Elgin's pilot program to help the homeless seems to be working, officials say
Four others have received supportive housing referrals through the state and another is on a waitlist for DuPage County housing, said Deidra Trout, director of behavioral health for nonprofit Association for Individual Development (AID).
More than two dozen have received safe, supportive living case management, Trout said, and social service agencies have reached out to another dozen whose basic needs were not being addressed while they were homeless.
In other words, Elgin's Unsheltered Pilot Program has had many successes since the decision was made in December to shut down and dismantle Elgin's 'tent city' along the Fox River and move its residents into Lexington Inn & Suites on Route 31, the Elgin City Council was told during its Wednesday night meeting.
'This project has truly assisted with closing the mortality gap for those who have experienced unsheltered homelessness with evidence-based housing first model,' Trout said. 'Lives have been stabilized. … While we are still early in this pilot, the progress is real.'
That said, the task of addressing homelessness in the city remains daunting, said Jena Hencin, the city's homeless response coordinator.
The success is part of the 'fluid movement of progress and change,' Hencin said. 'This is long-term work, but we are seeing progress. It is leading to real outcomes.'
Elgin partnered with AID on the pilot program in which the homeless encampment residents were moved into hotel rooms where they could be assured access to food and social service assistance.
'Our priority was getting tent city residents to safety,' Hencin said. 'This monumental feat of getting 42 people to the hotel involved numerous moving parts. … City departments acted quickly to support the relocation effort with coordinated, compassionate action while ensuring the protection of those individuals' lives.'
Beyond helping with their immediate needs, the goal has been to connect the residents with services that will lead to long-term housing and access to assistive programs, such as therapy and disability support, she said.
'The reality we face is affordable housing remains scarce,' Hencin said. 'Shelter capacity is limited in Elgin, and solutions do take time. There are fewer than 50 beds available for individuals, and none are available on demand.'
Kane County also continues to have a shortage of affordable housing, she said. The vacancy rate in the county is about 1%.
Elgin recently hosted a landlord fair attended by about 70 property owners. Hencin described it as 'a win for access and equity,' but more needs to be done, she said.
City officials have considered buying the Lexington for continue use as homeless housing — possibly a less expensive alternative to paying for rooms by the night — but no decision has been made, city spokesman Jeff Knox said.
That possibility does not sit well with some parents of students who attend the Elgin Math and Science Academy (EMSA), the campus entrance for which is located across the street from the hotel.
Parent Marcia Rodriguez said she has been unable to obtain information on the due diligence the city did before deciding to use the Lexington to house homeless people. She charged that the city has failed to respond to her Freedom of Information Act requests.
She also claimed there have been many incidents at the hotel reported to the police since the homeless residents moved in, the number of which constitute a violation of the city's nuisance ordinance.
City officials did not respond to her Rodriguez's allegations.
However, the city's homeless program has garnered wider attention, winning the Recognition of Service for Local Government award at the 2025 Home Illinois Summit, which is held by the Illinois Office to Prevent and End Homelessness.
The agency's Chief Homeless Officer Christine Haley cited Elgin's 'proactive compassionate approach to address homelessness,' Assistant City Manager Karina Nava told the council.
According to Haley, 'Elgin is setting an example for municipalities across the state,' Nava said.
