Shelter, Inc., a child welfare agency in Arlington Heights, plans to open a shelter in Palatine serving girls and young woman who have been victims of sexual exploitation and trafficking.
Daily Herald File Photo, 2016
Housing for girls and young women who are victims of commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking is expected to open next year in Palatine.
The village council on Monday gave Shelter, Inc. and the Housing Opportunity Development Corporation final approval to build a 12-bedroom, 6,100-square-foot home on 2.9 acres in a wooded area near Dundee and Hicks roads.
“We were seeing a trend of youth under the age of 18 who were being trafficked and needed an emergency shelter to stay at,” said Carina Santa Maria, executive director of Arlington Heights-based Shelter, Inc.
But no such facility with specialized programming has been approved in the area, she said, adding that it is typical for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services to send trafficking victims under 18 out of state.
A preliminary architectural rendering of a new facility to house victims of commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking in Palatine. The village council gave the project final approval this week.
Courtesy of Shelter, Inc.
Shelter, Inc. serves youth and families by providing emergency shelters and foster care, child abuse prevention services and clinical mental health care.
Santa Maria said she shared the idea for the facility with Richard Koenig, executive director of the Skokie-based Housing Opportunity Development Corporation. The nonprofit affordable housing developer not only agreed to collaborate, but also found the property.
“I thought it made sense for us to combine our strengths, HODC as the real estate developer and Shelter as the services provider,” Koenig said. “There is nothing else like this.”
Santa Maria said DCFS will refer residents to the facility, where they will stay between six months to two years until they find a foster family.
“It gives (victims) a private space to be able to unpack and work through all of their trauma,” she said. “A lot of these kids were being sent out of state to locked psychiatric or residential facilities, almost as if they were re-criminalizing the girls who were victims and survivors.”
During their stay, residents will receive services including psychological care, education, legal advocacy, employment services and health care — even tattoo removal.
HODC is the developer on behalf of Shelter, Inc., which will ultimately own the property. Funding for construction is coming from DCFS through a grant of more than $5 million.