It’s been two years since cuts in government funding forced the shutdown of the emergency men’s shelter at the TIMES Center in Champaign. A transitional housing program at the facility ended last month for the same reason. But a partnership between the building’s owner and another local non-profit group could bring the men’s shelter program back to life.
Champaign’s faith-based community has a short-term plan for two churches to provide overnight shelter to homeless men during the winter months. Two churches, First Presbyterian and Faith United Methodist, will be taking in up 30 men from the second week of January through March. Another site, New Covenant Fellowship Church, could be serving as a shelter soon, after some fire safety code updates. But conversations for a permanent site are ongoing.
An Urbana woman has started an online petition asking local government officials to reopen the emergency shelter beds at the TIMES Center, citing the tax dollars used to build the center for that purpose. But the executive director of Rosecrance Champaign-Urbana, the non-profit that owns and operates the facility, says that's no longer a possibility.
The community has lost 95 emergency beds for homeless men since the start of 2016 because of budget cuts. There is a plan in the works to replace 30 of those beds in January through March of 2017.
The state budget impasse is forcing Champaign’s Community Elements to make another round of cutbacks in its programs for the homeless this month.
