Community members, residents and staff celebrated Connections for the Homeless’ recent purchase of the Margarita Inn with an open house at the facility on Tuesday. Connections has operated the former hotel since 2020 as a homeless shelter and officially purchased the building in November 2023. The inn currently accommodates approximately 60 unhoused individuals at 1566.
Connections for the Homeless, a nonprofit working to house the homeless in Evanston, has purchased the Margarita Inn after operating out of the building since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The $6.5 million purchase was made possible with a no-interest, fully forgivable 30-year loan from Cook County’s American Rescue Plan coffers. Connections Chief Development Officer Nia Tavoularis .
In September, Cook County commissioners approved $7 million in funding for Evanston’s Connections for the Homeless to purchase the Margarita Inn, which Connections has leased and operated as a shelter for unhoused people since 2021. Despite unanimous approval, the shelter’s purchase, has faced backlash from county commissioners. It is being financed by American Rescue Plan.
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