May 21, 2024
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Joliet OKs opioid recovery center for women at former Silver Cross site

Volunteers of American Illinois will build apartments for live-in center

By Bob Okon

Volunteers of America Illinois will build its Hope Manor Village apartment complex across Copperfield Avenue in Joliet from its Hope Manor apartments for Joliet residents. (Bob Okon)

The city this week approved a plan for a recovery center for women that was stifled two years ago.

The Joliet City Council voted 5-3 on Tuesday to approve the 48-apartment complex that will be built by Volunteers of America Illinois on the former Silver Cross Hospital campus.

The divided vote reflected lingering opposition since VOA Illinois withdrew its plan in January 2022 amid opposition in City Hall.

The April election brought a change in administration, and new Mayor Terry D’Arcy supported the VOA Illinois project.

D’Arcy, however, did not vote Tuesday. The mayor abstained because of a conflict of interest. He sits on the board of directors at Silver Cross Hospital, which is selling the 2.1 acres where the apartments will be built.

“Our target population is women recovering from addiction. Our primary goal is that children be raised by their moms.”

—  Nancy Hughes Moyer, VOA Illinois president and CEO

Silver Cross officials came to City Council meetings Monday and Tuesday to voice support for the project.

VOA Illinois runs Hope Manor, an apartment complex for homeless veterans located on Copperfield Avenue across the street from the future drug recovery center.

Volunteers of America Illinois President and CEO Nancy Hughes Moyer (center) awaits questions about the organization's Joliet project at a City Council meeting on Monday, Dec. 4, 2023.

Volunteers of America Illinois President and CEO Nancy Hughes Moyer (center) awaits questions about the organization's Joliet project at a City Council meeting Monday. (Bob Okon)

The new project will be called Hope Manor Village, a live-in treatment center.

“Our target population is women recovering from addiction,” VOA Illinois President and CEO Nancy Hughes Moyer told the City Council on Monday. “Our primary goal is that children be raised by their moms.”

Hughes Moyer said Hope Manor Village will provide an environment in which mothers can stay with their children while getting help recovering from addictions, particularly of opioids.

The city under previous Mayor Bob O’Dekirk resisted social service projects that provided homes for troubled individuals, contending that Joliet had become the only community in Will County to accept such projects.

Joliet in March approved a live-in addiction recovery center for mothers with children that will be built by Stepping Stones.

Council member Joe Clement, who voted for the Stepping Stones project, voted against the VOA Illinois project after questioning where the apartment residents would come from.

Joliet City Council member Joe Clement (Gary Middendorf - gmiddendorf@shawmedia.com/The Herald-News)

“I want to take care of Joliet residents,” Clement said at the Monday meeting. “I don’t know that there’s going to be a guarantee that they’re going to be Joliet residents.”

Hughes Moyer said research showed that, based on need, about half of the residents likely would come from Joliet, and the large majority would come from Will County.

Council member Suzanna Ibarra said she believed there was a need in Joliet for Hope Manor Village.

“Opioid addictions are sky high,” Ibarra said. “We have plenty of people from Joliet.”

Ibarra, Pat Mudron, Sherri Reardon, Cesar Cardenas and Cesar Guerrero voted for the Hope Manor Village project. Clement, Larry Hug and Jan Quillman voted against it.