Oak Lawn Ministers Oppose Proposed Homeless Shelter Ordinance

OAK LAWN, IL -- Last August when BEDS Plus took over managing the south suburban emergency overnight shelters from PADS, Oak Lawn ministers were trying to fill a gap that would provide overnight accommodations for homeless men on Sunday evenings.

The ministers approached Mount Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church about providing a Sunday night men’s shelter. The church offered up its empty parsonage, not wanting to conflict with a longstanding Alcoholics Anonymous that met Sunday evening in the main church building at 104th Street and Kostner.

“The church council suggested the empty parsonage,” said Rev. David Hulse, pastor of Mt. Zion Lutheran Church. “We talked to BEDS Plus about the viability of moving forward.”

As the church polled nearby neighbors and before BEDS Plus could conduct a community meeting, neighbors confronted Tr. Tom Phelan (Dist. 6) and the village with concerns about a homeless shelter located in the empty pastor's residence in the middle of the neighborhood.

>> Oak Lawn Ordinance for Temporary Shelters: What You Need To Know (opinion)

“The parsonage had never been parceled out and is on our property. Our church council polled our neighbors as a courtesy,” Hulse said, who is also a former board member of the LaGrange-based BEDS Plus. “They went right to the trustee. It went from a good possibility to a huge thing that blew up overnight. We decided it wasn’t a good idea. We didn’t want to anger our neighbors or hamper BEDS Plus’ ministry. We didn’t want to start a fight with the neighborhood.”

On Monday, the Oak Lawn Planning and Development is poised to hold another public hearing on Oak Lawn’s first ordinance that would regulate the village’s overnight emergency shelters for homeless persons. Should plan commissioners recommend the ordinance, it could go before Oak Lawn village trustees for a full vote at their next meeting on Nov. 14.

Although the six Oak Lawn-based churches currently operating overnight emergency shelters have been given assurances that they’re exempt from the proposed ordinance, they still harbor concerns about some of the new requirements. Ministers argue that the ordinance's severity could impose significant costs and burden on their religious institutions, where the shelters are typically and currently held.

>> Oak Lawn's Proposed Ordinance for Temporary Homeless Shelters (opinion)

Under the proposed ordinance, churches with existing shelters would be required to apply for a license by Jan. 1, 2018, in the middle of the winter shelter season. Rev. Peggy McClanahan, whose Pilgrim Faith United Church of Christ has run an overnight shelter for the past several decades, says some of the restrictions the village is suggesting aren’t even legal. Ministers claim that the village wants the shelters to serve only Oak Lawn’s homeless population, as well as require names of overnight guests. Such disclosures violate guests' privacy and safety, especially women and children escaping domestic violence.

““While [the village] grandfathered in the existing shelters, I was alarmed by what was in the ordinance,” McClanahan said. “[The ordinance] makes it impossible to replace a shelter that drops out. There is lots there that wasn’t required before, with severe restrictions on the number of guests, to prohibitions on the food preparation and fire safety that go way beyond anything the Oak Lawn Fire Department has ever asked before.”

McClanahan added that after 20 years of refining a long-standing shelter system that was created at the request from the Oak Lawn Community Partnership in 1997 when a homeless man was found frozen to death, the faith-based shelter providers have been shut out of any kind of dialogue with the village about the new ordinance.

“There are twenty things in the ordinance that are a problem and overkill of whatever issues the village trying to resolve,” McClanahan said.

Tina Rounds, executive director BEDS Plus, expressed concerns about possible unintended consequences and says the ordinance needs to be reconciled.

“What is troubling to my soul is that once it’s an ordinance that’s enacted -- what happens then,” Rounds said. “We understand the need and right of a municipality to regulate what’s going on in their community. We want to work in partnership with Oak Lawn and be part of the conversation in developing the ordinance.”

Oak Lawn Village Tr, Bud Stalker (Dist. 5) echoed other village officials’ reassurances that churches operating existing shelters will not be affected by the more stringent codes. Stalker said the intent of the ordinance is to keep unscrupulous landlords and owners from turning apartment buildings zoned R-3 into SROs or single-room occupancy dwellings.

“We’re not regulating churches, we’re regulating occupancies,” Stalker said. “The goal isn’t stop organizations like PADS or BEDS. The devil is in the details and I, too, have concerns as well. That’s why we need more work on [the ordinance] before it comes a law.”

The Oak Lawn Planning and Development Commission will meet at 7 :30 p.m., Monday, Nov. 6, at village hall, located at 9446 S. Raymond Ave.

~ Patch File Photo