As is becoming known both by word of mouth and newspaper reports, the attempt by St. Paul of the Cross pastor Fr. Carl Morello and the Park Ridge Ministerial Association to bring a PADS homeless shelter to St. Paul’s school is dividing the members of that parish.  We think a better solution is available.  

That’s why, in a previous post, Better Than PADS And Affordable, Too (6/9/08), we offered one alternative to locating a PADS to Hope, Inc. “franchise” in a school or church building, where it poses a risk to children: Rent rooms for the homeless at one of the local motels each Sunday night.  The cost to each of the 12 member churches of the Park Ridge Ministerial Association for rooms at a motel like the Days Inn on Touhy Avenue in Niles could be as little as $1,500 per PADS “season.”

But that’s not the only solution.  There’s another one that involves a public building that the taxpayers are already subsidizing to the tune of approximately $200,000 a year: The Park Ridge Senior Center, at 100 South Western Avenue. 

The Senior Center has a multi-purpose room that can easily hold the same amount of homeless “guests” that are contemplated for St. Paul of the Cross, along with bathroom facilities and a kitchen.  It’s got its own adjacent parking for “guests” who will be driving there.  It’s also surrounded by park land and a good half block away from both Washington Elementary and Lincoln Middle schools.

And unlike St. Paul of the Cross, where the Sunday night PADS session would displace that school’s customary slate of Sunday night school sports activities and bump up against its Monday morning 7:00 a.m. extended-day student program, the Senior Center hours are much more accommodating.  The Center closes at 5:00 p.m. Sunday and doesn’t re-open on Monday morning until 9:00 a.m.

What will it take to get this deal done?  Obviously, it will need the endorsement of the Park Ridge Ministerial Association, whose next display of common sense and community sensitivity on this issue will be its first.  And it will need the approval of PADS, which has built its corporate franchise and brand on putting homeless shelters in churches and schools. 

But those should be only minor impediments for the PADS proponents throughout the community, especially considering that two of the more prominent local PADS supporters are Park Ridge Mayor Howard “Let’s Make A Deal” Frimark and Park District president Dick Barton, under whose jurisdiction the Senior Center falls.  Not only are Frimark and Barton friends, but Frimark is also reportedly a Senior Center member – so he should be able to marshal the support of his fellow Center’s members for what he considers a very worthy cause.

Of course, the PADS shelter will still need a special use permit from the City, but putting the shelter at a public building will at leaset eliminate that pesky “separation of Church and State” issue that PADS and the PRMA keep whining about.  And getting a special use permit should be right up the alley of another Senior Center member and PADS supporter, local attorney Jack “Mr. Insider” Owens, who has been counseling Fr. Morello in bringing the PADS to St. Paul. 

If a PADS shelter in Park Ridge really is as good an idea as its supporters insist it is, we can’t imagine the triumvirate of Frimark, Barton and Owens failing to make this deal happen if they really put their minds to it. 

Gentlemen?