Just imagine that it's 15 degrees outside (which you don't have to imagine this morning; just step outside) and you don't have a place to live. Can you even imagine that? As we run from our homes to our cars or let our cars warm up for ten minutes in the driveway (which I don't), it is too easy to forget about those who are homeless.
PADS (Public Action to Deliver Shelter) has been around for more than 20 years, and it has set up inside sleeping arrangements around the county that are used by a few of its clients. An editorial in today's Northwest Herald identifies the locations of churches that provide sleeping space to PADS clients:
Sunday - Crystal Lake
Monday - Cary
Tuesday - Wonder Lake
Wednesday - Wednesday
Thursday - Richmond or Harvard
Friday - Crystal Lake
Saturday - Cary
Just the logistics of getting to those places is daunting.
On the south side of Woodstock is a vacant commercial building where Farm & Fleet or a lumber company operated. It's just south of U.S. 14 and next door to Woodstock Harley-Davidson. There sits a large building that, to my knowledge, is used only once a year by the Woodstock Clearinghouse Christmas project. How many years has it been empty?
What if that building were converted to a PADS dormitory? It wouldn't have to be a Hilton, but it could be clean and warm, provide a place for meal preparation, and be a site at which employment training could be conducted.
As it is now, the churches provide a safe and warm place at night, but those who stay there must leave in the morning - regardless of the reading on the thermometer.
There have to be many other sites in McHenry County, where a building could be acquired (purchase or lease) and used in this manner. The Walmart in McHenry might be a good candidate, after the store moves north to Johnsburg and vacates a huge building that very likely will sit empty for a long time and even eventually be torn down.
You never know who is interested…
3 months ago
5 comments:
Many of the PADS folks fit inside a basement of a church. Do you find it necessary for such a large building? Also the old farm and fleet is used year 'round a privately owned.
And how cheap do you think a prime piece of realestate would go for at 14 and 47?
Frank(ly), I think there are hundreds of homeless in McHenry County, not just the 40 who are showing up at the churches each night.
And that is why you'll be a great politician! You didn't answer my question...why the farm and fleet building? And are there "hundreds" of homeless people in need of PADS? Do you have any proof of that?
There are between 300-400 people in McHenry County who are homeless and who have contacted PADS. And those are just the ones who have contacted PADS.
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