It’s official: Ottawa council approves sale of property to homeless shelter

The property at 1120 Canal St. in Ottawa officially belongs to Illinois Valley PADS after the Ottawa City Council approved the $100 sale Tuesday of the lot where the homeless shelter sits.

The next step for PADS is to raise the money to replace the 166-year-old building its outgrown. This agreement is a little bit different than the initial agreement.

“The original agreement required they have something built within two years and they felt like with everything going on, delays in materials and cost overruns, they were more comfortable with three years,” said Mayor Dan Aussem. “We agreed with that.”

Aussem said the agreement also had a provision that allowed the city to buy back the property within 180 days if PADS were to attempt to sell, but those terms were changed to say that construction has to start before that provision kicks in.

Illinois Valley PADS has two homeless shelters in the Illinois Valley, one in Peru and one in Ottawa.