Inclusion Daily Express -- No NIMBYs In This Neighborhood (Sept. 22, 2004)

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No NIMBYs In This Neighborhood
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
September 22, 2004

LOCKPORT, ILLINOIS--The Will County Board last week approved a zoning change and special-use permit allowing a group home to be built in Lockport Township, the Daily Southtown reported Wednesday.

Trinity Services, a non-profit agency that provides services to people with disabilities in Illinois and Nevada, plans to build the home on a 10-acre piece of property. The $2.2 million project is funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The group home will provide housing for six residents in this small town south-west of Chicago.

None of the local residents objected to the plan, according to Trinity's executive director, Art Dykstra.

"Never once did anybody say, 'Not in my back yard,'" he said.

"People see us as being good stewards and good neighbors."

After more than three decades of down-sizing and closing institutions, many neighborhoods around the country still resist group homes for people with developmental disabilities and mental illnesses. Federal anti-discrimination law, however, does not allow towns and cities to stop people with disabilities from living together in the same house.

Trinity officials hope to start construction this winter, the Daily Southtown reported.

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