As a result of the COVID-19 crisis, shelters are at capacity or have closed. But DuPage and Will County organizations are stepping up to help the homeless.
What is DuPage County Doing?
At this morning’s DuPage County Board Meeting, Chairman Dan Cronin proposed to allocate funds to two nonprofits, DuPage Pads and Catholic Charities.
Both organizations closed their overnight stays as a result of COVID-19 crisis, but are providing hotel stay for their clients.
“As both agencies have incurred significant additional expense it is my intention to provide $50,000 to DuPage Pads and $35,000 to Catholic Charities to help them during these unprecedented times,” said Cronin. “These funds will come from our Human Services grant fund, which was already included in the DuPage County 2020 budget.”
The hope is to get the proposal as items on a future agenda schedule. The next DuPage County Board meeting is scheduled for April 14.
What Is Will County Doing?
Will County is partnering with the City of Joliet, United Way of Will County, and a network of agencies and service providers working to end homelessness called the Continuum of Care (CoC) to provide homeless people shelter.
Together they released the Emergency Housing Assistance Plan, which will help provide shelter for the homeless and those at risk of losing their homes.
The group is currently working with shelters and hotels to provide temporary stays.
“We are filling our shelters first. Morning Star Mission still has a couple of vacancies and they’re filling those,” said Sarah Kidwell, the CoC Interim Coordinator. “And then if they are overrun they are referring people to a hotel we’ve contracted with to place individuals seeking shelter.”
The CoC anticipates they’ll need about 50 hotel rooms to accommodate those at risk, but are only half way to the $100,000 that is needed to cover the charges.
If you’d like support the mission, donations can be made at this website https://uwwill.org/will-county-covid-19-response-fund.
Naperville News 17’s Christian Canizal reports.
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