You have to stop a moment and think about this. The West Cook YMCA has taken delivery of 40 mid-sized refrigerators. Sixty more are on the way. And when the installation is complete, every tenant living in one of the Y’s single room occupancy (SRO) units will, for the first time, have the ability to keep a quart of milk, a bag of grapes, a jar of salsa fresh and cold. In their homes. On their terms.
Of all the many things we take for granted, perhaps a refrigerator tops that list. It is the ticket to self-sufficiency, to healthier eating, and, if leaders at the Y are right, it is one more humanizing piece of relaunching these gentlemen back into the wider world.
At a time when most YMCAs are abandoning their SROs, Oak Park’s Y over on Marion Street is doubling down, investing in services and in its facility. The refrigerators are first. Air-conditioning units are being planned. But more than that, YMCA tenants, once segregated from the rest of the bustling institution, are now being actively welcomed as full participants. A few tenants work part-time jobs at the Y. A case manager has been hired to connect tenants to services and jobs. A new partnership has been forged between the Y and the PADS housing program.
This effort came into sharp relief a few years back when the West Cook YMCA abandoned its plan to build a new facility in Forest Park, a facility which, like all new Ys, would have eliminated SROs. First under the leadership of CEOs Jan Pate and now Phillip Jimenez, the wise and compassionate choice has been made to bring a holistic approach to the SRO tenants. This is an effort fully in keeping with the values and passions of the Y movement and it makes us proud supporters.