Home Sweet Home Ministries

Participants said they felt an added urgency to participate in the annual Home Sweet Home Ministries fundraiser, given McLean County's recent rise in homelessness.

WGLT will debut a new multimedia project this month ‒ including WGLT’s first-ever video documentary ‒ chronicling what it’s like to be unhoused in Bloomington-Normal during the cold winter months.

When it feels like 20 below zero outside people are advised to stay inside, yet advocates who help the unhoused are braving the cold in Bloomington-Normal to help the roughly 130 people they estimate have no place inside to call home.

A homeless encampment near downtown Bloomington that started growing around a year ago in an overflow parking lot is no longer. By end of day Oct. 15, the roughly 35 unsheltered community members who’d been staying there left and all signs of the encampment — tents, pallets, personal belongings — were gone.

The Immigration Project and Home Sweet Home Ministries shelter are teaming up to put roughly $700,000 to use in helping recent arrivals in Bloomington-Normal and the unhoused.

Many staying in the encampment in Bloomington cannot live in congregate shelter settings. And even if they can, the Salvation Army might not have enough room for them.

The Bloomington City Council is scheduled to vote during its regular meeting Monday on an emergency declaration that would enable the Salvation Army shelter to expand indoor capacity over the winter months.

Bloomington City Manager Jeff Jurgens says people cannot sleep along Constitution Trail. He tells WGLT there have been "numerous complaints" and it's a public safety concern. But, many have nowhere to go.

Rural homelessness is on the rise and not all counties have the tools they need to help people find permanent supportive housing. In Central Illinois, most rural counties don't have homeless shelters.

Bloomington and municipalities nationwide can decide how they want to shape policy around homelessness following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Friday. The city has yet to determine how — or if — it will change current regulations, which allow fines for those sleeping on public property.