The city will use a $1.8 million court settlement from a strip club to help pay for Chicago's first new domestic violence shelter in more than a decade, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Wednesday.
The 40-bed shelter to be built in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood on the Southwest Side would increase the capacity of the city's domestic violence shelters by 36 percent, officials said. In addition, at least 10 permanent housing units will be built to provide affordable housing for victims ready to leave the shelter.
The shelter, which would serve about 100 families a year, is scheduled to open in June 2014. But that timeline depends on a partnership with private organizations raising the majority of the money through donations.
The city is teaming up on the $4.2 million project with Women in Need Growing Stronger and the Greater Southwest Development Corp. In addition to the money, the city is donating vacant land valued at $500,000. The community groups are responsible for raising what the mayor's office said is nearly $3 million needed for the project.
"This is a great building. It's going to be the biggest in the city," Emanuel said of the new shelter. "It doesn't measure up to these women."
The city's portion came from the November settlement of a long-running legal battle against VIP's, A Gentlemen's Club, in a case involving back taxes and legal fees. The mid-1990s suit stemmed from alleged violations of an ordinance on how much skin dancers could show.
"It has been over a decade since the city of Chicago has opened a new shelter. I was shocked when I looked at how few beds we have compared to other cities," Emanuel said. "Budgets are more than numbers. They are a reflection of our values. Never is that truer than today."
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