Following fleeing domestic violence, a mom and her three kids — a toddler and twin babies — observed a place to remain in just one of 3 inns utilised by DuPagePads to shelter the homeless in the course of the pandemic.
The nonprofit business moved households like hers from crowded, overnight shelters to vacant resort rooms to aid defend them from the coronavirus.
Resort housing gave the mom and other domestic violence survivors privateness and stability, cribs and toddler beds for their children.
“That is very difficult to do in a congregate model, but listed here in resorts, she can give her toddlers a tub,” stated April Redzic, DuPagePads president and CEO. “She can continue to be in a house in which she feels secure, and they can all snooze soundly.”
The arrangement was born out of pandemic necessity. But it truly is labored out so perfectly that DuPagePads is shifting ahead with programs to change a Downers Grove lodge into interim housing for men and women enduring homelessness.
DuPage County Board customers have accredited a $5 million funding ask for to aid DuPagePads get the Red Roof Inn property around Butterfield Street and Highland Avenue.
The county will use federal funds to assist the job, which includes a $3 million Local community Enhancement Block Grant and $2 million in coronavirus relief from the American Rescue Approach Act.

























“This financial commitment in what we are performing and in generating extensive-phrase answers to finish homelessness is large, a once-in-a-lifetime possibility for those of us in this kind of treatment,” Redzic reported.
DuPagePads has housed much more than 450 folks, together with about 150 kids, in accommodations in the course of the pandemic. As of Monday evening, a lot more than 230 people today have been getting shelter, a third of them children.
Commonly, at the peak of winter season, DuPagePads would present nightly refuge for about 150 homeless men and women.
“We’ve certainly observed a terrific raise in terms of have to have due to the fact the pandemic’s onset,” Redzic mentioned.
COVID-19 forced advocates to shut common, congregate shelters, quite a few of them in churches. DuPagePads commenced leasing lodge rooms for elderly consumers with serious health and fitness ailments, family members and then people today with the assist of county funding.
Hotels also rented out rooms at discounted premiums, bringing in a stream of business enterprise whilst the pandemic halted vacation.
People today who would normally be couch-surfing or transferring from shelter to shelter every evening had a hotel home to connect with their personal, obtain to on-internet site providers and stability.
“They know they have a mattress to snooze in, so they can emphasis on their very well-currently being and finding just one action nearer to ending their homelessness,” Redzic said.
The figures back again her up. Considering the fact that shifting clients into lodges in March 2020, DuPagePads observed an 80% fall in mental wellness incidents and requests for support in contrast to functions in the earlier, advocates say.
The agency also noted a fivefold improve in the use of case assist services.
“This working experience genuinely motivated us to get to a stage in which we, the county, have a long term construction to treatment for and to deliver products and services for the homeless population,” DuPage County Board Chairman Dan Cronin reported.
DuPagePads has about $1.5 million remaining to elevate in donations to make the resort method lasting. The nonprofit estimates the total cost at $7.5 million. The objective is to open the 130-device interim housing heart in spring 2022.
Till then, DuPagePads will carry on housing homeless individuals at the Red Roof Inn and two other area resorts about the future a number of months.
A suite in the Downers Grove resort has been transformed into a source room with apparel, laundry detergent and toiletries. Church associates also have brought in foods.
DuPagePads now strategies to devote a room where little ones can get tutoring and homework assistance. Advocates are on the lookout to make yet another space readily available for health services.
“We talked to various well being associates who are interested in coming in and giving major treatment and health screenings practically out of this area,” Redzic stated. “So we are reducing boundaries on all fronts to folks getting the assistance they require.”
DuPagePads will proceed to prioritize rooms for family members with small children, men and women with mobility problems and all those escaping domestic violence. Individuals can keep for as little as 24 hrs, but in other instances, purchasers could be housed in lodge rooms for a number of weeks ahead of DuPagePads aids secure long lasting supportive housing.
Advocates have finished just that for the mother and her 3 kids, Redzic said.
“She is about to get into an affordable dwelling of her individual in time for the holiday seasons,” she mentioned.