The McLean County Board's Executive Committee on Monday unanimously approved a request for money to partially fund Home Sweet Home Ministries’ [HSHM] non-congregate shelter known as The Bridge.
HSHM is seeking $1.3 million in grant funding from McLean County behavioral health coordination. The full county board will vote on the proposal at its monthly meeting on June 12.
McLean County Behavioral Health Coordination Director Marita Landreth joined Home Sweet Home CEO Matt Burgess to discuss the features and community benefit of the project — and its name.
“We have chosen to name this shelter village, ‘The Bridge,’ as a nod both to its location on the south end of downtown [Bloomington] right before you come over the bridge to come into town, but also to indicate its purpose,” Burgess said. “And that’s to be a bridge for people coming inside to get out of homelessness and into a permanent housing arrangement.”
The proposal for the shelter village includes roughly 50 sleeping cabins. Each will be about 80 square feet with a bed, desk, chair, closet and heating and air conditioning. The village also will have a fully staffed clubhouse with offices and community gathering spaces and another building for restrooms and hygiene facilities.
Another important feature, said Burgess, is amnesty bins, a place where residents can leave any substances or drug paraphernalia without consequences, because while drugs or alcohol will not be allowed on property, sobriety is not a condition of residency.
“That kind of comes hand in hand with lowering barriers, that if people are under the influence we will still allow them to go to their sleeping unit, as long as they’re not an unsafe individual either to themselves or someone else at that time,” he said.
District 4 board member Krystle Able asked about the size of the cabins and how much room there would be for someone's possessions. Burgess said there are storage options.
“We already are storing possessions for people who are in tents right now, we have gotten … the 95-gallon size rolling trash bins … that we’re using to store people’s belongings, again, across the street at the Eastview Community Center behind locked doors," he said.
Burgess addressed other questions from the board about features of The Bridge, what it will offer to residents, and how long he expects residents to be in the shelter — a question asked by District 2 board member William Friedrich.
“That’s a difficult number to pin down,” Burgess said. “We are projecting three to six months … the individuals that we’re going to be focusing on serving in The Bridge are harder to engage, harder to get housed. That’s why they’re stuck outside right now.”
Burgess said HSHM is seeking out that group specifically because they have more difficulty finding housing.
Able also asked Burgess why there were some facilities not accessible to residents, like the area that blueprints labeled “Staff Laundry.”
“That’s for us to wash the linens in between occupants,” he said. “There are laundry services available through our partners … these laundry machines are for us to turn over the linens, wash towels and things like that to provide that basic level of hospitality for that property.”
Burgess said areas like laundry not available to future residents of The Bridge are purposefully absent because residents will be directed to either HSHM or their community partners for those services, helping save money during construction.
District 7 board member Val Laymon asked Burgess, considering all the needs met in the proposal, what was left that Home Sweet Home could not provide to residents. Burgess said capacity already is limited.
“One of the unmet needs is expanding capacity to serve families with minor children. This project is not to serve households with minor children,” he said. “This is for our adult neighbors who are stuck outside right now. We know also that there are lots of families in undesirable or unstable housing situations.”
Burgess said while HSHM is committed to lowering barriers in The Bridge, they won’t have zero barriers, because the safety features of the village allow them to help people responsibly.
