The city of Elgin will again fund an overnight winter shelter run by One Collective, a nonprofit mission helping the homeless, at a downtown church. But there’s one major change this year.
Anyone seeking to access the shelter will need show proof of residency, city officials said.
“This season the shelter is being limited to persons who can show proof of residency with a state-issued identification or by those who have been verified as residents through the casework command center operated by One Collective and other social service agencies,” City Manager Rick Kozal said at the Sept. 11 City Council meeting.
Kozal said the city knows it can be difficult for some people to obtain a state ID.
“We are not going to use that as a barrier. The (command center) has been effectively working, and we know it can be a reliable means to establish that the person is an Elgin resident,” he said.
Councilwoman Tish Powell asked what happens if someone shows up needing shelter but isn’t an Elgin resident.
No one will be left out on the street, especially in cold weather, Kozal said. He said anyone showing up to the emergency shelter for the first time will be informed about the residency requirement and will be told they can’t come back the next day.
“It’s not the desire, certainly, to put anybody out on the street unnecessarily,” Kozal said. “But there’s also a recognition that Elgin’s homeless population hits the capacity of this facility, and [it] doesn’t have the ability to be a come-one, come-all” shelter.
Between 100 and 125 chronically homeless individual live in Elgin, Kozal said.
The residency requirement is being added due to concerns that other municipalities should provide overnight shelters, not just Elgin, Kozal said.
A few other changes are being implemented. The city is providing onsite security every night to mitigate police calls, Kozal said. Operational hours and dates changed also.
The overnight shelter will run from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. This year, the shelter will open from Dec. 15 to Mar. 15 — a shorter timeline than last year, officials explained.
However, if the temperatures drop below 15 degrees on any night between Dec. 1 and Dec. 15 or Mar. 15 and Mar. 31, it can open on an emergency basis, Kozal said.
The City Council tentatively approved $230,000 for the shelter at its meeting last Wednesday.
A final vote is expected in the next few weeks.
Gloria Casas is a freelancer.