PADS Shelter Program

JOURNEYS | The Road Home is a non-profit agency that provides shelter, social services, and housing to the homeless and those at risk of becoming homeless in 37 towns in north/northwest suburban Cook County. The PADS Shelter Program is created in partnership with area faith communities to provide overnight shelter to those in need. The PADS shelter season runs from October 1st to April 30th each year. An active faith community will open its doors to pre-qualified JOURNEYS clients to provide a safe place to sleep, a warm dinner, and breakfast. Clients are allowed on site between 7:00PM and 7:00AM on the night the church serves as a shelter site.

PADS sites were closed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and JOURNEYS guests were housed in hotels. FUMCAH provided meals to JOURNEYS guests through this time and then supported the PADS site at Congregational United Church of Christ in Arlington Heights (CUCC) last year.

FUMCAH is going to be a PADS site again for 2023-2024. We will be hosting guests on Thursdays beginning on October 5th. We expect to have normal guest attendance this year as the hotel guest program is concluding in September. Patrick Nudo will be the Facilities Planner and we have brought in Rodger Reaume as site director. He has been in the program for thirty years and most recently managed the PADS site at CUCC.

There are differences from the PADS ministry you remember. For starters, our PADS night will be Thursday rather than Monday. More significantly, most (nearly all) staffing and meal preparation will be provided by the same teams that served CUCC’s shelter under the direction of JOURNEYS.