By Stephen Nelson
At their February 6 meeting, during a disbursement vote, the Kankakee City Council decided to remove $100,000 in ARPA money, given to the city for various uses following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, from consideration. The reasons given by those rejecting a request for the funds from Fortitude Outreach, which operates a homeless shelter at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in the center of Kankakee’s downtown area, were that the shelter is unwelcoming to police being at or near the facility, problems reported by businesses about the homeless downtown, and continued support for the shelter would be the same as endorsing more homeless to the city. The same arguments were used time and again to hinder Fortitude from securing a special use permit to operate a shelter at its current location.
At the February 21 meeting, Fortitude Director Dawn Broers and others addressed the arguments and told council members they are continuing meetings with city officials about all matters of concern. She also reminded council members that Fortitude already is working to move the shelter from the immediate downtown area to an area west of there, on Washington Avenue. After a meeting the day of the February 21 meeting, Broers said it was her understanding the ARPA funding will move forward and will be approved at one-of-two city council meetings in March. Mayor Chris Curtis agrees, but he says more work needs to be done to make sure that happens.
Curtis said “I still need to get the council on board with this. It’s their decision as much as mine.”
Also at the the February 21 meeting, council members were introduced to a new Kankakee Fire Department Captain and Lieutenant. Recently promoted to Captain is 25-year department veteran Richard Skeldon and recently promoted to Lieutenant is 21-year department veteran Luke Shepherd.