A village-organized taskforce formed to help Oak Park address chronic homelessness has provided a set of recommendations to the village board.
Over the last several months, a village organized “Unhoused Taskforce” has gathered regularly to provide a set of recommendations for how the village government can better use its resources to support people experiencing homelessness in the village. The village board heard a presentation on those short-term and long-term recommendations at its meeting Tuesday, Sept. 18.
“Following the board’s conversation about possible ways to address issues of homelessness and its impact on the wider community in winter 2024/2025, village staff convened a small group of stakeholders representing diverse members of the community to collaborate on shared goals and actions for a holistic and compassionate approach to addressing the needs of both unhoused residents and the wider Oak Park community,” village staff wrote of the taskforce. “The taskforce included individuals with lived experience of homelessness, Oak Park residents, representatives from local non-profits and taxing bodies, as well as members of the business community. This diverse representation ensures that the strategies reflect multiple perspectives and the unique needs of the community.”
The taskforce’s short-term recommendations included supporting the operation of non-profit Housing Forward’s emergency shelters, which could lose out on state funding in 2026. The taskforce recommended that Oak Park should step in if state funding doesn’t come through.
The Maywood-based agency is set to open a new expanded emergency shelter with 40 beds at 112 S. Humphrey Ave. in Oak Park in the coming weeks. The village supported that shelter’s creation with more than $314,000 in village funds authorized by the village board in February, in addition to $250,000 provided by the county.
Another recommendation was empowering ECHO — the village’s recently created alternative response program — to lead revamped street outreach efforts to help connect people living on the street with available resources. They also recommended funding an account for ECHO to pay for rideshare transportation to help people to access medical care, housing opportunities and mental health counseling.
The taskforce also asked the village board to support the construction of a new public restroom in Downtown Oak Park.
Other recommendations for the village included further standardizing Oak Park’s policies around clearing homeless encampments that impact businesses or violate cleanliness or drug use standards, collaborating with other taxing bodies to support rental assistance programs and continuing community education programs related to homelessness.
While Tuesday’s presentation session did not include any action items for the board to vote on, several village trustees said that they hoped to have more detailed sets of information to consider when village staff brings measures based on the taskforce’s recommendations back to the board for approval.
“I think it would be helpful to us, even if the presentation is very top line with bullet points, if they were accompanied by memos that provide a far greater level of detail on recommendations, the data supporting it, the outcomes we expect,” said Trustee Brian Straw. “These recommendations came out of expert analysis, so I do greatly appreciate all the work that went into making these recommendations, but I do want to concur with (Trustee Jim Taglia’s) comments that with the sheets we have, it does make it hard for us to give a lot of nuanced, detailed feedback.”
