just relating my experience, not offering my opinion.
Ah, NIMBY. So cute. So quaint. So ... so ... retarded.
What would Jesus Do???????????
Jesus started this spook, born in a barn, turning water into wine ,just wandering the countryside, he may have been homeless and look what happened, the jews knew how to solve that homeless problem
Spook
Maybe your buddy Ricky Hendon can get some grant money to help solve this problem
You self-righteous commenters apparently don't know what it's like to have homeless people committing crimes, breaking into your cars, and begging from your kids. Yeah, surprise, homeless actually do those things.
And perhaps you have not experienced homeless people hurting property values for middle class working citizens who have invested their whole lives in a home.
I side with the concerned neighbors and add that Father Morello, not the neighbors, is the one who should get off his high horse and learn a little humility.
I live directly next door to a homeless shelter in Lincoln Park. It was here when I moved, so I knew what I was getting myself into. I have had very few problems - got accosted by a drunk once, and somebody broke into my car, although the guy doing that almost certainly isn't from the shelter. A few of the neighbors blamed the shelter for some other crimes, like a home invasion, which is pretty f'ing serious. Then some of the neighbors tried to shut the place down, and there was a big to-do for a couple years, but it's back now.
However, for the most part, they cause very few problems. It does chafe me a little bit because this is pure NIMBYism. I don't think it lowers property value. I don't think it causes a surge in crime. I know most people don't want homeless people hanging around the neighborhood, but one also can't expect to live in a bubble, isolated from the lower classes. It's not realistic.
I think if these supposedly charitable Christians give the shelter a chance, they'll find out it's not going to turn Park Ridge into Liberty City.
In Luke 16, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man is condemned because he has not used his wealth to help Lazarus. Or Matthew 25 “Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’
The Bible is clear on the topic of poverty and the poor; seems to me these people need to do some reading.
How nice it is to see Chicagoist commenters lecturing a Park Ridge citizen because "...he has not used his wealth to help Lazarus."
You have no idea what the protesting Park Ridge man has done in his life. Perhaps it is far more than any of us have done.
He still is fully justified in opposing the homeless shelter.
come on people - there has to be more generalizations you can throw around about Park Ridge residents.
All I'm saying is that it's easy to go to church on Sundays and toss a couple bucks in the basket as it goes around. Real sacrifice is more difficult.
As for the safety of having one of these shelters, which just a reminder, is not a full time shelter, it's a one night a week situation, here is some information from the St Mary's Episcopalian Church website. St Mary's has hosted the shelter until recently.
# PADS conducts background checks on all guests, and each guest must have a PADS ID card to be able to access a PADS shelter. Additionally, all PADS clients must be involved in various social services offered through the PADS Hope Center program. Experience at other PADS sites shows that guests come from the local area within a close radius.
# PADS sites are staffed by trained volunteers and overseen by PADS. Trained volunteers are on premises before, during, and after the site hours. Local police departments patrol the PADS site area during site hours and maintain a presence in the neighborhood after the site closes in the morning.
I'm sure everyone criticizing Park Ridge residents here lives near a homeless shelter, and volunteers regularly to feed, clothe, and teach job trg. to homeless folks.
Definitely none of you live in neighborhoods with trendy bars, or stylish restaurants, or on streets with nice condos/homes where these poor homeless people could have been gentrified out.
Invite me over for dinner. I'll just bring some stones and look for the glass house.
Actually, until I moved to Bangladesh last year, I lived a 1/2 block from a half-way house in Uptown. As for the service work, I'm the daughter of civil rights activists and started working for justice before I was out of grade school, but come on over for dinner anyway, just step over the lepers on my front stoop.
i know i don't do enough. but i *do* know that as lulu states, the bible is VERY clear about how to treat the poor and the sick and those that are looked upon as less than desirable.
it's hard to take *some* christians seriously when they won't follow the dictates of their own teachings. especially when *some* of them will use the same material to deride people and make judgments on others' behaviors. it's literal or it's not.