Last-ditch effort made to save Madison County Shelter Care Home
Dunstan: 'It's a fruitless fight'
BY ELIZABETH DONALD
News-Democrat
EDWARDSVILLE --
Each day, Katie Sensabough serves doughnuts and coffee at the Donut Palace -- then goes home to the Madison County Shelter Care Home.The county now plans to close the 104-year-old home, which has Sensabough and other residents joining with the United Congregations of the Metro-East in a petition drive to save it.
Sensabough credits the home with saving her life. She was working two jobs and owned a home, but depression and alcoholism took everything. After a six-week hospitalization, she came to the home. Soon she plans to move out on her own, but she wants others to have the opportunity she had.
"I can't tell you how much it's meant to my life," she said.
The County Board originally had voted to demolish the dilapidated building and construct a new facility, using money set aside from the property sale for Edwardsville Crossing shopping center. The county then spent nearly $500,000 on architectural and design fees.
That's why residents said they were so surprised when the board voted last month not to accept the bids. Resident Michael Wahl, 63, said he still doesn't understand why some board members voted to go out for bids, and six weeks later voted not to accept them.
"People only see the numbers, how many people live there right now," he said. "There's been more than 700 lived there since it opened as a shelter care. ... It's close and friendly, like a large family."
Seven years ago, Wahl was an accountant and homeowner. But he was a compulsive gambler and lost it all, he said. After he had to sell his house, he lived with friends or in his car.
When he had no money for medicine to treat his epilepsy, he ended up at the shelter care home. They got him medicine and therapy, helping him get his life back on track, he said.
While the county has formed a committee to place the residents elsewhere, some have not given up the fight. Larry Evans heads the shelter care task force for United Congregations of the Metro-East and the petition drive.
Evans said the task force intends to pursue whether County Board Chairman Alan Dunstan, D-Troy, was out of order when he called for the vote. Dunstan prefaced the vote by saying he would consider a decision not to accept bids as the board's decision to get out of the shelter care business and close the home.
"That was not what was on the floor," Evans said. "There are certain rights (the residents) are entitled to."
But Dunstan said if he has to go back to the board for a vote officially closing the home, it will simply be a rubber stamp.
"It's a fruitless fight," he said. "UCM means well, but they have to move on."
Dunstan said the committee, headed by County Board member Christopher Wangard, R-Troy, is working on placing the residents elsewhere. He said UCM should work with them to find homes for the residents, calling the petition drive "destructive."
"No one on my watch is going to be made homeless," Dunstan said. "If it takes six months to a year, we will go six months to a year."
But Sensabough said most don't want to leave Edwardsville: The home is adjacent to bus stops and shopping, enabling many of the residents to get jobs.
For example, Billy Staggs Jr. is a developmentally delayed resident diagnosed with depression and anxiety. He was living in an apartment in Wood River, but he was a target for swindlers.
"I wasn't trying to be, but sometimes I'm a little naive," Staggs said. "I had a nervous breakdown, and they thought this would be the best placement for me right now."
Staggs volunteers at the nearby public library and has been looking for a job. He said he was "very upset" when he heard his new home would be closed.
"There's a lot of people who need this kind of care," he said. "It's been good. You're not restricted to the property, you can go out as you want to."
Sensabough said many families will not be able to visit their loved ones if they are moved to shelter homes in Alton or Belleville.
County Administrator Joe Parente said there is no timeline on the closure, as plans are still being worked out. "We're in the process of having the residents assessed and we'll see what their needs are," he said.
And what about the property, which sits along the new Illinois 159 just south of lucrative downtown Edwardsville? Parente and Dunstan said there are no plans for the land yet, and won't be until the residents are placed.
In the meantime, Sensabough said she's keeping hope.
"Those County Board members, how would you like to be kicked out of your house?" she said. "These politicians don't think it's necessary. But what if they had a family member with nowhere else to go?"
Contact reporter Elizabeth Donald at edonald@bnd.com or 345-7822, ext. 21.
