A new Rock Island ordinance could impact how agencies help the homeless.

And the final phase of a decades long project to honor veterans in The Cities.

The 11th day of the 11th month is set aside to honor the veterans of this nation, the men and women of the military.

And as we approach Veterans Day just days from now, we look at an ongoing effort to mark the sacrifices of one community's warriors.

But first, regulating where one community can give a helping hand for the homeless.

Rock Island has just enacted an ordinance regulating where shelters for the unhoused can be located now.

That could leave an impact on a group like Project NOW that aims to build up those who may need the help the most.

We talked with the executive director of project now, the Reverend Dwight Ford.

Reverend Ford, always good to have you join us.

I appreciate it.

Once again, Rock Island changing its regulations in regards to some of th zoning requirements involving, various things, including, people's shelters, keeping them 1000ft from childcare centers, schools and parks.

What is that?

What kind of an impact is that going to have for a project now?

Enormous.

Well, when I say impact, it's all about the impact of perspective in a sense that we absolutely deserve and need a winter overflow shelter.

Our agency hosted it.

Last year, we had 180 unduplicated individuals.

Previously, the city of Davenport had it.

Of course, in the recent past, no less than a decade between Kings Harvest and, of course, humility.

Humility, homes.

So what we have been committed to doing is to keep that overflow shelter, in not just our region, but keep it in Rock Island.

Now, with this new ordinance, if you look at how that ordinance with 1000ft is laid out in what institutions and endeavors that we cannot be 1000ft in proximity to, which is, in my understanding, something that should have been corrected a long time ago, because people that are sex offenders, you have to have 500.

So what are we saying about people that serve the most disadvantaged population at 1000ft?

What sincere detriment to human society do they pose by being in proximity to, those institutions that are listed.

Now, when I say that if you look at the map, if you put down 1000ft, take the institutions that are listed in the ordinance and map it out, that that thousand feet did not drop out of the air.

That thousand feet is very surgical and strategic.

It is to ensure that there will be highly, a inoperable possibility that a winter overflow shelter could be anywhere in the city of Rock Island.

When the vote occurred, there were boos.

I mean, there are people that are upset about this.

Where do you go from here?

And the upset, and rightfully so.

And not just from our city.

This has taken on an enormous amount of highlighting.

I was just down at the state House.

Of course, working during the veto session.

And there are politicians and activists and lobbyists that know about this endeavor in the city.

There are folk in Chicago that follow us and people that we work with.

The Illinois, Commission to End Poverty.

There are individuals stretched out throughout the state doing great wor that are very concerned about, the limitations on services like this.

I will say, where do we go from here?

Not one step back.

We've got to step forward.

Right now, when you're talking about everything falling apart in the social net.

So many things in housing, health care, education, economics and justice that this state and more importantly, Rock Island and our geographical county and service area depends on is being shredded.

And so this is not the time to limit.

We last year we had 116% increase in homelessness.

We had a 44% increase in our geographical area.

We only have 68 beds in Rock Island County, and any given day we're probably in proximity over 400 people unhoused.

And those are the ones we count.

Take that number and times it by three.

We probably have in our geographical area, taking in the Quad City region.

And we know that when you are exposed to the elements and unhoused, that you don't just stay i Davenport or just stay in Rock Island, Moline, East Moline or Silvis, you go where there's help.

So the fluidity of these numbers, and that's why last year I promoted I because of the experience we had.

What being the winter overflow low barrier shelter and some of the angst and anxiety that we were receiving.

I wrote an entire op ed piece that was entitled Shelter in Place as one of the solutions.

Why make a person come from all the way out?

And for three cities away, leaving places where they're already known their, communities and an ecosystem of care, even though they're unhoused, they are individuals that come by and leave a little money or, make sure they have something to eat, or they stop by at the local food place, food bank or distribution site at a local church or community center.

Get what they need.

Family members know where they are, and even if they're not always welcome back in the home because of, a challenge with mental illness or in fact, a severe addiction and addictive behavior that they normally check for them.

