Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player Open Navigation Menu --> Newsletters NPR Shop Close Navigation Menu Home News Expand/collapse submenu for News National World Politics Business Health Science Climate Race Culture Expand/collapse submenu for Culture Books Movies Television Pop Culture Food Art & Design Performing Arts Life Kit Gaming Music Expand/collapse submenu for Music Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions The Best Music of 2025 Podcasts & Shows Expand/collapse submenu for Podcasts & Shows Daily Morning Edition Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday All Things Considered Up First Here & Now NPR Politics Podcast Featured Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Planet Money Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions The Best Music of 2025 About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics A shelter village provides a bridge to permanent housing Shelter villages offer temporary and private places for the unhoused to sleep and store belongings. One of the newest, The Bridge, opened recently in central Illinois. National A shelter village provides a bridge to permanent housing March 25, 20264:04 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered From By Emily Bollinger A shelter village provides a bridge to permanent housing Listen · 3:46 3:46 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5719817-e1/nx-s1-9703160" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript Shelter villages offer temporary and private places for the unhoused to sleep and store belongings. One of the newest, The Bridge, opened recently in central Illinois. Sponsor Message
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More than three-quarters of a million people are homeless in the U.S. That's according to the most recent count from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. One way that some communities are trying to help is by creating shelter villages. These are collections of tiny cabins that offer a safe place for people to sleep and to store their belongings. A new one called The Bridge opened its doors this year in central Illinois. Emily Bollinger from member station WGLT reports.
EMILY BOLLINGER, BYLINE: About 130,000 people live in the twin cities of Bloomington-Normal. The area is home to a large state university. When an electric vehicle manufacturer and packaged sweets company moved to town in the past five years, it meant good jobs but also emphasized the region's housing shortage as people moved to the area. Advocates say it's also meant the number of people living on the streets nearly doubled. About 100 people last year had no permanent housing. Matthew Stone used to be one of them.
MATTHEW STONE: It was very horrible, a very horrible experience. I was living in a tent with my dog. It was just all in all a horrible experience, very cold this winter.
BOLLINGER: But three days before temperatures dropped below zero, Stone and dozens of other unhoused people in Bloomington caught a break. The community's first noncongregate shelter village opened. It's called The Bridge, located just outside Bloomington's downtown area. The rows of small sleeping cabins look like tiny houses, and there's enough to protect 56 adults from Illinois' frigid winters and humid summers. There's also a bathhouse and community center. A local nonprofit, Home Sweet Home Ministries, built the village. CEO Matt Burgess says the idea for it came after the city ousted people who were living in a tent encampment in a church parking lot.
MATT BURGESS: We started to say that very loudly. It's not acceptable that our neighbors don't have any other legitimate options than to try and survive in a tent on a parking lot.
BOLLINGER: Burgess knew there were shelter villages in other places across the country, including Burlington, Vermont, Denver and Austin, Texas. So his organization wanted to try a similar approach.
BURGESS: I actually physically visited the Missoula, Montana, shelter village. They call it a temporary, safe, outdoor space. And so I got to see that in action, talk to the people that were running that program personally as part of our development of The Bridge.
BOLLINGER: Burgess says the hardest part was finding the right location in Bloomington-Normal.
BURGESS: Truly, the bigger of the challenges was dealing with hesitancy from the community about this being too closely located to where existing residential spaces were. Of course, that's the classic concern that gets expressed by near neighbors. What's it going to do to my property values to have a place like that right next door?
BOLLINGER: Home Sweet Home Ministries was able to purchase land across the street from another shelter it runs. Now Matthew Stone lives in The Bridge with his dog Tank.
STONE: In our cabins, we got our bed over on the far wall.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOG BARKING)
STONE: We got our microwave and refrigerator behind the door. We got our armoire over here that we can put all of our clothes in, and then we got our desk and our chair.
BOLLINGER: Stone was just about to hop on his bike to get to a doctor's appointment.
STONE: It's a lot easier to keep up on appointments, and they also help with that, like, if you need help, you know, with your appointments and keeping track. The services are great.
BOLLINGER: It won't be home forever. Most residents are expected to stay in the shelter village for four to six months before finding a more permanent home, and one resident has already taken that next step. For NPR News, I'm Emily Bollinger in Bloomington-Normal.
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