Taking a page from “The Emperor’s New Clothes” playbook, if the best these PADS and HOPE Center people can produce from “12,149 overnight stays” and “36,447 meals” is getting “39 clients out of homelessness,” then it’s time for them to consider a new line of work – because that’s the kind of insipid performance that gets you fired in the real world.

Given such lackluster results, if anybody was looking to open a homeless shelter solely for documented Park Ridge residents they would be well-advised to steer clear of the PADS model altogether. So why is anybody seriously considering that same PADS model for a facility that looks to attract non-Park Ridge homeless – with whatever drug, alcohol and mental illness problems they might have – to our community?  We could rent a block of rooms at the Comfort Inn on Touhy and put them up there – at less cost and without the demand on volunteer time.

This fiasco also lowers our opinion of the Park Ridge Ministerial Association even further. After concealing their PADS shelter plans from the St. Mary’s neighbors and the rest of the community for the better part of two years before arrogantly foisting it on us as a “done deal,” and then attempting to intimidate and even ridicule anyone who opposes it, the PRMA members have acted more like venal politicians than faith ministers – unless they really view the “shepherd” metaphor literally and consider their congregations as nothing more than sheep to be herded in whatever direction these “shepherds” decide.

And while they can call this PADS shelter their “ministry” all they want, there’s nothing religiously ministerial about it. It’s nothing more than a chain of secular not-for-profit flophouses funded by such non-religious entities as the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”), the Illinois Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, and tax dollars from Arlington Heights, Des Plaines, Mt. Prospect, Palatine, Schaumburg, and their respective township governments.

In summary, this PADS shelter is not a religious ministry; it will contribute nothing positive to our community; and it will consume resources that could be better used for our own citizens and our existing institutions (like the Center of Concern). It’s a dumb idea whose time should never come.

And those responsible for coming up with it and trying to jam it down our throats should be ashamed of themselves. But for some reason we doubt that these neo-Pharisees and their camp followers will see it that way.