Why do they have to come across all these cities when you have a police department that doesn't know them as well, a EMS division of services that don't know them?

Community members that are not accustomed.

It makes of them, transient and highly vulnerable.

I believe our best moving forward is to find a way to do smaller shelters and maybe for other sites, but I believe Rock Island should be one.

The numbers, the numbers of impoverished individuals are so high, we cannot find a way forward without saying Rock Island deserves and needs another shelter.

Now we have one that is there.

Christian Care first class 108 years of doing this work.

They have been our mentors in this work.

They have been our allies and partners.

But the need is so great.

All of our shelters are at capacity right now.

One I was going to ask you is that as we're heading into the winter season, what's the alternative then, for these people who can't or aren't able to go to an overflow shelter now?

What's the alternative?

And what what most individuals do not realize is that it is an amalgamation of many different realities and a low barrier shelter.

So this past year, we had three families.

Most shelters don't have capacity for families or a father with children.

We had three rooms set aside for families.

We also have people that were recently laid off and displaced out of John Deer in our shelter.

Individuals that had lost custody of children because of the disruption and loss of residency.

Another family member had to step in and take care of the reality until they could get on their feet.

That shelter provided that strength, and he was got on his feet, regain custody of his children, and move forward in life.

That shelter is so important.

There are people that sleep in a shelter every night and get up and go to work.

So people really don't realize who are who's in those shelters.

Now there's about 10 to 12, 15% at the highest of folks that are suffering.

And this is also nationally, not just locally with a level of not being able to function what their mental illness in society, meaning that it keeps them from remaining housed.

And so we do see the severely mentally ill, most folks that have mental illness in America, our functionally, able to move, maneuver and move throughout society.

They have a great support system, family.

They're on medication individuals.

And even if they have episodic realities, there is a community that understands them, helps them maintain employment and all of those things.

The folks that are on the street that are mentally ill are those that are at a high level, of mental illness that keeps them from being functional and being housed.

Same thing with the addictive behavior.

Most addicts in America are people struggling with addiction, are functional.

They may lose a job.

They may binge, they may have some troubles with relationships.

But there's a community that tries to understand and help hold it together.

These individuals that need the winter overflow shelter that is low barrier, severely at risk.

And my sincere fear is that someone is going to freeze to death.

Are you also worried when it comes to a decision like what Rock Island made is that it is made out of fear and misunderstanding?

Or do you have a feeling that it is people that just don't want to know a problem exists and wants to look away.

While the looking away is no longer possible?

Now because, 51% of Americans can't afford a $400 emergency any one day of the year.

More and more people that are exposed to homelessness are not individuals that blew a budget and just bought a lot of cell phones and sneakers.

No, these are individuals that are being priced out and they can't hold things together.

Snap benefits are getting ready to be cut.

Medicaid next year as well.

And significant numbers.

That means folks will be coming out of nursing homes back home to live with a family that is barely holding it together with duct tape, shoestring, and bubble gum.

This is not going to go over well.

My plea is not to say that the city of Rock Island doesn't have its challenges, and I know that elected officials have to make tough decisions.

My plea to them was more on a compassionate sense of humanity.

We got to make a better set of decisions.

We are more than willing as an agency, as one of many.

We don't stand alone.

We have an entire ecosystem of nonprofits in the city of Rock Island that work together on a regular basis.

And we are saying, come to the table with us.

We don't want a wedge between, the city elected officials, nor do we want one with the business community.

We can coexist.

We have cities right now in the Quad City region that have, ballet and Broadway and homeless, services.

Why?

Why make this, premise that we can't coexist?

That we have to have less than the number that we actually need.

We can talk about location where they can be.

We are open to those discussions.

But to say that Rock Island can only have one, or to say that we're going to make sure that the geographical landscape, based upon the way that we have constructed the ordinance.

And I like to use these words again, it is surgical and strategic.

