DuPage County's only homeless shelter for veterans will triple in size after the Wheaton City Council this week approved the plan.

The Midwest Shelter for Homeless Veterans, which opened a five-person shelter in a small house last year, is planning a $1 million addition that will increase its capacity to 15 veterans, and for the first time will include space for women veterans.

"We can help six more men and four women get off the streets and give them the opportunity to be part of the community," said shelter Executive Director Tom Mouhelis, also a City Council member.

"We've got more and more women coming home from the war every day," Robert Adams, the shelter's president and clinical director, said after Monday night's council vote.

The not-for-profit shelter at 119 N. West St. provides transitional services for veterans, including counseling, educational and job-training services. So far, about 16 men have used the shelter in the 18 months since it opened.

Adams and Robert Gahlberg, a shelter adviser, said there are between 18,000 to 20,000 homeless veterans on the street each night in Illinois.

"Finding veterans is not our problem," Adams said.

The addition will increase the shelter from 2,400 to 7,400 square feet. The shelter plans to begin expansion in May and finish by October 2009, Mouhelis said. DuPage County has offered a matching grant that will pay half the cost, and the shelter is fundraising for the rest.

The City Council, with Mouhelis abstaining, approved the project unanimously and with no debate or comment. The project created little stir at the planning level, where it was unanimously recommended.

Adams said the lack of opposition indicated how well and quietly the shelter, which has a rigorous screening process, has melded into its near-downtown neighborhood.

"People come in with concerns, and they leave as volunteers," he said.

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