The recent PADS shelter dust-up has resurrected the term “NIMBY” (“Not in my back yard”), which traditionally has been used as an epithet by people who want some facility or special use that incurs the opposition of its neighbors.  NIMBYs are usually cast as insular, selfish and standing in the way of “progress,” although we prefer the Merriam-Webster definition: “opposition to the locating of something considered undesirable (as a prison or incinerator) in one’s neighborhood.“

We here at PublicWatchdog like NIMBYs because they provide a needed reality check on things that might not be all that good for the community as a whole but that otherwise may get overlooked by the rest of us who are not in the “line of fire” until it’s too late to stop them – like projects and programs that are often found wanting, in whole or in part, once they are subjected to closer scrutiny, critical thinking and public debate.

In the case of the proposed PADS shelter at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, many of us who don’t reside near there might not have gotten past all the warm-and-fuzzy talk about “clients,” “guests,” etc. if not for the NIMBYs who questioned, rightfully so, why the church should be allowed to become a homeless magnet by turning itself into what amounts to a “flop house” – a by-the-night place for transient homeless to “flop” – in their neighborhood, or anywhere else in Park Ridge for that matter.

That is a question worth asking in light of the PADS goal [pdf] (as described on the Journeys from PADS to Hope website, www.padstohope.org) of providing nothing more than “hospitality, food and emergency shelter to homeless people from October 1 through April 30.”  And the description of their “Results” [pdf] – at least as measured by how many people they actually lift out of homelessness – doesn’t seem all that impressive for an organization whose most recent published financials [pdf] show a budget of almost three-quarters of a million dollars, supplemented with over 42,776 volunteer hours per year.

It’s also a question worth asking when we already have The Center of Concern, a local social services organization with the motto “a helping hand to neighbors in need” and which already offers not only a “Home Sharing” program but also a “Homeless Transitional Housing” program that provides scattered site apartments and supportive services to homeless individuals for up to 24 months.  Frankly, those sound a lot more desirable and effective in the battle against homelessness than the PADS flop-house du jour program.

But until those NIMBYs went public with their concerns, the PADS project was flying under the radar – thanks in no small measure to the Park Ridge Ministerial Association, whose members apparently felt that because they are on a mission from God they don’t have to deal with such mundane tasks as consulting with, or being accountable to, their neighbors.  What gives them the right to dictate to the St. Mary’s neighbors how that neighborhood will be used, especially since most of those ministers have never owned a home or paid a penny of real estate tax in our community? 

Not surprisingly, our top local politician didn’t exactly cover himself with glory on this matter, either.  It looks as if Mayor Howard Frimark began encouraging proponents of the shelter back in 2006 despite claiming as recently as a month or so ago that he didn’t know more than what he read in the papers.  And until recently, Frimark’s 5th Ward Alderpuppet, Robert Ryan, was MIA on this issue – perhaps because it didn’t involve something as deserving of Ryan’s limited time and effort as giving a well-connected developer a variance to build a few million dollars’ worth of extra condo units on the edge of Uptown. 

But the PADS shelter is an item on tonight’s City Council agenda (7:30 p.m., 505 Butler Place), primarily because of the interest and effort of the St. Mary’s NIMBYs.  So if we actually get the kind of public discourse a project such as the PADS shelter demands, and the residents deserve, we will have those NIMBYs to thank.