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CNN
20 hours ago
- CNN
What the Gaza blockade looks like through the eyes of Egyptian truck drivers and aid workers
Africa The Middle EastFacebookTweetLink Follow For nearly two years, Egyptian truck drivers have braved the only land crossing into Gaza outside Israel to deliver vital aid, but long delays, Israeli rejections and harsh border conditions are testing their resolve to continue serving Palestinians in the war-torn enclave. The drivers spend weeks parked near the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, awaiting approvals from Israeli authorities to transport aid into Gaza. Once approval is granted, they are made to undergo a process of inspections on both sides of the border that Egyptian aid workers say often lasts almost 18 hours. Upon receiving approval from the Egyptian side, the drivers take their trucks into a zone designated for inspections by the Israeli military south of the border, at the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza, where their supplies, pre-approved by the Israeli military, are x-rayed and then checked again in what workers say is an onerous process. Medhat Mohamed, a truck driver transporting food like jam, honey, beans and hummus, said he was told to turn back by the Israeli military on Wednesday, after waiting for two weeks to enter the inspection process at the Egyptian border. 'I was asked, 'Why do you have so much food? Who is this for?' Or sometimes we get the most basic answer of: 'Time's up,'' Mohamed said. Some of the drivers spend weeks on end without seeing family and say they're missing out on potentially lucrative jobs in other parts of Egypt. 'We've been here for almost a week, we went in (to the Israeli inspection site) once before and then they told us turn around, we don't know why… 150-200 trucks go in for inspections, but they only take 15-20 trucks. The rest is rejected,' said Mohamed al-Shaer, a truck driver. Mahmoud al-Sheikh, another driver who has been delivering aid to Gaza since the start of the war nearly two years ago, described the process as 'humiliating' for the truckers, and for the Palestinians who desperately need supplies. 'I've been (delivering aid) for two years. This is the most difficult time, more than one can imagine,' he said, referring to increased restrictions on deliveries. Al-Sheikh described difficult living conditions at the border, with thousands of drivers parked in a nearby 'sand pit' awaiting a green light to start moving the aid to the border. A handful of bathroom stalls in a nearby mosque serve thousands of truck drivers, who must stay near their vehicles in case a sudden ceasefire allows aid to enter Gaza freely, the drivers told CNN. The two short-lived ceasefires Gaza saw since the war began were 13 months apart. The pay is low. 'We get paid 650 Egyptian pounds ($13) daily but we have to buy water to bathe and drink, buy ice to preserve food, expensive food to cook. Whatever is left is not enough to send back to our children,' al-Sheikh said. Asked why he continues in this line of work, al-Sheikh said: 'Because the people in Gaza are starving.' Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told CNN that 5,000 trucks carrying aid are waiting on the Egyptian side of the border to enter. COGAT, the Israeli military body that oversees access to Gaza, told CNN on Tuesday that it 'does not prevent the entry of trucks from Egypt and facilitates their passage into Gaza without any quantitative restriction.' Amal Emam, the head of the Egyptian Red Crescent, said on Monday that aid groups on the Egyptian side ensure they are meeting all the requirements placed by COGAT, but they often find that even items that are pre-approved by Israel are rejected, sometimes for apparently arbitrary reasons. 'For us, it's trial and error,' Emam said. She showed CNN hundreds of packages of aid piling up in an Egyptian warehouse near the Rafah crossing, including intensive care unit (ICU) beds, oxygen tanks, solar panels and generators. These, she said, were rejected by Israel several times during inspections at the border. 'The ICU beds were rejected four times because they have metal parts in them,' she told CNN's Becky Anderson. Responding to Emam's claims to CNN, COGAT said on X Wednesday: 'The beds arrived at the crossing stacked in a dangerously unstable way, making it impossible to unload them at the crossing, and putting the safety of crossing staff at risk.' 'The organization was therefore asked to properly repalletize the trucks, and once the cargo was securely restacked, the trucks entered Gaza yesterday.' Emam said the package dimensions are properly measured, loaded on specific wooden pallets, digitally coded and manifested in coordination with Israel before the items are sent to the border for IDF inspections. Otherwise, any difference, no matter how small, will hinder aid access, she said. 'Sometimes we don't get an answer as to why they have been rejected.' COGAT said that 'trucks are denied entry only in cases involving attempts to smuggle prohibited goods, or if the truck driver has previously made multiple smuggling attempts and is therefore barred from arriving at the crossing.' The process is costly and adds 'unnecessary financial burden' to 'pack, repack, add extra areas to store,' Emam said, adding that huge warehouses have been built in Egypt to store and preserve all the aid waiting to make its way into Gaza. Striking images of starvation and extreme malnutrition after months of Israel's blockade of Gaza triggered global protests last month. Protests targeted Egyptian embassies abroad as demonstrators accused the Egyptian government of complicity in the blocking of aid. Egypt's foreign minister organized a visit for news organizations to the Gaza border amid the mounting pressure, saying the burden lies with Israel, and that the Rafah border is open round the clock on the Egyptian side, but that the crossing remains closed on the Israeli-controlled side. In a CNN report published last year, two dozen humanitarian workers and government officials working to deliver aid said a clear pattern of Israeli throttling of aid exists. COGAT imposes arbitrary and contradictory criteria, they said. CNN also reviewed documents compiled by major participants in the humanitarian operation that list the items most frequently rejected by the Israelis, which include anesthetics and anesthesia machines, oxygen cylinders, ventilators and water filtration systems. Despite the restrictions, Emam said, aid workers refuse to give up. 'If we stop doing this, who will do it?'
