Bloomington’s first non-congregate shelter village, The Bridge, is open in time for the deep freeze affecting Central Illinois.
Home Sweet Home Ministries [HSHM] held a ribbon-cutting for The Bridge on Jan. 6 while waiting for a certificate of occupancy permit from the City of Bloomington.
HSHM CEO Matt Burgess said the first person showed up at 8 a.m. Monday Jan. 19, ready to move in. By the end of the first night, The Bridge had 26 residents.
After four nights of operation, the shelter village now has 48 residents, leaving eight beds still available.
“It really warms us to know that we've got 48 of our neighbors inside on a bitter cold day like this,” Burgess said.
Preparing The Bridge
For months, HSHM’s street outreach team had been talking with people living in encampments prior to the opening of The Bridge to make sure they would come when this day finally came.
Burgess said when he got the occupancy permit from the city, the street outreach team told encampment residents the move-in date, Jan. 19, and handed them the date in writing.
“Some folks came on their own,” Burgess said, “but on Monday and Tuesday, we were actually driving our van around town. The Salvation Army loaned us their van to go pick people up in the encampments, and so we would go pick people up and bring them here to move them in.”
So far, the move-in has been incredibly smooth, according to Burgess, with only a few minor issues.
Initially, some heaters weren't working and a few door handles were not working properly, but HSHM was able to quickly swap the faulty ones out.
“There's no way to know if everything works until you start using it,” said Burgess.
Residents
One of The Bridge’s new residents is Matthew Stone, accompanied by his service dog, Tank.
Stone was previously living at the gravel pits, a popular tent encampment in west Bloomington.
“My main hope of staying here is basically just getting a fresh start, being able to get housing, being able to get on my feet,” Stone said.
The Bridge is the first shelter Stone said he was able to get into, as it is intentionally designed as a low-barrier option compared with other homeless shelters in town.
Starting next week, Burgess said partner organizations will be available in the clubhouse to help residents make their ways into housing.
Burgess has been telling residents they are going to have a counselor, somebody who can help them find a job and somebody who can help them find apartments — all on-site.
“We're going to have all of that here. And they keep going, ‘Really? That's great.’ They're excited about that happening, just like we are,” Burgess said.
On top of having a warm bed and easy access to services in town, residents have access to their own microwaves and shared stove, oven and air fryer amenities that are not available while living outside.
“I think the first night that we were here, one of our residents made mozzarella sticks in the air fryer, and I just was so thrilled,” said Burgess. “Because that's not something that we do in our other programs. It's not something that's available for folks to have that sense of autonomy and control over things like making mozzarella sticks.”
Next steps
The Bridge is a big adjustment for people who were previously living outside, but Burgess said residents are adjusting well.
“If you've been outside, sleeping on the ground in a tent for years, it takes a while to get used to the sound of a heater kicking on and turning off. It takes a while to get accustomed to sleeping on a soft mattress in a warm room.’” Burgess said.
The site still needs some finishing touches, such as a gate where there are temporary fence panels, and landscaping.
“We didn't want to keep people outside just because we didn't bring dirt in that would position us to put grass seed down,” Burgess said. “We wanted to get people inside, and we said we'll bring that dirt in later.”
Burgess said he wants to remind the Bloomington-Normal community that although The Bridge is a great step in the right direction, it is not the end result.
“We have to stay focused on getting people into housing, and that means doing things about making sure housing is available, making sure housing is affordable, making sure that supports are there for people who need that, even after they're housed,” he said.
Burgess added what matters today is that 48 people who were living outside are warm and ready to take those next steps into housing.