1000ft just doesn't fall out of the air.

It was well thought out.

When we're talking about homeless and we're talking about an urban area such as Rock Island.

But project now, of course, serves three counties.

Yes, Rock Island, Henry and Mercer.

That's what I thought.

We're seeing problems also in rural areas and rural homelessness that you also have to have attention to.

We we just finished a rule 100 day challenge in, in, Mercer County and going in there were folks that said, no, homelessness is not a problem here.

And by the time we finished, of course, there was a significant number for the rural landscape.

And we worked to get them housed within 100 days.

We see this.

Most people don't know that the reality of vulnerability in rural communities is, is just a heavy weight to carry, as it is in the urban right now.

The rural community is a dental desert.

They don't have enough dentists.

You got to drive 45 minutes in one direction to try to get to a dentist.

They are essentially financial deserts where how do you get the help that you need in a proximity?

There are medical deserts.

The clinics are closing.

And when these medications continue to cut, you'll be driving 45 minutes in one direction to try to save the life of your child that's sick.

They are essentially food deserts, one half of every dollar in rural grocery stores is a snap dollar.

So when they are making these decisions at the federal level, they're not understanding that.

It's just not who you do not like or who you think is sitting in their grandmother's basement not willing to work.

There are a whole lot of people trying to hold it together, and it's just not the urban community.

It is our rural community that will be equally devastated.

We have food deserts in the middle of cornfields.

Make that make sense.

Our farmers and our rural communities, which Henry Mercer, Rock Island County has a significant number, just left a, press conference with the governor and talking about $12 billion of soybeans that would have been sold to China that are not being sold, and our farmers are not receiving the compensation for their hard work.

That's going to devastate so many other.

So our goal with community Action is to make sure that we're helping to lay a foundation so people can stay standing.

It's hard when you have to get up off the ground.

When a family has been knocked all the way down to try to pick it back up and try to make something out of pure devastation, when we could have kept that family standing.

It is easier for them to take a step forward when they're on their feet.

And the things that we're asking them is a part of good citizenry that you would do your best, that you would find gainful employment.

All those things are being shredded.

What does a 16 year old right now find their first employment job?

When you got a 65 year old holding on to that job because they can't afford to retire?

This is the ripple effect.

We have just stepped on a rake.

We have spit in the wind and it's going to blow back into our face.

And this is what I've been warning the city I love and Rock Island.

Don't do this because if you step on a rake, it only has one direction to go and a lot of people are going to feel pain.

Our thanks to the executive Director of project now, the Reverend Dwight Ford.

Just ahead, Davenport's ongoing effort to build a place to honor its war veterans.

But 1st November is upon us.

So let's take a look at some of the great events that you can enjoy this month.

Thanks to visit Quad Cities.

Check out the things to do this week in the Quad Cities.

Start your week off by seeing America's largest touring magic show, The Masters of Illusion, at the Adler Theater, then tour the foggy Art Museum and learn about the secrets and surprises hidden in the figures galleries.

Next, head to the Kuka Expo Center to see a variety of fine antiques and vintage collectibles for sale.

Enjoy live music from local and regional bands at the Mississippi River Distilling Company in LeClaire, Iowa.

Finally, the classic holiday movie White Christmas will be brought to life on stage at the circa 21 Dinner Playhouse.

For more events like these, check out our events calendar at visit Quad cities.com.

For more than a decade, a group of Davenport citizens has rallied to help the city create a suitable park to honor the veterans who have served this country.

Year after year, that park along the Mississippi River has grown, and now it's entering its third and perhaps final phase.

But not before one last big project.

As we mark Veterans Day 2025, we talked with Bill Churchill from the friend of the Veterans Memorial Park.

Well, Bill, this is a park that has been years in the making.

I'm just talking about since you dedicated it.

I mean, besides the years of planning before that, and you'r basically done with phase two.

Tell me a bit about the importance of this park, which Davenport really didn't have anything for veterans.

