Local nonprofit Connections for the Homeless closed on its purchase of the Margarita Inn, 1566 Oak Ave., on Nov. 30, adding more permanence to the homeless shelter operating in the former hotel since March 2020.
The completed purchase comes just over six months after Connections won approval from City Council for a special use permit and operating agreement for the shelter. Connections announced and celebrated the closure in a Wednesday news release, calling it “the start of a new era” for its hotel-based shelter and wraparound services model.
“The effectiveness of the model is based on the provision of comprehensive on-site services – including medical care, mental health care, case managers to connect people to housing options, and other assistance,” the news release states. “Bringing all these elements together under one roof makes for a highly effective and efficient way to get people on the path to being housed for the long term.”
While typical overnight emergency shelters are first-come, first-serve and require people to leave during the day, Connections’ model assigns specific people and family groups to their own rooms and allows them to stay there throughout the day. According to the news release, the Inn can house up to 65 people at a time, and 86% of people who exited the Inn this year went to a housing solution.
In a phone call with the RoundTable, Chief Development Officer Nia Tavoularis said the purchase will allow the Inn to become a “permanent solution” for addressing homelessness in Evanston and other northern suburbs, as well as give Connections more stability and resources moving forward.
“As an agency, it helps us fulfill our mission more directly, it is frankly really comforting and encouraging for the staff,” Tavoularis said. “And financially, it’s a lot more efficient for us to not be paying a landlord, for us to own a building. That’s money that we can invest into programming, into services, into staff, etc.”
Long road to city approval
Connections began renting the Margarita Inn from former owner Michael Pure in March 2020, turning its hotel rooms into shelter bedrooms after congregate shelters were shut down at the beginning of the COVID lockdown. Tavoularis said the idea of buying the property and making the shelter permanent began as early as summer or fall 2020, but it wasn’t until February 2022 that Connections began the long process of gaining city approval by submitting a zoning application.
Tavoularis said that while Connections wasn’t “naïve” about the challenge of the zoning and permitting process, it took far more effort than they initially expected.
“Projects like this die in zoning, and so we knew that that was going to be tricky,” Tavoularis said. “But we didn’t know quite how intense it was going to be and how long it was going to take.”
It ultimately took around 15 months, numerous public meetings, two Land Use Commission votes, a brief court intervention and two unsustained ethics complaints before City Council approved the permanent shelter in May 2023. At least two active lawsuits still seek to end the shelter’s operations, though one filed against Pure, the former owner, may be rendered moot by Connections’ purchase of the building.
Goals moving forward
With city approval and purchase behind them, Tavoularis said Connections is focused on completing its ongoing capital fundraising campaign, which will support rehabilitation work in the Margarita Inn and renovation of the Hilda’s Place daytime shelter in the basement of Lake Street Church, 607 Lake St.
She added they’ll also focus on expanding their wraparound services both inside and outside the shelter, including housing case management, health services, employment support and more.
“Those services are important to us, they’re important to participants and they’re important to the community,” Tavoularis said. “Our goal moving forward is to make sure that we’re funding those in a way that keeps them healthy and strong, and just making sure that our participants are getting what they need, not just at the Margarita but across our programs.”
An advisory council made up of stakeholders in and around the shelter met for the first time in November to begin monitoring Connections’ Good Neighbor Agreement with the city, with future meetings to be held every three months.
Congratulations to Connections for its clear vision, hard won success, and phenomenal leadership. And kudos to the Evanston community for its courageous partnership in such a venture.