A Place to Belong: Springfield’s homeless struggle to find safe shelter

After the last notes of “Silent Night” faded and candles were extinguished, the minister at Unity of Springfield made a request of the congregation at a recent service. She asked that they exit by the side door, rather than the front entrance.

That’s because just as the special service was ending, a van from University Heights Baptist Church was out front, unloading guests for the night with their backpacks and assorted gear. Both churches participate in Springfield’s cold-weather shelter program for the unhoused. At Unity, 20 cots lined the fellowship hall.

Church-run cold-weather shelters throughout the city have 120 beds in total, but nonprofit officials say these don’t meet the needs of the city’s unsheltered homeless population, the exact number of which is hard to define.

Christie Love, pastor of The Connecting Grounds, which provides services to the local homeless population, said a point-in-time count conducted by the Ozarks Alliance to End Homelessness in January placed this number at 583.

However, The Connecting Grounds maintains its own street census.

“We know there’s probably closer to 1,035 on the street,” Love said. “That includes individuals that are staying in some kind of a shelter, living in a motel, living in cars or camping. I know that number is much, much higher when we start to include people staying with friends and family.”

Love said she has seen hundreds of people new to the street since the federal eviction moratorium was lifted this summer, but there are only about 400 shelter beds in the city, not counting crisis cold-weather beds, open only when the temperature is 32 degrees or below.

Love believes Springfield’s policies toward homeless people are in need of revision.

“The dynamics have shifted; the population has grown. We’ve faced a global pandemic,” she said. “I think that it’s really critical that we have voices with lived experience on the street that are helping to speak into some of those decisions.”

At a summer Springfield City Council meeting, Councilperson Abe McGull suggested the city form a task force on homelessness. In a follow-up interview, he said homelessness is evident all over the city, and a proactive approach is needed to address it.

“Burying our head in the sand is not going to solve the problem,” he said. “We have to start something, and we have to continue to work toward a solution.”

One solution that meets McGull’s approval is Eden Village, two tiny-home communities that exist to serve chronically disabled people who were formerly homeless.

“It’s a great model, if we could scale that up,” McGull said.

Making progress
 The citywide goal of Eden Village Chief Visionary Officer Nate Schlueter is evident by its hashtag #NoOneSleepsOutside. The nonprofit builds tiny home communities for the chronically homeless and disabled population in Springfield and opened its second such village Nov. 30 at 3155 W. Brower St.  

Once the second Eden Village is full, housing 24 residents, nonprofit officials say the chronically homeless population will have been reduced by 25%. The first Eden Village, opened in 2018, houses another 31 residents. Residents pay $300 per month to live in the fully furnished homes, which cost about $35,000 apiece to build, Schlueter said. Chronically homeless is defined as being homeless within city limits for the last 12 consecutive months or having four periods of homelessness within the last three years.  

“That number comes from a count that was done in 2016, when we started fundraising for Eden Village,” Schlueter said. “The pandemic has probably changed that number, but at the time we started, there were 200 chronically homeless people. Our vision was to get those 200 people who have been on the streets year after year in a home.” 

Other communities attracted to the Eden Village model have inquired about developing their own housing projects. According to Schlueter, roughly four cities each week request more information about Eden Village.  

As those talks progressed, Schlueter and the team decided to license the Eden Village brand, in a process similar to franchising. 

“There is one under construction in North Carolina,” Schlueter said. “Property is about to be purchased to build one in Kansas City; Excelsior Springs, Missouri; Redding, California; and just outside Washington, D.C.”  

The nonprofit offers a consultation package or “Eden Village in a Box,” which includes hands-on training, operations and development services, and marketing materials.

One selling point for the model is the economic cost to not act. Nonprofit officials say it costs a community $30,000-$40,000 per year to provide public services to a chronically homeless individual, and the Eden Village model reduces that cost by at least 60%.

Weather permitting, ground will be broken on Eden Village 3 in March 2022. It will be located in the 2400 block of West High Street.

“We are about 70%-75% of the way to our donation threshold to complete the project,” Schlueter said.

Housing needs persist
At a Nov. 30 Springfield City Council luncheon, Michelle Garand, vice president of affordable housing and homeless prevention for Community Partnership of the Ozarks Inc., provided a grim picture of the options available for the unhoused and those whose poverty puts them at risk of becoming homeless.

According to the National Low Income Housing Commission, Springfield must add 14,020 residential units to meet the needs of households living with extremely low and very low income.

“That doesn’t even start to help us on quality housing,” Garand said, noting CPO’s goal is to provide housing that is safe, decent, affordable and accessible.

“We know that we have substandard housing,” Garand said. “We can’t ethically rent a unit for folks with those federal dollars that don’t meet habitability standards.”

Garand said the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has set a fair market rent rate for a two-bedroom house in the range of $730-$750. Someone living in extremely low poverty may be a senior citizen drawing Social Security at $1,200-$1,500 per month.

When fair market rent and utilities are factored in, Garand said, not much is left for other expenses.

She said CPO would like to see subsidized housing at the $400-$450 mark, ideally.

Janet Dankert, president and CEO of CPO, offered a list of next steps for the community, including conducting a comprehensive housing study, expanding the crisis response system, increasing emergency shelter beds and increasing safe, affordable housing.

Dankert also noted a purpose-driven day center is needed for the homeless population.

Love said the business community has become the de facto daytime service provider for the homeless community. Retailers and restaurants may be called upon to supply bathrooms, a drink of water, a trash can or merely a place to be.

“Our business community has really unfairly had to bear the weight of trying to fill in gaps where the city and structures that are making decisions have not provided resources for this community,” she said. “The fact that we’re not figuring out a way to provide bathroom access ends up being a burden on business owners.”

In a Connecting Grounds survey, 100 homeless people identified their chief needs as bathroom access and trash service.

“Those are difficult things, too, that we’ve got to navigate,” Love said. “There is a definite need and desire for people to have more humane situations.”

While affordable housing is a dire need, other measures offer a necessary stop-gap, like cold-weather shelters – provided outdoor temperatures are below freezing.

But Love points out hypothermia can set in at 40 degrees, so a rainy night that is just above freezing poses a real danger to people who have nowhere to go.

“There are a handful of amazing faith communities that have been willing to get involved and get engaged,” she said. “I’m incredibly grateful for those churches, but we need so much more.”