Action Ridge Minutes, General Meeting - December 13, 2023

In person meeting and streamed on the Action Ridge Facebook page.

Nan Parson and Liz Swanson commenced the meeting at 7:03 pm.

The purpose of this meeting was to learn about some of the assistance that is currently available to those without shelter and to discuss the presense of a few homeless indivduals in the Uptown Park Ridge area.

Speakers for tonight’s meeting:

• Pastor Carol Hill (senior minister) - Park Ridge Community Church. She spoke about some of the ways the Park Ridge Ministerial Association offers support to those who ask for assistance.

• Katie Eighan, Continuum of Care Planning Director of the Alliance to End Homelessness--She spoke about the services provided by that agency. It is a nonpartisan organization committed to preventing and ending Homelessness in Suburban Cook Co.

• Joanna Bertucci, Director of the Park Ridge Public Library--She spoke about the ways our library staff helps homeless individuals who use library services.

1. Pastor Carol Hill - Park Ridge Community Church (PRCC)--introduced by Liz Swanson.

The PRCC has been involved with the community (PR Ministerial Association) and the PR police department for many years.

PR Ministerial Association:

a. Meets monthly to discuss what is happening in PR as well as other
Northwest suburbs. The strategy of the association is to provide
for folks’ needs as they arise on a case by case basis.

b. Each church contributes to an assistance fund that is managed by the
PR police department and Geri Silic, social worker. The churches refer
homeless folks to Ms. Silic for assistance (transportation, housing,
gift cards, etc.). Affordable housing needs are addressed on a
case by case basis.

c. There is no homeless shelter or warming shelter located in PR.
Individuals requiring these services would be referred to a
neighboring suburb.

d. The PRCC has a small food pantry

2. Katie Eighan, Continuum of Care Planning Director of the Alliance to End
   Homelessness (AEH) - Call Center phone # - 877-426-6515—introduced by Kristin Berg.
   • The mission of this organization is to address:
   a. Strategic Planning related to the issues of homelessness.
   b. Youth Services
   c. Legislative issues - this includes the strategic use of federal, state
   and county dollars.

d. Community approaches to housing issues/homelessness in Suburban Cook Co. The organization believes that it is possible to solve Homelessness by utilizing cross sector collaboration based on data driven decision making and removing barriers to housing, i.e. provide people with the resources to obtain housing.

e. The AEH covers 130 suburbs/approximately, 1056 homeless folks per night. Approximately 400 of these folks are in the northern suburbs.

• The responses to homelessness includes:

a. Eviction notice and homelessness

b. Emergency shelter and crisis housing

c. Safe and stable housing placement including facilitation of more
permanent housing solutions - estimated need is 6,092 units

• Actions that citizens of Park Ridge can undertake:

a. Work with government representatives (governor’s office, state
representatives and state senators) to obtain funding - encourage them
to ask for what we really need (currently in excess of $40 million or
more). The funding requests for homelessness should be separate
from the funding requests/needs for refugees.

b. Personal contributions

c. Join Action Ridge and continue to support these endeavors.

d. Attend the 12/18/23 PR City Council meeting - there will be a discussion of incentives for Inclusionary Zoning for new development projects. Currently the criteria for PR zoning is 8%; the goal would be 15%.

3. Joanna Bertucci, Director, Park Ridge Library—introduced by Nan Parson                                           a. The library is a public building. Therefore, it is accessible to homeless
   folks.
   b.. The library staff is currently undergoing an empathy based/deescalation
   training program in order to assist the homeless in obtaining the
   assistance they may need.
   c.. The staff will often refer the homeless folks to the Park Ridge Police
   Department social worker.
   d. Some folks are referred to the Connection for Homeless organization
   in Evanston which offers drop in services as well as hygiene services.
4. Throughout the presentations, attendees asked questions and made comments. Several expressed concerns and fear about the presence of homeless individuals in the uptown area and suggested that they should be removed somehow. Other attendees were more concerned about the welfare of those individuals and asked how they can help them
5. Kate Kerin introduced the slate of Leaders of Action Ridge which will be voted on at Action Ridge’s January meeting.
6. Announcements
   a. Mira Schreiber, AR student intern, is pursuing another internship position
   for the 2nd semester of the school year, but will stay involved with AR. Thanks to her for all of the help she’s given Action Ridge.
   b. Nan recognized a representative from the Journal and Topics newspaper,
   Alex Barton, and our City Clerk, Sal Raspanti.
   c. The January 2024 AR meeting will be a business meeting. Members of the AR
   Leadership Team will address their roles in this organization and the membership will vote on the slate of leaders.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted by
Judy Fregetto and Nan Parson