South Suburban PADS is a nonprofit based in Chicago Heights with the mission of preventing and ending homelessness in the South Suburbs of Chicago. The organization offers emergency shelter, support services, and affordable housing for people experiencing homelessness.
The organization was founded by volunteers in 1990 to provide emergency shelter through a rotating model to south suburban residents experiencing homelessness. Area churches or houses of worship set up beds or cots to host people on different nights of the week. “People living in Chicago’s south suburbs experience high rates of poverty, housing instability, and homelessness,” says Executive Director Doug Kenshol, highlighting the need for shelters and housing support services in the region. SSPADS aims to provide a pathway to home, focusing on helping clients achieve stability while caring for them.
Map of SSPADS’s service area
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was no longer safe to shelter in the congregate settings SSPADS utilized at various churches in the south suburbs. Like many shelters across the United States, when church shelter spaces closed, SSPADS shifted to providing hotel rooms as emergency shelter. Though the location is different, PADS continues to provide hot meals, safe emergency housing, and case management to their clients. Meanwhile, their programs have more than doubled in size. In 2019, SSPADS could only provide 13,000 nights of shelter and 39,000 meals per year. In 2023, they provided 50,080 nights of shelter and 132,162 free meals to help 403 people (including 114 children) to overcome homelessness. Also in 2023, their Rapid Rehousing program enabled 112 people to escape homelessness and move back into apartments; their Permanent Supportive Housing program enabled 263 people to avoid homelessness; and they distributed emergency prevention assistance to help 26 people avoid homelessness.
In addition to overseeing this robust growth, Executive Director Doug Kenshol looks beyond the organization’s doors to collaborate and advocate for change in Illinois communities. When COVID-related federal funds were sunsetting in 2022, emergency shelter providers recognized they would need increased funding from elsewhere in order to keep the current capacity. Additionally, there are not enough emergency shelter beds in the State of Illinois to meet the need–the State estimated a shortage of 4,551 beds, forcing thousands of people experiencing homelessness to sleep outside and unsheltered.
To raise awareness of this shortage and advocate for increased state funding, Doug Kenshol co-founded the Illinois Shelter Alliance, which unites 50+ emergency shelter and transitional housing agencies and allies who believe that housing is a human right and that there should be enough public funding to take care of every Illinoisian experiencing housing insecurity. The Illinois Shelter Alliance joined with Housing Action Illinois and allies to advocate for increased funding to meet immediate housing crisis needs in the FY24 Illinois budget. This advocacy led to historic investments in preventing and ending homelessness with the HOME Illinois budget proposal. With this transformational commitment, Gov. Pritzker put Illinois at the forefront of efforts to end homelessness.
In March 2024, SSPADS learned the exciting news that the organization had been selected to receive $1 million from Mackenzie Scott’s Yield Giving initiative. As one of 361 organizations selected for this highly competitive grant, SSPADS recognizes that this presents a unique opportunity to further their life-saving work and advocacy. “This award comes at such a critical time to address the rising housing and economic insecurity in the South Suburban region,” says Gyata Kimmons, Board President of SSPADS. “This gift will be transformational and will have an untold positive impact on the majority Black communities we serve in the south suburbs.”