A homeless shelter will not be operated in Kankakee by Fortitude Community Outreach – at least for the next 12 months.

At Monday’s Kankakee City Council meeting, the conditional use permit request was rejected by a 12-0 vote despite another impassioned plea from supporters of the organization.

The operator of the Fortitude, Dawn Broers, must wait 12 months to file a similar request.

The vote means the proposed 19-bed shelter at 970 E. Court St., the former home of the Kankakee County Health Department, will not be offering night shelter this autumn or winter or any other season in this 1st Ward property.

Following approximately 40 minutes of public comments from supporters speaking directly to Kankakee council members and Mayor Chris Curtis, the council, after completing votes on business ahead of Fortitude on the agenda, took the vote.

Once the matter came up on the agenda, Curtis asked council members if they sought any discussion.

There was none.

He asked if any council member wanted to made a recommendation granting the conditional use permit?

Again there was no comment.

Following a few moments of silence, 4th Ward Alderwoman Danita Grant Swanson made a motion to deny the conditional use permit, which effectively blocked the shelter.

Her motion was quickly seconded by 1st Ward Alderwoman Cherry Malone Marshall.

A roll call vote was taken and all 12 lawmakers in attendance voted to deny the permit. Alderman Michael Prude, of the 1st Ward, and Victor Nevarez, of the 5th Ward, were absent.

Following the vote, Fortitude supporters left the council chambers.

Outside the council chambers, Broers expressed surprise at the vote’s outcome. She believed there were at least eight council members who would support her request.

She said she had done everything requested of her. She said the council’s desire for day services at the location was being satisfied.

In the end, it was not to be.

Will try again

“There will not be an evening shelter,” she said, but work will continue at the location helping those in need of accessing service, But in terms of overnight shelter, there will be none.

At least not this coming October.

“We can come back in 12 months,” she said. “We plan to come back.”

After the meeting, Malone Marshall said while there was support from those within Kankakee County, those who neighbor the property had a different opinion.

As in past meetings, the shelter supporters were outfitted in matching T-shirts backing the development. A move that did not go unnoticed by Malone Marshall.

“They said ‘Yes in my backyard,’ but where is their backyard?” she asked, meaning those in support did not reside or even live close to this area.

Mayor Curtis, speaking after the meeting, said the “council obviously spoke.”

He said it is his hope that the community continues to meet and seek options for people in need.

In the meantime, 12 months must pass before Broers can refile her shelter request.

“The reality is there is never enough shelters,” Curtis said. “There is not enough of everything. This is not just Kankakee. This is a community wide problem.”

Latest attempt

This was Fortitude’s third attempt to place a shelter within Kankakee. The group sought to locate in the 100 block of North Washington Avenue, but construction costs were deemed too high.

The group then sought a location in the 1200 block of South Fourth Avenue, but that attempt was rejected.

On Aug. 19, the Kankakee Planning Board approved Fortitude’s conditional use request by a 5-0 vote.

The permit was placed on the Sept. 2 City Council agenda for its first reading. No discussion was made at that point.

Several community members pleaded with council members during Monday’s council meeting. Those efforts were in vain.

“Remember that for the grace of God go I,” said Claire McElroy, of Bourbonnais, who also serves as a Fortitude board member, when addressing the City Council. “Please find it in your hearts to do the right thing.”

Fortitude has served area homeless for the past six years through a variety of shelter options, including church sites, a former grade school and, most recently, a bus.

Colleen Mahoney, with the Illinois office to Prevent and End Homelessness, said Illinois has a great need for shelters. She said in 2024 the state was in need of more that 5,000 additional beds for the homeless.

The Rev. Mark Quanstrom, pastor of the College Church of the Nazarene in Bourbonnais, expressed his support for Fortitude in a letter.

He explained, according to the home sales company, Zillow, the June median home sales price in Kankakee was $245,000, which is up 14% from a year ago.

The average monthly rental costs was $1,150 to $1,399.

“Thus, one of the underlying causes of homelessness is simply the lack of affordable housing, which ought to be a concern of the city council as well,” he explained in a letter read by Laverne Jordan, of Manteno.

He said as a consequence of high housing costs, many people are resorting to living in cars, a plight known as “vehicle homelessness”.

“I am very well aware that one of the challenges of such a service are those who prefer that the solution be, as they say, ‘not in my backyard,’” he said.

Rather, he said, the City Council has the opportunity to protect and help those in need.