LINCOLN SQUARE — A Chicago-based nonprofit with experience in trauma-informed and culturally sensitive care will operate Lincoln Square’s transitional housing facility when it opens late this year.
The Haven on Lincoln is replacing the Diplomat Motel, 5230 N. Lincoln Ave., as part of a $2.9 million renovation. The 46 motel rooms will be converted into 40 rooms tied to supportive services, including mental health and medical care.
Those services will be provided by Volunteers of America Illinois, an organization that works with children in foster care and provides affordable housing for the elderly, veterans and people experiencing homelessness or housing instability.
Neighbors learned more about the nonprofit and the construction timeline during a community meeting Wednesday.
The effort to convert the motel into “bridge housing” is crucial because it builds upon the previous success of an early COVID-19 era program to slow the spread of the virus by addressing homelessness, Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th) said.
“If you look at our streets in Chicago, if you look at the parks, if you look at our viaducts — we have a number of unhoused folks who don’t have the services they need to stabilize and find a path to find permanent housing,” he said.
“We’re going to be able to find out what the successes are from this pilot and then how to scale it up so you see one of these in each ward.”
Up to 40 people would be living at The Haven at one time, and the duration of a stay would typically range between three to six months, said Nancy Hughes Moyer, Volunteers of America Illinois president and CEO.
The Haven on Lincoln will provide each person individual rooms, transportation support and individual and group therapy opportunities, Moyer said.
“I want you all to think for a moment, about whatever the biggest challenges you’re personally facing right now in your life. Now, imagine if you were facing that and you had no place to live,” Moyer said. “How much more difficult would it be to address that problem?”
Case workers, recovery specialists and clinical therapists will be available to provide psychological and psychiatric care, said Dr. Jenny Hua, the Chicago Department Of Public Health’s medical director of behavioral health.
“The plan currently sort of merges a community health center with the housing portion of the program. We expect to have on-site, full-time primary-care physician. And that certainly includes services such as family planning, women’s health,” Hua said.
“Everything that kind of falls under the umbrella of primary care can certainly be effectively provided on-site.”
Support and security staff will be on site 24 hours. A security camera system will provide real-time monitoring of entryways, hallways and doorways, Moyer said.
Additionally, all staff will receive trauma-informed and deescalation training before they start working with The Haven’s residents, she said.
“It’s not just about creating a physical safe place for people to live. That’s part of it. But how do we do that and also provide them a real place of supportive community in which they can really begin to heal,” Moyer said.
To prioritize helping people already living in the neighborhood, the majority of referrals to The Haven will be from Swedish Hospital’s emergency room, the Lincoln (20th) Police District and other service providers in the area, Moyer said.
“The three main eligibility criteria is that they have to be at imminent risk of homelessness. They have to have some documented behavioral health issue, which can be addictions or something else. And thirdly, they have to have some history of what we refer to as ‘cycling,’” Moyer said. “These really are some of the more vulnerable people.”
Volunteers of America Illinois already has supportive housing programs in West Humboldt Park and Englewood, Moyer said. Its suburban Melrose Park program, Hope Hall, helps a population similar to the one The Haven will serve, Moyer said.
“What we really try hard to do is have the residents be proud to live there and for the community to be happy to have us there,” Moyer said. “We work really, really hard to be good neighbors so that people want us back.”
The interior and exterior of the motel will get a facelift and new fencing to provide more privacy and security. There will also be new green space and public art for them to enjoy, according to a presentation from architects Sean McGuire and Rob Reuland.
“We know that a lot of healing happens with social connection. And so there’s a lot of emphasis on this outdoor garden here,” McGuire said.
The building will be redesigned to have softer architectural lines typical in trauma-informed designs, he said.
“Regular long, straight hallways or even outdoor paths can be triggering to some folks,” McGuire said.
The city’s Zoning Board of Appeals will review a special use permit for The Haven on Feb. 16, Vasquez said.
If that permit is approved, the city will move to close on the property so construction could start this spring or summer. The Haven could open by the end of the year, he said.
A Sick Fischer mural along Lincoln Avenue will be updated to match the new design of The Haven and its “bridge housing” mission, Vasquez said.
“We were very intentional on making sure that this bridge housing is part of the community and not separate from it. Doing that by having it share the same aesthetic as the rest of the arts district we’re building,” Vasquez said. “Not only does that lead to better health outcomes for the folks that live there, but it lets them know that they’re a part of the overall community, which has always been a goal.”
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