The Joliet City Council by a 5-3 voted Tuesday approved a special use permit to allow a women’s opioid addiction supportive living facility at 1301 Copperfield Ave. at the old site of Silver Cross Hospital.

Volunteers of America, which would operate Hope Manor Village Joliet, said women are at a high risk for opioid addiction and death from an overdose.

“Between 1999 and 2016, deaths from prescription opioid overdoes increased by 596 percent for women compared to 312 percent for men,” according to a Volunteers of America release. “These outcomes, are undoubtedly connected to a variety of factors including that women are prescribed more opioids than men and women are more biologically inclined to develop opioid dependency in a shorter timespan than men.” 

A fact sheet presented to the city council by Volunteers of America, which is a national ministry of service that began in 1896 with a commitment to serve and uplift the most vulnerable members of communities, indicated that opioid addiction has a “devastating impact” on women. But the trend can be reversed.

“Women have remarkable high rates of immediate success coming out of in-patient treatment. Unfortunately, one of the biggest factors associated with relapse in women, especially those caring for young children, is access to safe and supportive housing following their in-patient stay.”

According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, there were 3,013 fatalities as a result of opioid overdoses in the state in 2021, which was a 2.3 percent increase from the previous year and a 35.8 percent increase from 2019. Will County recorded 138 deaths.

Approving the project were council members Sherri Reardon, Suzanna Ibarra, Pat Mudron, Cesar Cardenas and Cesar Guerrero. Voting against the proposal were Jan Quillman, Joe Clement, and Larry Hug, who said the reason for his vote is the project exceeds the density ordinance. Mayor Terry D’Arcy abstained from the vote.

The 48-unit development would consist of one and two-bedrooms units located on the old Silver Cross Hospital campus that has since relocated to New Lenox. Individuals residing at Hope Manor Village Joliet would also have access to family park facilities, a business and technology resource center, a learning center for children, adult learning classrooms and family/group programs.

The project will be adjacent to Volunteers of America Illinois’ successful Hope Manor Joliet campus, which is a permanent, supportive, housing development designed for veteran-headed households who are recovering from a series of challenges, including PTSD, addiction, mental health issues, unemployment, and homelessness.

Carol Fleischman, who lives in the 1300 block of Copperfield Avenue, said she strongly opposes the project.

“This location is quite a distance to a major grocer, retail store, childcare facility, major employer and 24-hour medical care,” said Fleischman, who lives in the only house on the side of the street where the facility will be located. “There are much better and accessible areas of Joliet that would be a better fit for those in transition back to community living.”

Fleischman said when the proposal was previously brought up to the city and subsequently denied, a neighbor asked, “Would you put this in the Cathedral neighborhood?”

The response at the time from then Mayor Bob O’Dekirk, according to Fleischman, was “no.”

“I ask, why now?” she asked. “What has changed besides a new mayor? 

“The Ridgewood neighborhood has changed dramatically for the worse in terms of drugs and crime since Silver Cross was allowed to move to New Lenox and approving this proposal would not help that fact,” she added.

Hope Manor Village Joliet will target women recovering from opioid addiction, especially those who are pregnant or caring for young children. Referrals will be prioritized from the Will County Drug Court and from in-patient treatment programs serving women who are in and around Will County.

More than 106,000 people in the United States died from drug involved overdose in 2021, including prescription opioids, according to the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Opioid-involved deaths rose from 21,089 in 2010 to 47,600 in 2017, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.  In 2021, the number of deaths rose to 80,411.

More than one million people have died since 1999 from a drug overdose, according to the CDC. More than 75 percent of drug overdose deaths in 2021 involved an opioid. Opioids are substances that work in the nervous system of the body or in specific receptors in the brain to reduce the intensity of pain.

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