CNN
20 hours ago
- CNN
What the Gaza blockade looks like through the eyes of Egyptian truck drivers and aid workers
For nearly two years, Egyptian truck drivers have braved the only land crossing into Gaza outside Israel to deliver vital aid, but long delays, Israeli rejections and harsh border conditions are testing their resolve to continue serving Palestinians in the war-torn enclave. The drivers spend weeks parked near the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, awaiting approvals from Israeli authorities to transport aid into Gaza. Once approval is granted, they are made to undergo a process of inspections on both sides of the border that Egyptian aid workers say often lasts almost 18 hours. Upon receiving approval from the Egyptian side, the drivers take their trucks into a zone designated for inspections by the Israeli military south of the border, at the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza, where their supplies, pre-approved by the Israeli military, are x-rayed and then checked again in what workers say is an onerous process. Medhat Mohamed, a truck driver transporting food like jam, honey, beans and hummus, said he was told to turn back by the Israeli military on Wednesday, after waiting for two weeks to enter the inspection process at the Egyptian border. 'I was asked, 'Why do you have so much food? Who is this for?' Or sometimes we get the most basic answer of: 'Time's up,'' Mohamed said. Some of the drivers spend weeks on end without seeing family and say they're missing out on potentially lucrative jobs in other parts of Egypt. 'We've been here for almost a week, we went in (to the Israeli inspection site) once before and then they told us turn around, we don't know why… 150-200 trucks go in for inspections, but they only take 15-20 trucks. The rest is rejected,' said Mohamed al-Shaer, a truck driver. Mahmoud al-Sheikh, another driver who has been delivering aid to Gaza since the start of the war nearly two years ago, described the process as 'humiliating' for the truckers, and for the Palestinians who desperately need supplies. 'I've been (delivering aid) for two years. This is the most difficult time, more than one can imagine,' he said, referring to increased restrictions on deliveries. Al-Sheikh described difficult living conditions at the border, with thousands of drivers parked in a nearby 'sand pit' awaiting a green light to start moving the aid to the border. A handful of bathroom stalls in a nearby mosque serve thousands of truck drivers, who must stay near their vehicles in case a sudden ceasefire allows aid to enter Gaza freely, the drivers told CNN. The two short-lived ceasefires Gaza saw since the war began were 13 months apart. The pay is low. 'We get paid 650 Egyptian pounds ($13) daily but we have to buy water to bathe and drink, buy ice to preserve food, expensive food to cook. Whatever is left is not enough to send back to our children,' al-Sheikh said. Asked why he continues in this line of work, al-Sheikh said: 'Because the people in Gaza are starving.' Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told CNN that 5,000 trucks carrying aid are waiting on the Egyptian side of the border to enter. COGAT, the Israeli military body that oversees access to Gaza, told CNN on Tuesday that it 'does not prevent the entry of trucks from Egypt and facilitates their passage into Gaza without any quantitative restriction.' Amal Emam, the head of the Egyptian Red Crescent, said on Monday that aid groups on the Egyptian side ensure they are meeting all the requirements placed by COGAT, but they often find that even items that are pre-approved by Israel are rejected, sometimes for apparently arbitrary reasons. 'For us, it's trial and error,' Emam said. She showed CNN hundreds of packages of aid piling up in an Egyptian warehouse near the Rafah crossing, including intensive care unit (ICU) beds, oxygen tanks, solar panels and generators. These, she said, were rejected by Israel several times during inspections at the border. 'The ICU beds were rejected four times because they have metal parts in them,' she told CNN's Becky Anderson. Responding to Emam's claims to CNN, COGAT said on X Wednesday: 'The beds arrived at the crossing stacked in a dangerously unstable way, making it impossible to unload them at the crossing, and putting the safety of crossing staff at risk.' 'The organization was therefore asked to properly repalletize the trucks, and once the cargo was securely restacked, the trucks entered Gaza yesterday.' Emam said the package dimensions are properly measured, loaded on specific wooden pallets, digitally coded and manifested in coordination with Israel before the items are sent to the border for IDF inspections. Otherwise, any difference, no matter how small, will hinder aid access, she said. 