During a sweeping policy discussion on how to tackle homelessness, the Peoria City Council moved forward Tuesday night on exploring a tiny home village in the city and providing another $64,000 to continue housing homeless people at a local motel.
The council made no official votes during its special policy meeting, but it did signal approval to allow city staff to continue exploring a plan to build a tiny home village somewhere in Peoria that would house some of the city’s homeless population.
Those tiny homes — which would be operated by the Dream Center Peoria — would be roughly 70-square-feet and have heating, air conditioning and on-site laundry, showers and bathrooms. The homes would primarily be for single adults and targeted at individuals who are not suited for a congregate shelter setting.
It would cost an estimated $900,000 to build a tiny home village of 32 homes in Peoria and another $300,000 annually to operate the village, Dream Center Executive Director Andy King told the council.
No official decision has been made on the tiny home village, and at this stage the City Council has only given a signal of approval to city staff to move forward with exploring options for tiny homes and find potential codes and ordinances that would need to be rewritten.
Where a village would be built — if the proposal is ever given a full stamp of approval by the council — figures to be one of the more contentious questions the city will have to weigh.
The Dream Center told the council it hopes to create a hub for homelessness services, and, ideally, the tiny home village would be near its main facility in Downtown Peoria.
Mayor Rita Ali, while supportive of the tiny home concept, said she was adamantly opposed to seeing the tiny home village built in Downtown Peoria.
Ali said that Downtown Peoria, which already features a litany of homeless shelters and housing, cannot become the “destination” for all of the city’s homelessness services, saying the tiny home village could hurt the “safety conditions and perceptions” of downtown.
Councilmembers John Kelly and Mike Vespa agreed with Ali’s sentiment that a tiny home village would not be best suited for Downtown Peoria.
Vespa said he supported the concept of a tiny home village in Peoria, making note it should be on a bus line, saying it gave people a “door to lock behind them.”
Councilmember Tim Riggenbach was the first on the council to champion tiny homes, and on Tuesday night, he applauded the progress Peoria has made in reducing homelessness but said it was “critical” that the council give staff direction to move forward with exploring the concept of tiny homes.
Riggenbach urged caution, however, when it came to the council ruling out locations for the tiny home village this early in conversations.
No one on the council seemed to be generally opposed to the concept of a tiny home village, but 5th District councilmember Denis Cyr raised concerns about how and where the city would find funding for the village.
City leaders on Tuesday night also heard progress updates from many of the region’s homelessness providers, including the United Way’s Continuum of Care, the Dream Center Peoria and Carle Health’s Trillium. Those presenters painted a picture of a city that has made progress in reducing homelessness but still faced key barriers in shelter capacity and availability of housing.
Housing projects like Phoenix Manor in Downtown Peoria, which will provide 55 units of permanent housing for families experiencing homelessness, and the expansion of the Salvation Army’s Downtown Peoria shelter, are viewed as success stories in expanding shelter and housing options in Peoria.
But more is still needed as homeless numbers continue to rise in Peoria and the nation, Continuum of Care’s Kate Green told the council.
In a January 2024 census, the United Way — which serves Peoria, Tazewell, Woodford and Fulton counties — counted 635 people experiencing homelessness. That number is up from 201 people in 2021 and 451 in 2015.
Green told the council that there has been a “serious escalation in homelessness” since the COVID-19 pandemic. Likewise, data presented by Green showed that those experiencing homelessness have reported a rise in mental health issues and substance abuse problems.
City appears poised to fund LULA’s hotel project for another month
The City Council took no formal vote to provide the homelessness outreach group LULA with another $64,000 in funding for its revolutionary hotel project, in which they’ve housed dozens of homeless individuals in a local hotel.
But all council members who spoke about the project on Tuesday night applauded its successes in not just allowing the city to clear the controversial and prominent homeless encampments in the city but also in connecting homeless individuals with services.
The kicker of the program’s success, however, is it relies on city funding. If no new funding is approved by the city, the program will end, and its participants could end up back on the streets.
In March, the City Council moved to provide LULA with roughly $204,000 in funding that would allow for it to operate its hotel program through the end of June. The end of June is closing in, and at its meeting on June 24 the council will weigh a measure to give LULA another $64,000 to keep the program operational.
More than 100 people have participated in the hotel program. Fifty-one have been put into permanent housing programs, while 29 others have housing applications or appointments in place.
Mayor criticizes federal spending cuts as Peoria grapples with homelessness
Further complicating matters as Peoria tries to find permanent solutions to homelessness are expected cuts coming to the federal budget that city officials fear will cause more housing insecurity in Peoria.
Propsed cuts to the federal budget, which is still being worked on by the U.S. Senate, will impact the number of Section 8 housing vouchers available those who need financial subsidies in order to afford housing. Continuum of Care funding would also be moved to states under the cuts. Emergency solutions grants, community block grant development funds and HOME grants would also be cut under the budget.
Peoria Community Development Director Joe Dulin told the council these cuts could lead to an additional 1,000 people in Peoria to experience housing insecurity, calling the cuts to the Section 8 voucher system “pretty significant.”
Dulin told the council that the city would either have to use general fund dollars to support those programs or potentially go without some of those services.
Ali said councilmembers and everyone else in the area should contact their congressional representative and encourage them to not vote for a federal budget that includes these moves. Ali said the cuts would be “detrimental” to the work the city has done in combatting homelessness.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Could a tiny home village help solve homelessness in Peoria? Here are the arguments
Reporting by JJ Bullock, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
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