Rock Island mayor, residents press options for winter shelter after ordinance pulled from agenda

Alderwoman Linda Barnes convened a Ward 3 listening session to gather community reaction to her request to suspend Rock Island's social-service ordinance so the city could more quickly host a low-barrier temporary winter shelter.

The meeting drew residents with lived experience, volunteers and service providers, and a presentation from Leslie Kilganick, director of the Quad Cities Housing Council. Barnes opened the meeting saying the immediate need was "a low barrier temporary winter shelter," and described personal family experience with mental illness and addiction to explain why she brought the request.

Mayor Harris acknowledged the political sensitivity of the issue but said he was actively searching the city for locations outside the concentrated downtown service area and reaching out to neighboring communities. "We don't want Rock Island to be the only ones doing things for the homeless," he said, noting regulatory limits, privately owned downtown buildings and the lack of formal applications from service providers under the current ordinance. Harris told residents he removed the item from the next Monday agenda because leaving it there "would have been political games," and promised the council would vote within 48 hours on any workable agreement once a site and terms are lined up.

Leslie Kilganick, director of the Quad Cities Housing Council, urged a regional and sustained response. She said a pre-pandemic assessment estimated a need for roughly 6,654 rental units affordable to extremely low-income households across the Quad Cities and recommended three priorities: coordination, collaboration and sustained municipal funding. "We need units that have supportive services as well," Kilganick said, arguing the region must maximize funds, expand units and back service providers so people can successfully rent.

Residents urged both immediate action and longer-term solutions. Several speakers with lived experience described freezing nights and the barriers to full-time employment, and urged quick relief such as warming shelters, broader weekend outreach and eviction-prevention measures. Matthew D'Alessandro, who said he was homeless in the Quad Cities for about a year and a half, proposed rehabbing houses where residents could work, learn trades and live temporarily as a path to stability.

Other public suggestions included deploying portable toilets and fresh water in downtown areas to address sanitation concerns, taxing abandoned properties to fund housing, and piloting small, temporary modular units on sites vetted for utilities and environmental impacts.

Speakers also praised frontline providers. Multiple residents thanked Third Place and Project Now for food, showers and immediate support, and urged the city to sustain funding for those organizations.

Harris said some practical barriers stem from the ordinance's staffing and licensing requirements, which call for trained professionals rather than volunteers to provide services at shelters. He also said the city has been contacted by potential partners and landlords and is discussing options with Moline and Davenport to avoid concentrating services in one jurisdiction.

What happened next: the mayor said he had removed the social-service-ordinance item from the upcoming Monday agenda to avoid a divisive vote that, he said, would not help people in the short term. He pledged a faster follow-up once a site and operational plan are agreed and said residents would be notified when the council is prepared to vote.

The listening session produced no formal vote. The next procedural steps reported at the meeting were outreach and negotiation by the mayor's office with landlords and neighboring cities, and the mayor's pledge to hold a special meeting or fast-track an agenda item once arrangements are finalized.