'Sometimes we don't get an answer as to why they have been rejected.' COGAT said that 'trucks are denied entry only in cases involving attempts to smuggle prohibited goods, or if the truck driver has previously made multiple smuggling attempts and is therefore barred from arriving at the crossing.' The process is costly and adds 'unnecessary financial burden' to 'pack, repack, add extra areas to store,' Emam said, adding that huge warehouses have been built in Egypt to store and preserve all the aid waiting to make its way into Gaza. Striking images of starvation and extreme malnutrition after months of Israel's blockade of Gaza triggered global protests last month. Protests targeted Egyptian embassies abroad as demonstrators accused the Egyptian government of complicity in the blocking of aid. Egypt's foreign minister organized a visit for news organizations to the Gaza border amid the mounting pressure, saying the burden lies with Israel, and that the Rafah border is open round the clock on the Egyptian side, but that the crossing remains closed on the Israeli-controlled side. In a CNN report published last year, two dozen humanitarian workers and government officials working to deliver aid said a clear pattern of Israeli throttling of aid exists. COGAT imposes arbitrary and contradictory criteria, they said. CNN also reviewed documents compiled by major participants in the humanitarian operation that list the items most frequently rejected by the Israelis, which include anesthetics and anesthesia machines, oxygen cylinders, ventilators and water filtration systems. Despite the restrictions, Emam said, aid workers refuse to give up. 'If we stop doing this, who will do it?'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Israeli controls choke Gaza relief at Egypt border, say aid workers
At the Rafah crossing into the Gaza Strip, hundreds of aid trucks sat unmoving in the Egyptian desert, stuck for days with only a handful allowed through by Israel to relieve the humanitarian disaster across the border. After nearly two years of war, UN-backed experts have said famine is unfolding in the Palestinian territory, while there are also dire shortages of clean water and medicines. Yet aid groups say the flow of essential supplies remains painfully slow, despite the growing crisis. Israel continues to deny entry for life-saving medical equipment, shelters and parts for water infrastructure, four UN officials, several truck drivers and an Egyptian Red Crescent volunteer told AFP. They said the supplies were often rejected for being "dual-use", meaning they could be put to military use, or for minor packaging flaws. Some materials "just because they are metallic are not allowed to enter," said Amande Bazerolle, head of emergency response in Gaza at French medical charity MSF. Sitting on the Egyptian side was a truckload of intensive care gurneys baking in the sun, held back by the Israelis despite the UN reporting a severe shortage in Gaza, because one pallet was made of plastic instead of wood, aid workers said. Other shipments were turned away because "a single pallet is askew, or the cling film isn't wrapped satisfactorily", said an Egyptian Red Crescent volunteer. Even with everything lined up and approved beforehand, shipments can still be turned back, said Amal Emam, chief of the Egyptian Red Crescent. "You can have a UN approval number stuck to the side of a pallet, which means it should cross, it's been approved by all sides, including COGAT, but then it gets to the border and it's turned back, just like that." COGAT is the Israeli ministry of defence agency that oversees civil affairs in the Palestinian territories. Complying with the restrictions was also incredibly costly, Emam said. "I have never in my life as a humanitarian seen these kinds of obstacles being put to every bit of aid, down to the last inch of gauze," she added. - 'Engineered hunger' - Simple medicines such as ibuprofen can take a week to cross into Gaza. Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation often has to rush to get insulin and other temperature-sensitive medicines through in regular trucks when Israeli officials reject the use of refrigerated containers. In a tent warehouse, dozens of oxygen tanks sat abandoned on Monday, gathering dust months after they were rejected, alongside wheelchairs, portable toilets and generators. "It's like they're rejecting anything that can give some semblance of humanity," a UN staffer told AFP, requesting anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the press. Olga Cherevko, spokesperson for the UN's humanitarian agency OCHA, said the prohibited list "is pages and pages of things". Truck drivers have reported spending days stuck watching other vehicles that are often carrying identical supplies either waved through or rejected without explanation. Egyptian driver Mahmoud El-Sheikh said he had been waiting for 13 days in scorching heat with a truck full of flour. "Yesterday, 300 trucks were sent back. Only 35 were allowed in," he said. "It's all at their discretion." Another driver, Hussein Gomaa, said up to 150 trucks lined up each night on the Egyptian side, but in the morning "the Israelis only inspect however many they want and send the rest of us back". AFP could not independently verify the daily aid volume entering Gaza from Egypt. A WHO official said that at most 50 trucks enter Gaza every day while Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said only 130-150 trucks cross daily, sometimes 200 -- about a third of what is needed. "This is engineered hunger," Abdelatty said on Monday, adding that over 5,000 trucks were waiting at the border. - 'Losing limbs' - Last week, COGAT denied blocking aid. In a post on X, it said Israel facilitates humanitarian aid while accusing Hamas of exploiting aid to "strengthen its military capabilities" and said 380 trucks entered Gaza last Wednesday. MSF warned aid bottlenecks were costing lives. It cannot bring in vital medical supplies as basic as scalpels or external fixators used to treat broken limbs. "People are at risk of losing limbs because we don't have basic tools," Bazerolle said. She added supplies were depleting faster than expected. "We order for three or five months and then in two months it's gone." bha-maf/dcp/dv Solve the daily Crossword
