Wheaton Man Wants To Convert Old School For Homeless
UPDATED 04/14/11 1:17 p.m.
WHEATON, Ill. (WBBM) -- A Wheaton builder is holding a rally for the homeless this evening at the old Hubble Middle School, hoping to drum up support for his vision to transform the building into a center for the homeless.
As WBBM Newsradio 780's Mike Krauser reports, Tom Cheerington says a couple of years ago, "I befriended a homeless man on the streets of downtown Wheaton. Over those two years we actually developed into a friendship."
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It was eye-opening, Cheerington says. One thing led to another and he started visiting shelters.
"These are people's mothers and sisters," Cheerington said. "I was amazed at the amount of older women. I was amazed at the amount of kids and families."
He continued: "Yes there's mentally ill, yes there's people with addiction problems, yes there's people I guess are just using the system. But there's also pregnant young mothers. There's gals in their 50s that lost their job, lost their apartment, lost their job."
Cheerington formed a non-profit. He wants to get the old school for $1, and create what he calls a "community compassion center."
"I think there's a higher equation. I think there's a heavenly purpose," Cheerington said. "I see a community within a community. I see kids volunteering their services to teach basketball, as a campus is my idea, not a shelter."
It would be place where people could stay, Cheerington says says, and also get counseling and other services.
"I want to give them some kind of place where they an sit down for a few days or a week or a month and, what do you need?" he said. " We have all of the services right at our fingertips."
Cheerington is trying to rally people of all faiths to get behind his idea, "and see if we cannot help the lowliest among us. Everybody needs the same thing, basically."
But the Wheaton school board and the mayor want to see a commercial use.
The minimum bid for the building is $10 million dollars. Cheerington says there have been no bids.
