Chicago Police building to be converted into domestic violence shelter

An old police building in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood on the Southwest Side will be converted into a domestic violence center for women and children fleeing abuse.

A $1 million capital investment is helping fund the construction for the domestic violence shelter, WINGS Metro. That announcement was made Saturday by Alderman Deborah Graham, who is a victim of domestic violence, and Gov. Pat Quinn.

The announcement was made at the 29th Ward Women Against Domestic Violence Rally, the statement said.

The city is donating the land for the $4.2 million project and giving up a $1.8 million court settlement from a strip club to help fund it, the Sun-Times previously reported. The shelter will be built by a partnership that includes Women in Need Growing Stronger, or WINGS, and the Metropolitan Family Services and the Greater Southwest Development Corporation.

It’s the first shelter for domestic violence survivors built in Chicago in more than a decade. The shelter will serve 100 families and is scheduled to open in June of 2014.