With some extremely cold winter coming in the days ahead, we'll be highlighting some local information on warming centers and recent news on housing and homelessness today. WAND had area information on warming centers:
The Phoenix Daytime Drop-In Center
Location: 70 E. Washington St., Champaign (the former TIMES Center)
Contact: 217-819-4569
Website: cuathome.us
Tuesday-Friday Noon- 5 p.m. (Additional hours added when daytime "feels like" temperature falls below 10 degress)
Salvation Army Stepping Stone Program and Daytime Warming Center
Location: 2212 N. Market St., Champaign
Weekdays 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Other Champaign-Urbana options
The Phoenix, public buildings such as libraries, municipal (city, state and federal) buildings are available during normal business hours
More details on other area counties at the full article. WICS also had additional information on the C-U at Home warming center:
C-U at Home is preparing to open up both overnight emergency hours and daytime emergency warming hours this upcoming weekend as cold weather is expected to come through the area.
The shelter is putting extra staff to work this weekend to make sure that the homeless and those in need have a place to rest overnight and stay warm away from harsh conditions on the way...
The shelter is also working to make sure they have a place that is ready for a larger capacity, and a place to rest that is safe from COVID-19, as well.
That full article here. More information on C-U at Home and the Phoenix Center Drop-In Center at their website here.
C-U at Home has also been in the news recently for it's One Winter Night event as well as providing an alternative to contacting police for some issues. From WCIA yesterday:
They choose that date every year because it’s typically one of the coldest nights. That’s exactly what homeless people have to deal with night after night. That’s why people need to support C-U at Home. They work with people in these exact situations to help connect them to resources, including a warm place to stay.
One way they do that is through a 24-hour hotline. Anyone can call it if they are having trouble with someone who may be homeless, but they don’t want to go as far as calling police...
That hotline also helps alleviate the burden on the police department. As we know, officers are busy. They don’t always have time to help homeless people with everything they need. C-U at Home employees also help de-escalate situations. They say sometimes people just need someone to talk to.
That full article available here. More on the One Winter Night Event at its webpage here. C-U at Home lists additional local resources and contact information on their website here for anyone needing additional services or going through a difficult time.
Other recent housing news:
City of Champaign using vacant lots and working with local organizations to provide "Mini Homes" for people who need shelter options. From the News-Gazette earlier this week:
“We’ve been working with a local ministry, Restoration Urban Ministries, for the last several years, and in 2014, the Rev. (Ervin T.) Williams came to us with the idea about doing mini homes in order to meet some of the permanent housing needs of our friends without addresses,” [John Ruffin, City of Champaign Neighborhood Coordinator] said.
The mini homes fit well on some of the smaller or oddly shaped vacant lots, Ruffin said, and two lots were donated to Restoration Urban Ministries.
“They were able to complete a mini home on one of the lots,” Ruffin said, and the other one was donated to First Mennonite Church in partnership with CU at Home.
Full News-Gazette article here. Additional coverage from WICS with a short video segment here.
Homeless families attending area schools came up in the Unit 4 Board of Education meeting last month. It was noted that there are at least 129 homeless families attending just Unit 4 schools. The District is struggling to ensure they have access to education when so much is done via remote learning during the pandemic. That full overview of Unit 4 meetings in January here. WCIA noted that meal programs are still continuing for families struggling with meal options during the pandemic:
“We have a lot of unanswered questions with the pandemic right now, but the one thing we know for sure is kids are still gonna need access to those nutritious meals,” said Tim Murphy, ISBE Nutrition Department principal consultant. The responsibility of serving them falls on the shoulders of people working in school districts...
Despite those challenges, many like Food Services Coordinator Linda Jones are rising to the occasion.
“We’re basically taking what we typically do in a 5-day school week, we’re doing it in one day.”
Food Service Director Laura Dees said the Champaign School District is operating through its summer meals program. It was extended because of COVID-19.
That full WCIA article and video segment here. Smile Politely also highlighted a recent announcement that some of those meal boxes will feature food from local Black-owned businesses during Black History Month.
There was also coverage of a local meal program in today's News-Gazette available at their eEdition here (subscription).
Men, women and families in the C-U at Home transitional program are receiving hot meals from Champaign’s Human Kinetics employees as a way to give back to the community.
Human Kinetics CEO Skip Maier said the idea for the HK Café in the Community program came about last spring, after many employees “were bothered and disturbed by the events after the killing of George Floyd (in Minneapolis) and the civil unrest that followed.”
Full article available here.
A recent candidate event also focused on the topic of eradicating homelessness. More information on that in a previous Cheat Sheet post here.
And finally, it has come up in various Q&A events and presentations with the C-UPHD director Julie Pryde that vaccination outreach to the homeless through various shelters, service providers, and trusted community members is part of their operations to ensure that homeless and other vulnerable populations are able to be vaccinated.
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