Private security guards could replace Elgin police officers in providing security at the Lexington Inn & Suites, where the city has been housing homeless people since January.
A proposal to hire a Andy Frain Security to do overnight security at a cost of about $9,000 a month goes before the Elgin City Council Wednesday night. If approved, it would be far less expensive than the $73,700 a month the city has been paying to use police officers to do the work.
Council members are also to receive an update on the efforts to find new housing for those who have been living at the Dundee Avenue hotel since the city closed down a homeless encampment off Route 31 along the Fox River following a series of fires. The housing contract with the hotel ends this month.
Under the proposed security change, Frain would provide one security guard to be at the hotel from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. and a second to work from 8 p.m. to midnight.
Guards are to do room checks for unauthorized guests and to handle any issues, like trespassing complaints. Frain currently provides security for the Edward Schock Centre of Elgin and enforces conduct policies at city parks.
Elgin police have provided a 24-hour security detail at the hotel since January. Initially, it was to be for two weeks but was later extended in response to community feedback, according to city documents. Currently, one police officer is assigned to the detail.
There have been 14 calls for service at the hotel since the residents moved in, according to documents. They have involved trespassing, eviction notices and nonviolent incidents, officials said.
Some community members and parents of students attending the Elgin Math and Science Academy charter school, located across the street from the hotel, are opposed to housing homeless people at the hotel and have told city officials that they don’t want to see it become a permanent solution to the situation.
One parent, Nicole Fornell, asked city officials at the council’s March 26 meeting to declare the hotel a nuisance property because of the 14 police calls over a 25-day period.
“This pattern reflects the exact definition of a nuisance property,” said Fornell, citing an Elgin ordinance that allows the city to condemn chronic nuisance properties.
“This hotel sits directly across the street from EMSA, that proximity alone should be a red flag,” Fornell said. “What is happening is unacceptable. It’s dangerous.”
EMSA parents and local residents have expressed concern about having the hotel serve as a temporary shelter because of its proximity to the school, asking that the city provide additional security, surveillance cameras and fencing around the school property, which is on a heavily wooded site off Route 25.
“We’ve seen this before with tent city,” Fornell said at the meeting. “The silence, deflection and inaction. It spiraled out of control. Now we are seeing some of the same issues. This time it’s across the street from a school.”
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