Exactly.

And, to be honest with you, Jim, there was a little controversy when this park was, started because there' a group of veterans who had a, an area in the Davenport Memorial Cemetery, and they had a veterans area there.

And so they were thinking, oh, this is kind of a duplication of of veterans, opportunities.

But it's a totally different thing.

This is a public park, not in a cemetery.

And, the city of Davenport as you probably know, in 2010, decided we needed to have a veterans park in Davenport.

And so it was started and a site was picked.

And again, there was some controversy on the site being a former, wasteland, city dump.

Well, basically anything along the riverfront in some ways.

Was that at one yet?

Yeah.

Well, but this was particularly a dome.

So I mean, it was, And we're talking about the Marquette Street landing.

Right.

Correct.

Where the park is now.

And we think actually quite frankly, it's a major upgrade from was nothing but weeds.

Right.

Back then and to honor veterans, and have a place right along the riverfront that we think now is very beautiful, we think is a major upgrade.

So but you're right.

It's an opportunity for the city of Davenport to have a very special place for people to come and and recognize and remember and honor veterans.

So.

And it's more than just flagpoles.

I think that's what's it's really become a tribute to, each of the wars and conflicts, from World War One on.

You've really made a point of 20th and 21st century, memorials.

Well, in, in 2011, when they had phase one and they put up three flagpoles and a little concrete area and some benches and a sign that said Veterans Memorial Park, that was pretty much it for very many years.

Yes.

Until quite frankly, 2017, when the Friends of Veterans Memorial Park, which I was a member of that committee at that time, we put in what we call the Star Monument, which is, a monument there that has a star on top.

And, that was the gist of what we could.

That was a $9,000 project.

That was in 2017.

And then in 2023, we had phase two, and that was a cooperation between the city and our friends group.

And, if yo want to me to talk about that.

Now, I can talk about that.

Absolutely.

Because, I mean, you've got a group of volunteers.

It's always volunteers.

You got a group of volunteers that are it's a passion.

More than just a job.

No question.

It's all volunteers.

We're not doing this because we're making money.

We're just doing i because we want to try to give back again.

We're all veterans.

Actually, if I may, I'd like to recognize the committee.

We have eight active members right now.

There's Scott Pettus, who was actually who's our treasurer and secretary right now, and he was on the original committee back in 2011 when this all started.

And, Roger Grand Boys, who was our webmaster, who does a tremendous job of allowing people to order bricks online.

And that's a big part of phase three, that is.

But I'll get to that in a second.

So and then, Wayne Kraft, who has been a long time member of our committee, and then Bruce Cheek and, Danny Creel and Andy Zinn, who is the vocational welding instructor at Davenport West High School, has been absolutely instrumental in helping us develop this park.

And Robert Brewer, so there's eight and myself.

So there's eight of us that are that we meet every month.

And, we've been very activ in trying to make this happen.

But phase two, there were basically six major parts.

The city put it in a river overlook, which is down right by the bike trail.

If you're a bike or you ride by our rail all the time.

And they put in the walking trails and they built an amphitheater.

So those are the thre major parts that the city did.

And then we as a friends group, we put in the Life-Size bugler statue and the eight foot by 40ft mural that we had a local artist, Dave Schaefer, who does that, who at the time was the art teacher of Davenport West High School.

He painted this beautiful mural.

And then the third thing we had was the, the signs, the 14 educational signs that talk about, well, the six branches of the military and then eight signs talk about various wars that we've been involved, as you briefly mentioned.

And let's talk about the fact that phase two is coming to an end.

That amphitheater is going to play a special role, of course, in this park.

We're really I just thought that was one of the it was a key part to the park, because when you want to have these annual such as Veterans Day, when you want to have these annual events, Memorial Day, you have a place exactly.

And we are not actively pursuing that amphitheater of events and activities at this point.

Our main focus right now is to finish phase three.

