Not much has happened in the three months since Mayor Wayne Motley established a task force to look at how Waukegan handles homelessness issues, its co-chairman said.
While limited because both leaders – John Fallon and Brenda O’Connell – have full-time jobs, they have been reaching out to various organizations, churches, service providers, hospitals, housing authorities, politicians and police departments that have a stake in reducing the number of people in long-term homelessness, Fallon said.
These groups as well as the general public will be invited to an educational program planned for 8:30 a.m. to noon Monday, Sept. 19, at Waukegan City Hall, 100 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. The program will feature a series of speakers on new approaches in addressing homelessness and will be followed by a presentation at the Waukegan City Council meeting that evening.
Motley created the task force in April, just weeks after Waukegan suspended the license of Lake County’s main resource center for the homeless. The move drew criticism from some circles who argued it only exacerbated the problem, but thanks from others tired of panhandling, drug use and littering in the area.
Motley said he understood the time limitations of Fallon and O’Connell, but believed with their expertise, they could get a plan together. Fallon is a senior project manager with the Corporation for Supportive Housing. O’Connell is the county’s program coordinator for continuum-of-care services for homeless people.
Lake County has been focusing too much on providing services to the homeless and not enough on getting them into long-term housing that comes with the support to ensure they are good neighbors, Fallon said. The county needs to prioritize the 30 to 40 people who take up much of the time and resources of paramedics, police officers and service providers.
“I don’t want this to be a discussion to the mayor and PADS,” Fallon said. “This is moving the entire homeless system away from where it’s been.”
Motley said the city of Waukegan and Lake County needs a “steadfast solution to the problem,” one that gets people into housing and connected to the services they need so that they don’t need to be bused all over the county.
The upcoming educational program will be used to decide who will sit on the task force and how the various groups and service areas will be represented, Fallon said.
The mayor has reached out to the executive director of PADS Lake County to see if he’ll participate, though no official appointments have been made to the task force beyond the original two co-chairs, he said.
Motley hopes to have an action plan by winter, he said, adding that he doesn’t know if that’s possible, but that they’re “going to make every effort.”
Twitter @mekcoleman
