Frozen and Forgotten: An Unhoused Winter in Bloomington-Normal
WGLT's multimedia project ‒ including WGLT’s first-ever video documentary ‒ chronicling what it’s like to be unhoused in Bloomington-Normal during the cold winter months. Debuts in February 2025. Produced by WGLT's Melissa Ellin and Emily Bollinger.
Questions about this project? Contact news@wglt.org.
Questions about this project? Contact news@wglt.org.
Join us in person at 6 p.m. Feb. 26 for the debut screening of the 30-minute video documentary Frozen and Forgotten: An Unhoused Winter in Bloomington-Normal, followed by a panel discussion with some of the organizations and unhoused people featured in the documentary.
This event will be held at the Bloomington Public Library, 205 E. Olive St., in Community Room 2.
If you need a special accommodation to fully participate, please contact WGLT at (309) 438-2255 or wglt@ilstu.edu. Please allow sufficient time to arrange the accommodation.
This event will be held at the Bloomington Public Library, 205 E. Olive St., in Community Room 2.
If you need a special accommodation to fully participate, please contact WGLT at (309) 438-2255 or wglt@ilstu.edu. Please allow sufficient time to arrange the accommodation.
Listen to the audio series starting Feb. 17 on WGLT’s newsmagazine Sound Ideas, airing at 5 p.m. each day. Listen on 89.1 FM or stream on WGLT.org or the NPR App. Companion written stories will be published each day on WGLT.org.
Recent stories about homelessness
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God’s Mission Ministry held an event Saturday at the Salvation Army of Bloomington to raise awareness about the reality of being unhoused. Participants walked a mile alongside people in the community who currently are or have been homeless. -
Bloomington-Normal street minister Bobby Jovanović wrote a field guide based on his own experiences for how to help unhoused people living outside. -
After several years of planning, two public forums, getting funding approval and securing the location, Home Sweet Home Ministries broke ground on its new shelter village, The Bridge. -
Thomas Metcalf School sixth-graders designed and built a tiny house that Home Sweet Home Ministries will put in its shelter village. -
The number of homeless people in Illinois is rising, but the state’s spending on homeless prevention and other housing programs is headed in the other direction. -
Home Sweet Home Ministries has officially launched the Build the Bridge campaign, a new fundraising effort to help construct its planned shelter village. The campaign's goal is $750,000. -
The purchase of a Connect Transit lot in Bloomington keeps shelter village construction on schedule and within budget. -
The Connect Transit board has approved the sale of a vacant lot for a planned shelter village in Bloomington. The village, called The Bridge, is intended to be a low-barrier, non-congregate shelter for the unhoused population in Bloomington-Normal. -
The McLean County Board's Executive Committee on Monday unanimously approved a request for money to partially fund Home Sweet Home Ministries’ non-congregate shelter known as The Bridge. -
Home Sweet Home Ministries will present a grant proposal Monday that, if approved, would cover almost half the money needed to build a proposed shelter village for the unhoused in Bloomington called The Bridge. -
A major sewer construction project is moving forward in Normal, near Sugar Creek, now that a tent encampment has dispersed. -
A tent encampment near AutoZone in Normal was set to disperse Sunday due to a coming construction project, but a few residents still remain.
