Apartment hunting is always a challenge. Renters hope to find a bargain while still meeting their needs for a comfortable, safe home.
Laura Sabino and Andy Wolff have a similar set of requirements as they tour apartments and homes in the Libertyville area.
Sabino is the executive director of the Lake County Haven, a shelter for homeless women and children in Libertyville. Wolff has been working for the shelter through an internship program for several months.
They’re looking for living quarters for the women in the shelter’s Stage Two housing program.
Lake County Haven recently received a $107,000 federal grant spread over three years to pay for more housing, and officials say they will be able to help as many as six more women a year as a result.
The housing not only must be reasonably priced, but also has to be close to the shelter’s Libertyville headquarters so staffers can drop by easily, Sabino said.
And if a neighborhood has problems with drug dealers, it’s out of the question. Some of the women are battling substance abuse and don’t need temptation just outside their door.
“I just think, `Would I want to live there?’ ” Sabino said.
Stage Two began in April 1995 and now has two, two-bedroom apartments and a four-bedroom house available for clients–all women who have lived in the shelter. Stage Two is a way to offer them more independence while still providing support from the staff.
The program meets a need for more transitional housing for women and children, said Dave Robinson, a planner with the Lake County Planning and Development Department.
“It’s a real low-key way to go about housing some people. It’s really unobtrusive in the neighborhood,” Robinson said.
The Lake County Haven is a private shelter founded in 1992 by people worried there were few places for the county’s homeless women and their children.
Women who come to the shelter looking for housing are generally in their 20s and 30s; most from Lake County, Sabino said. Roughly one-third are battling addictions. Others were evicted from previous housing. Most stay about four months, Sabino said.
When they arrive, they must fill out a sheet listing their goals. After meeting those goals, which might include getting counseling and finding a job, some of the women are ready to go back on their own.
But others, like Bobbie, the mother of two, want to try independence but still need some assistance from the shelter’s staff. That’s where Stage Two comes in. It is currently serving three women.
Bobbie has been living in Stage Two’s house since April.
“It’s been great; it put me back out to pretty much be in charge of myself, but at the same time . . . they make me still do what I’m supposed to do,” she said.
Bobbie, who has found work as a nursing assistant, gets help budgeting her money and goes to counseling sessions.
The house’s owner, who asked not to be identified, said it has been a wonderful experience working with the shelter’s staff and Bobbie.
“It has felt good to watch my own children be welcoming and helpful to Bobbie and her family,” the Libertyville woman said.
She was familiar with the shelter’s work and had no qualms about renting to the organization on behalf of its clients. The woman said she has even spoken to others considering renting to the shelter to reassure them the arrangement will work out.
Sabino and Wolff have noticed some prospective landlords are uncomfortable with the idea that their new tenants were once homeless.
“I told them that the Haven was totally responsible for its families, and that they were here in a split second if I called them and said that I had a question,” the landlord said.
