Multiple organizations partner to offer severe-weather homeless shelter in Cape Girardeau

Multiple not-for-profit organizations announced Tuesday they will be partnering to provide an overnight shelter for homeless people in cases of extreme weather this winter.

The shelter will be at The Salvation Army in Cape Girardeau. The plan is to open the newly renovated gymnasium at The Salvation Army, 701 Good Hope St., when a winter storm is imminent, providing food and shelter to those who need it.

Volunteers interested in helping with this effort must take Safe from Harm, a three-hour safety and abuse prevention training course, from 1 to 4 p.m. Oct. 9 at The Salvation Army, according to the release. It will be the sole training offered.

Those wishing to participate in the training must register by emailing lily.reinier@usc.salvationarmy.org or calling (573) 335-7000 by Oct. 6. Everyone participating in the training must pass a background check.

“For years, local agencies have struggled with a place to temporarily house the homeless as there is no homeless shelter in the area,” the release said.

The Amen Center is a transitory shelter for homeless individuals in Cape Girardeau County and Safe House of Southeast Missouri provide shelter for domestic violence survivors. St. James AME Church and volunteers opened The People’s Shelter to help house the homeless, but it was “not sustainable,” the release said.

The partnership was spurred on by discussions from the Emergency Food and Shelter Program — a federal program — in June, the release said. United Way of Southeast Missouri works with Emergency Food and Shelter Program to distribute information to local agencies who have representatives who sit on a decision-making board.

United Way executive director Elizabeth Shelton said in the news release the initial hope was to use federal funds to help with the problem, but restrictions wouldn’t allow it.

“We have seen the outpouring of concern from local citizens, and we believe the support will come ­— whether it be financial donations, volunteers or donations of canned goods,” Shelton said.

Providing shelter, especially during extreme weather, has been a concern raised at numerous Cape Girardeau City Council meetings by members of Street Level ­— a not-for-profit organization ­— and others in the community. In an August City Council discussion on the city’s remaining $1.4 million American Rescue Plan Act funds, Councilwoman Shannon Truxel suggested using a portion of the federal money to house homeless individuals in hotel rooms during severe winter weather.

Street Level members and others have lobbied, thus far unsuccessfully, for the city to pay for a shelter, remove ordinances making it illegal to sleep on public land and/or provide an amnesty area for homeless people to stay. A few in the community have spoken at the meetings in opposition to using public funds. The frequency of the comments in recent months prompted Mayor Stacy Kinder to alter public comment rules, limiting the period to five speakers per meeting.