A judge could rule as early as Friday on the Lake County Housing Authority’s plan to hand off ownership of a facility near Lake Zurich and turn it into permanent housing for area homeless.
The plan ended up in court after residents formed the group “Residents for an Engaged Community” and staunchly opposed the housing authority’s plan to let PADS of Lake County control the former Midlothian Manor property, once an assisted living site, and manage homes that would service 14 chronically homeless individuals in the area.
On Oct. 19, attorneys representing both the housing authority and the citizens’ group argued their cases before Lake County Circuit Court Judge Thomas M. Schippers, said Dan Shapiro, a Northbrook attorney representing Residents for an Engaged Community.
“That was part one of the court argument,” Shapiro said. “We’re coming back (Friday), when the judge could take it under advisement or make a ruling.”
Even if a decision isn’t made Friday, David Northern, executive director and CEO for the Lake County Housing Authority, said the judge’s decision will be an important one since it could greatly affect the availability of affordable housing in the Lake Zurich area.
The housing authority has owned the former Midlothian Manor since 2001 and proposed giving it to PADS of Lake County after the assisted living facility closed in 2010 because of low occupancy.
Chronically homeless individuals go through cycles of homelessness, Northern said. Housing could help put them on the right track, he said.
“Our mission is to provide for the most vulnerable in the community,” Northern said. “These people have mental illness or have substance abuse problems, or both.”
The plan landed in court after board members of the housing authority voted in July 2015 to file a legal review of the Lake County Zoning Board of Appeals’ decision in May 2015 not to issue the permit that would have allowed PADS of Lake County to use the site located in unincorporated Lake County.
The zoning board of appeals initially allowed for PADS to operate the homeless program at the former Midlothian Manor earlier in 2015, favoring a recommendation from the Lake County Planning, Building and Development Department that said the property could be zoned for “government use.”
But board members reversed course later that May after the residents, a part of Residents for an Engaged Community, filed an appeal and argued the proposed use for the building, located near single-family homes, should be classified as a “group living” site, which would have prohibited PADS from using it to house the homeless under the zoning code.
After days of meetings and debate, the zoning board sided with the community group’s argument on May 26 and reversed the department’s recommendation, prompting the housing authority to file for an administrative review.
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