But in the future, going forward, after we finish phase three, which we hope to have done by the end of this year, quite frankly, we definitely want to have some opportunities to show off that amphitheater.

And if you get on that, after I've been up there and you look out toward the river, it is a magnificent, beautiful view.

And, even in the evening or sunrises, any time of day, really.

But those are special times to look out toward the river.

It's just a magnificent view.

It's it's that part of the river that you do have the city on one side, but it's just such a nice, almost pastoral scene there, which is very calming, very nice.

So the location is turned out to be kind of a gem and a jewel.

Absolutely.

And when you're talking about phase three, we do want to talk about the bricks.

That is always seemingly a project that gets involved when it gets involve in veterans, because people do want to honor, the military, men and women that have been in their families and those that have served.

Absolutely.

And it's a great opportunity.

We think it's a fundraiser for us.

So each brick is $100 and, allow Peterson.

There was one of our former members who passed, unfortunately about a year ago, and it was his idea.

He saw this display in the South Dakota Veteran's Park, and we thought it was a great idea.

So we wanted to bring tha same concept back to our park.

And so you can buy a brick for $100 a fundraiser for us, which allows us to keep developing the park and at the same time allows the public to personalize and have a little skin on the game, so to speak, in our in our park, where they can go and and see their brick, as many times as they want, 365 days a year.

And in fact, we hope to have that brick display up by the end of this year.

So we're working very hard right now to to get the concrete pads set up.

The actual it's kind of an A-frame structure that the bricks are going to be displayed on.

That'll be 144 on one side, 144 on the other side, and that we have two of those structures.

They're about 12ft long and one of them is full at this point.

So 288 have already been sold.

And we have room for about, a little under 200 to go and we'll have the other one full.

So if you're interested in getting a brick, I wouldn't wait too long because they are filling up.

Memorial Day, of course, is such a special, moment to remember those that have passed talked to me about the importance of Veterans Day, to remember those that are still with us.

Well, I'm a Vietnam veteran.

And so, and we have other, members on our committee who are Vietnam veterans.

And as you know, we didn't get a very good welcome or we weren't very appreciated.

And finally, after 50 years or so, we're finally starting to get a little respect.

But so for Veterans Day, it's it's an opportunity for not just the local area, but the nation to stop and say thank you for, a loved one or a friend that served our country.

No matter what time, what war or not a war, any time that a veteran serves there making a sacrifice, their families making a sacrifice.

So it's a chance for, the whole nation to say thank you and and, give a little respect and pause for those who have served.

And so for me personally, I spend my Veterans Day.

The first thing I do is I march in the Veterans Day parade in Davenport with the Davenport American Legion, color guard.

So I'm I always look forward to that every year.

But, I think it's it's a special day for veterans and, and certainly deserve the recognitio that, that anybody gives them.

Our thanks to Bill Churchill from the Friends of Veterans Memorial Park.

And you get more information about the Brick Project by heading to the group's website at f o v vmp.org.

Now, people who have stood up for their principles is the backbone of our country.

And we're talking with people in the cities who have a civic spark that they believe is making a difference.

As our nation gets ready to celebrate 250 years since the Declaration of Independence.

One of those people is Cory Holloway, who spent a champion of diversity and equity in our schools, workplace and society.

And we asked, Cory, what is your civic spark?

When we address the inequities that we have in our society.

We can begin to make positive steps moving forward with greater understanding of what this work is and what it's not.

Anything positive that happens along the way, there's going to be pushback.

I'm not naive to know, to think that there's not going to be pushback.

So it's important to us because we are going to continue to get more diverse.

We are going to continue to, have new generations with different thoughts coming for us.

So if we can establish a baseline of how we move, treat, one another as American citizens, we can have we we can we have the opportunity to create America.

This for all people.

Our thanks to equity and diversity specialist Cory Holloway sharing with us his civic spark on the air, on the radio, on the web, on your mobile device and streaming on your computer.

Thanks for taking some time to join us.

As we talk about the issues on The Cities.