Belvidere Daily Republican: Habitat for Humanity may create space for women's shelter

Belvidere Daily Republican

April 7

By Bob Balgemann
Reporter
BELVIDERE - The Boone County chapter of Habitat for Humanity will not be building a house this year. But instead, the organization may remove an existing residence for use as a women's shelter.
Carol Loveridge, president of the Habitat board of directors, said the board is interested in having that as its 2014 ...project. She said there would be more discussion of the possibility at its April meeting.
The prospect of finally having a shelter for at-risk women brought a level of excitement to the March 21 meeting of the Boone County Homeless Project task force.
"There is no safe place for women in Boone County," said Danice Loveridge, sister-in-law of Carol and chairperson of the task force. "So often they have to go to Rockford when they're fleeing an abusive situation."
"We have a big gap in our community," Danice Loveridge added. "Habitat for Humanity has no money to build a house this year. Now they may rehab a house to serve as a shelter for women. I think we finally have a direction."
She added the hope is that the housing would be somewhere in Belvidere, because "transportation is an issue for a lot of people."
"There was a house for battered women years ago, but it went by the wayside," recalled John Fish, a Belvidere police officer and task force member.
"I think they lost their funding," Danice Loveridge said.
Housing in general has been a longstanding concern of the task force. There is plenty of need but an inadequate number of available places to live. Waiting lists are common; quite often applications aren't being accepted.
The county chapter of Habitat for Humanity was formed in 2005. Since then it has built six three bedroom, one-bath homes in Belvidere. The most recent residence was for Lisa Waters and her three children at 735 Chicago St. It is near house No. 5, on Main Street near Fairgrounds Road.
But those houses now cost in the area of $90,000 and after the main sponsor, Thrivent, decided to focus more on Rockford, getting that amount of money has been difficult.
OFFICERS NEEDED
Also at the March 21 task force meeting Loveridge reminded members of the need for new officers to serve at that level, and on the overseeing board of directors. Darren Ahlgren originally offered to serve as chairman of both the board and task force, but a job change forced him to take a different direction.
In addition, she reported that a third church was in the planning stages of offering a monthly community meal. The Apostolic and Christian Church on Town Hall Road hopes to offer its first meal later this month or in May.
"They have a van so they will pick up people," she said. "They're a little bit out in the country."
Transportation continues to be a problem for some people and Loveridge said she still receives phone calls from those who have no way to get to Poplar Grove United Methodist Church, the first one to start offering meals every month.
Poplar Grove UMC continues to provide meals every Wednesday, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., with St. John's United Church of Christ on Main Street in Belvidere having a meal the third Wednesday from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Between the two they are serving about 55 people per meal.