The city of Aurora’s temporary winter warming shelter is going to look different this year, as it is set to open on more nights, be in a different location and have a different organization running the operation.
The Aurora City Council on Tuesday approved a contract with Becoming Oswego Church to operate the shelter at a cost of around $135,000. The temporary warming shelter is set to be open overnight when temperatures are at or below 32 degrees for at least six hours, a draft version of the contract shows, which is a change from past years’ threshold temperature of 15 degrees.
Aurora currently lacks a low barrier option for people to seek shelter this winter, so this warming shelter will fill that need, Chief Community Services Officer Nicole Mullins told the City Council. She previously said that the temporary shelter would only be for those who cannot go to Hesed House, a local homeless shelter, either because it is at capacity or they were turned away for some other reason.
The city’s temporary warming shelter has over the past three years opened an average of 30 nights per winter, but this year with the expanded temperature threshold, the city is expecting it to be open for around 100 days, according to a staff report about the proposal included with the Tuesday City Council meeting’s agenda.
A $50,000 contingency fund was set up in case it needs to be open for additional nights, to provide hotel vouchers for families or to address overflow needs, staff said in the report.
The shelter is set to be located at 712 S. River St., which is the same location as the city’s Financial Empowerment Center, and is next to South River Street Park. The building has a maximum capacity of 49 people and is close to the downtown library that will continue to serve as a daytime warming shelter, the staff report said.
Those who stay at the temporary overnight warming shelter will be provided with a warm meal and a cot, shelter Executive Director Annie Fish told The Beacon-News on Wednesday. There will be separate sleeping areas for men and women, on-site bathrooms every night and the occasional on-site mobile shower unit, she said.
The shelter is also set to have private security, Fish said at Tuesday’s meeting.
A draft of the contract between Becoming Oswego and the city shows the shelter’s hours would be from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., but Fish said it would extend its hours to not close before the nearby library opens.
Many, including staff of local organizations dedicated to addressing homelessness like Hesed House and the Association for Individual Development, came to city meetings on Tuesday to urge the City Council to approve the warming center. At one of the meetings on Tuesday, so many people spoke both about this and other topics that the meeting’s public comment period was extended beyond the 30 minutes typically allowed.
Broadly, those who spoke in favor of the warming center at Tuesday’s meetings stressed the humanity and worth of those who are homeless, the cost to the community if these people don’t have a place to go during winter weather, how many could die if they didn’t have access to an emergency warming shelter and how past city warming shelters have helped people.
Multiple aldermen, during the later discussion on the temporary overnight warming center, noted that the Aurora City Council has always voted in favor of measures like these, including past years’ winter warming centers and support for local homeless shelters.
However, there was previously pushback to the warming shelter’s first proposed location in downtown.
Some downtown business owners came to speak at the Finance Committee meeting last week against the proposed location at 35 N. Broadway, saying it would drive away customers. Many noted their compassion for homeless people but urged the city to find another location for the shelter.
After hearing feedback, the plan was changed to put the temporary warming shelter in the same building as the Financial Empowerment Center.
Chief Community Services Officer Mullins said leases the city had with other organizations using space within the building are already expiring, city staff will be moved out and a new location will be found for the Financial Empowerment Center.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
