Did Liberation Christian Center Disrespect The Park Manor Community

Talking about religion or more specifically a church is consider taboo but in this case it's necessary. This past Monday evening I attended the Park Manor Neighbors Community Council (PMNCC) monthly meeting. There was a full agenda, but most of the 100+ attendees came out for one issue. Only through communication through PMNCC were they notified that an organization Unity Parenting and Counseling had approach the Alderman about signing off on a special use permit. The need for the permit was to establish a shelter for homeless teens. In most cases the PMNCC meeting attendees are even tempered but this subject angered the attendees. The shelter wanted to open inside what was once a small elementary school operated by St. Peter Lutheran Church. The building is being leased by a Liberation Christian Center. The church is new to the community and little was known or communicated about the church to the community. As the representatives of Unity attempted to make their case, the temperature in the room was going to start to boil over and both representatives from Unity and attendees became upset. No answer that Unity gave was or would have persuaded the members of the 74th,73rd Wabash and Michigan block club members who were in attendance. The bottom line was and is that 7400 S Michigan is the wrong location and YES, this is definitely the wrong time. On May 19th, the Red Line train line will shut down for 6-9 months and limit transportation options including several bus lines to the community and require possible walking through the community to get to alternative routes. So to state that the shelter would have no impact on the community is a very shortsighted and somewhat delusional.  Per Unity, if someone is expelled for not following the rules they are not allowed to loiter around the building . This would lead the individuals to walk up to 75th street where there are stores and several nightclubs. 75th Street is the dividing line for the Chicago Police Department 3rd and 6th districts. Both districts already have their hands full and having homeless teens loitering is just a problem the y do not need. While it became very apparent that the community was not going to support the special use permit, what did become apparent the church and pastor attempted to pimp both groups. During the presentation, Unity stated the pastor Bishop James E. Dukes offered the space to them, and never mentioned he had any conversations with the community. The church and pastor certainly didn't make any friends by blowing off this meeting or ever coming out to introduce themselves to the community. Sources characterize the pastor as "Shady". Per Unity representatives, the pastor was out of town. I and many others question the timing of this proposal. In a time when our city and state government are suppose to be broke, where is the money coming from to pay for this shelter? In a time when city services such as Mental health facilities that serve this community are being eliminated or consolidated to other areas why is there such an urgency to open this facility? Lastly, why did this group not notify any of the other social service agencies that service the community of their intentions to open this facility? So the bottom line is the Liberation Church feels that they can do what they want and not answer to anyone, such as engage in construction work without obtaining permits. So is this what churches are suppose to do? Is this what men of god suppose to do? So it will be interesting to see if the pastor steps up and apologizes to the community and work with community.

Can the Bedroom Community of Park Manor and a Teen Homeless Shelter Coexist in Harmony

The Park Manor community is a quiet community that many times gets overlooked. The community which starts at 69th street on the north and 79th south, State Street to the West and Cottage Grove to the east. Many times it gets rolled up in Greater Grand Crossing or Chatham. The community is bedroom community that exist of single family bungalows, two flats and the last of Chicago three flats. The community has recently been on TV as a television show "American Diggers" attempted to reignite the Al Capone lore by asking to dig up individuals backyards in search of possible hidden treasure that could have been left by Capone. The community and the Chicago Police Department put a quick end to that.

On the corner of 74th Michigan Ave sits a church, the church which was built in the late 1920's served as a Lutheran church and elementary school up until the 1990's. Due to declining enrollment and a dwindling congregation both the school and church were closed and merged with another church outside of Park Manor. The building and adjoining school have been leased to a variety of churches and nonprofits and none have had any long term success at operating.

The building is currently being occupied by Liberation Christian Center which is an acceptable use by the community. Now the church would like to sublease a portion of the building to a group named Unity Parenting and Counseling . The organization which has an incomplete website states that they are a social service agency that offer foster care services for the State of Illinois. Also, it states they run a housing community "Harmony Village" that houses teens from the age of 17-21, who are homeless.  The group has a facebook page for Harmony Village but id does not state where they are currently located. Both Harmony Village and Unity Parenting Counseling  were both contacted and did not respond to request for additional information.

In the past other organizations have attempted to come to Park Manor both legally and illegally and operate transitional or "halfway" housing. The community has been very vocal in their disapproval even when some of these operators attempted to go to ultra liberal media outlets and disparage the community. Also, based on a visual inspection it appears that the church is already making plans to go forward regardless of the community feelings and not have the proper City of Chicago permits.

Some are going to argue that some of the other churches in the community have social service organizations operating out of their facilities but none have any form of housing going on.

On Monday May 6, 2013 the community will weigh in on this matter as the church and Unity Parenting  and Counseling will seek to get the members of Park Manor Neighbors to write a letter of approval to Alderman Roderick Sawyer. The details of the meeting are:

Monday
May 6, 2013
6:30pm
St Columbanus(Glass House)
311 E 71st Street

Do you think they should approve the Shelter?