After years of effort by Columbia-area leaders to build a central destination for homeless services, community leaders are preparing to finally open the Opportunity Campus in a multi-phase rollout.
As construction of the six-acre campus along Business Loop 70 continues, the services introduced will align with the numerous nonprofit groups coming together to support both the homeless and housed residents of Boone County.
Some of the services, including resources such as gas and clothing vouchers provided by the Voluntary Action Center, will be rolled out between March 23 and April 1. Other services such as overnight sheltering will come later as construction progresses.
Shelter Director Jessica McNear and Voluntary Action Center Executive Director Ed Stansberry offered the Missourian a tour of the campus on a recent afternoon, showcasing the progress that has been made on both the resource and shelter facilities.
Resource center
The tour included a look at what will become VAC’s permanent headquarters, with a streamlined intake lobby and larger office space for its service teams. Set to move from its current location on Vandiver Drive in north Columbia, VAC will be the first nonprofit to open its doors to the public on campus.
Despite taking on the responsibility of leading the effort to open the Opportunity Campus, the organization will still be focused on helping Boone County residents avoid homelessness.
“It’s quite literally one of the services that keep people from becoming homeless,” McNear said. “It’s meeting those needs, so that they can continue paying rent or they can continue doing those things so that we don’t see them at the shelter.”
To qualify for VAC services, Boone County residents must have a gross monthly income at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines. Services include gas and clothing vouchers, legal documentation acquisition and a food and hygiene product pantry.
Adjacent to that group’s headquarters will be the medical wing, where Burrell Behavioral Health and Clarity Healthcare will provide resources such as primary and preventative care, mental health resources and substance abuse therapy.
Medical care options at the Opportunity Campus will be open to both the homeless and housed populations of Boone County.
Directly attached to the medical wing will be 2,000 square feet of modular office space for future community partners to work in. Ultimately, the decision will be on Burrell Behavioral Health as to how the medical wing’s interior will be constructed. As of March 3, Burrell has yet to submit the floor plan to be utilized.
“How it all lays out and how it flows will be determined by the floor plan they come up with,” Stansberry said.
Shelter building
Scheduled for successive rollout in late June to early July, Turning Point, Loaves and Fishes and Waypoint will provide their unique services as tenants of the Opportunity Campus in the shelter building. Owned by VAC, Waypoint is the area where residents will be able to participate in evening services, including the overnight shelter.
Primarily staffed by volunteers, Loaves and Fishes will provide meals out of an industrial-sized kitchen, which will include a walk-in fridge and freezer, a 10-burner gas range and two convection ovens.
The dining hall immediately attached to the kitchen will serve up to 150 residents. However, evident in the kitchen design is an eye to the future.
“We envision it eventually growing to a breakfast service,” Stansberry said. “That would be something that VAC would step up to.”
Adjacent to Loaves and Fishes, will be the Turning Point day center.
Scheduled to move from its current location at Wilkes Boulevard United Methodist Church, the service will continue to be a resource for residents throughout the daytime.
Occupants will have opportunities for individualized self-care with access to case management training, as well as amenities like a laundry room, computer lab and storage lockers. Additionally, Turning Point will have five accessible showers for residents to use throughout the day.
“Currently in Columbia there are four showers. There’s two at Room at the Inn and two at Turning Point,” McNear said. “The overnight shelter will have several showers, but during the day if they’re not needing the overnight shelter, they can come in here and get a shower as well.”
Turning Point will continue to offer its headquarters as a mailing address for residents with no fixed address.
Still under construction is the Waypoint shelter, where up to 150 residents will have access to adult-sized beds, eight bathrooms and six individual wellness rooms. Also included in the hall will be a laundry room for residents to wash their bedding and a kennel for pet owners.
A key component of the shelter will be partition curtains that will separate the space into sections for gender and pet ownership status, with options for veterans, and those that have sensory modulation needs as well.
Even unfinished, McNear and Stansberry emphasized that the shelter will be ready to meet every need a homeless resident may have.
“We’ll do everything we can to make it be a space that they want to be,” Stansberry said.
