Joliet OKs Women's Opioid Addiction Recovery Campus In 5-3 Vote

JOLIET, IL — Two years after Mayor Bob O'Dekirk, City Manager Jim Capparelli and others fiercely opposed plans from the Volunteers of America, the Joliet City Council voted 5-3 on Tuesday night to approve a special use permit to allow construction of a 48-unit development to house women who are recovering from drug addictions.

Voting for it were Suzanna Ibarra, Cesar Guerrero, Cesar Cardenas, Pat Mudron and Sherri Reardon. Against it were Larry Hug, Joe Clement and Jan Quillman. Mayor Terry D'Arcy announced that he had to abstain.

The Volunteers of America Illinois proposal will develop a multi-family, supportive, housing complex for women suffering from addictions, especially opioid addiction and their children on the former Silver Cross Hospital campus.

Hope Manor Village Joliet called for a 48-unit development consisting of 1 and 2-bedroom units. The operation will be entirely recovery based, gender-responsive and trauma-informed to best serve the future residents. The proposed site on the former Silver Cross Hospital campus is 2.1 acres north of Copperfield Avenue and west of North Hebbard Street.

The property site is north to VOA’s “Hope Manor Joliet” supportive housing for veterans and their families, which opened in 2017. Four of the units will have one bedroom while the other 44 will be two-bedroom units.

In January 2022, Capparelli vehemently opposed the Volunteers of America Illinois' proposal to build a 42-unit women's opioid addiction treatment center at the former Silver Cross Hospital site.

At that time, Joliet Patch broke the news that Volunteers of America Illinois would not move ahead with its development called the Hope Manor Village Joliet.

The project was on the Joliet City Council agenda two weeks earlier, but backers of the project requested the Council not take a vote at the time.

In 2022, Capparelli said that Volunteers of America Illinois should take its project to some other village or community in Will County such as Channahon, Shorewood, Plainfield, Frankfort or Homer Glen.