As St. Charles County approaches the colder months, concern is mounting over the closure of a key homeless shelter and the potential fallout it may have on local families and individuals in need. With a reported estimate of 197 children and 416 adults homeless in the area, the shuttering of The Salvation Army's 20-bed facility in O’Fallon — attributed to a funding shortfall as high as $800,000 — signals a dire need for alternative solutions. This shutdown has eliminated what was once a crucial bastion of crisis housing in the county, according to St. Charles County's official report.
Delayna Theissen, who leads a coalition of nonprofits in St. Charles County and neighboring areas, emphasizes this point: "Salvation Army was the only general-admittance shelter in the county that would take families with kids." Now, the Emergency Weather Response (EWR) program, reliant on churches and charities, is left to pick up the pieces. However, EWR was designed primarily for individuals, not the specialized needs that come with sheltering families, young children, and persons with disabilities.
As the number of homeless people has doubled over the past two years, the system has come under immense pressure. Theissen expressed fear for the impending winter, suggesting that "EWR was not designed for families and children, or people with disabilities." These words, reported by the St. Charles County website, underscore the looming crisis and inadequate infrastructure in place to handle such a seasonal emergency. The absence of a family shelter is more than the local volunteer network might manage.
The coalition’s short-term goal involves finding more temporary shelter locations and securing enough volunteers to staff them during the coldest nights. An alternative being considered is funding motel room stays for those in need. Theissen stated, "It’s happening every single day." She further detailed the current plight facing displaced residents: "We have kids in our schools, people who live and work in our county, who we’re saying, ‘You have to leave (the county) because we don’t have any place for you to sleep," as mentioned on the St. Charles County website.
For the long-term, Theissen's coalition is calling for a collaborative effort among local governments, non-profits, and community agencies to establish permanent shelter solutions. She asserts that pooled resources and shared responsibilities are key to combatting the growing homelessness issue, with emphasis on collecting "resources, money, locations, land" to effectively address the crisis, as per the St. Charles County.
