Homelessness

By Dan Petrella/CU-CitizenAccess -- On an average night last year, nearly 60 homeless men didn't have to sleep on the streets of Champaign-Urbana thanks to the TIMES Center.

But like so many other service providers in Illinois, the transitional housing program for homeless men, located near downtown Champaign, faces an uncertain future as a result of the state’s ongoing fiscal morass. In the state budget that took effect July 1, the TIMES Center, 70 E. Washington St., saw grant funding from the Illinois Department of Human Services and the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity slashed by a combined $95,000, officials said.

Every two years during the last week of January, communities across the country try to answer a difficult question: How many people are living without permanent shelter?

This point in time survey is the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development’s effort to determine the number of homeless people nationwide and understand more about their characteristics.

CU-CitizenAccess reporter Dan Petrella went along Thursday night on this year’s count in Champaign-Urbana.

This story was produced in cooperation with Illinois Public Media.

By Dan Petrella/CU-CitizenAccess — Champaign-Urbana has shelters to house homeless men, women and children, but intact families can have difficulty finding a place that can accommodate them.