With Bloomington-Normal’s increasing number of unsheltered community members, Executive Director of the Immigration Project Charlotte Alvarez said migrants are not always top of mind.
“We hear from folks [who say] ‘What about helping people who are already here? What about providing services for unhoused populations? What about providing services for veteran populations?” she said.
Put simply, these populations aren’t the Immigration Project’s focus. Its goal is to help migrants with legal and social services, but the organization has partnered with Home Sweet Home Ministries [HSHM] shelter to aid recent arrivals and the unhoused population together.
The Metropolitan Mayors Caucus — a Chicago-based organization and collaboration of elected officials, cities and towns — awarded the Immigration Project just over $700,000 from its Supporting Municipalities for Asylum Seeker Services [SMASS] grant program. The Immigration Project will use 51% of the grant to assist recent arrivals and HSHM will use the other 49% to help fund the non-congregate shelter that’s been in the works for several months.
Combining expertise
It’s the first time a Bloomington-Normal organization has applied for SMASS, and the first year the Mayors Caucus cited homelessness as a funding priority. Alvarez said that made applying a no-brainer.
“We have all seen the news… on the unhoused population in Bloomington-Normal and the need for expanded services, and so we looked at this as a way to really bring in additional resources to help our unhoused population and respond to a need that we've all seen in our community,” Alvarez said.
Alvarez said she expects it to be a great partnership.
Both the City of Bloomington and the Town of Normal sent letters of support as part of the Immigration Project’s grant application.
Bloomington City Manager Jeff Jurgens said it was “very inviting and very exciting” to see HSHM step up to work with the Immigration Project. He added that Mayor Mboka Mwilambwe wrote the letter.
HSHM CEO Matt Burgess said recent arrivals sometimes overlap with the unsheltered population, but the roles of the Immigration Project and the shelter are distinct. The shelter's primary focus is supporting the unhoused and precariously housed population.
Whereas the Immigration Project can provide some housing services, that’s largely supplemental to its legal services. The organization also has mental health services tailored to migrants.
"By combining our expertise and our resources we’re able to serve the community better," Burgess said.
Supporting existing programs
Alvarez said existing programs are where the nonprofit plans to allocate its end of funding.
“This is really just us recognizing that there's already a need for support for the folks who are already here, and then being able to provide that wraparound support for those folks,” she said, emphasizing that the plan is not to invite recent arrivals to Bloomington-Normal because of the added funding.
While Alvarez said it’s impossible to get an exact number of recent arrivals in the area since people don’t always settle in Bloomington-Normal, she estimated that the area has around 200 households — far below that of Chicago and other major cities. She added that there are probably more recent arrivals coming to attend school at Illinois State University than there are to stay.
Potential to help fund non-congregate shelter
Meanwhile, Burgess said he’d like to reserve HSHM’s funds to pay staff who will wind up working at the non-congregate shelter. However, a building has not yet been acquired and the housing coalition that’s been working on that project is still trying to identify a long-term funding model.
“As I have increasingly been saying, we can't rely on entirely external funding sources to solve our community’s issues,” he said, adding that this includes the SMASS grant. “We need to be willing to commit community resources as well.”
And the SMASS funds expire in June, so HSHM needs spend all of its dollars before then — whether the non-congregate shelter is operational or not.
“Obviously, we want to try and protect that new revenue,” he said. “But if that doesn't pan out in that time frame, yes, we have other ways to claim that grant funding.”
That includes using the funds for current shelter operations.
