I grew up in this city. But, when I became homeless in 2021, I had nowhere to go — other than One Door, which paid for hotels so my son, Zachariah, and I were not on the street. One Door also helped us get housing vouchers.
At one point, we had Safe to Sleep, a women’s shelter, and Victory Mission, a men’s shelter. Sadly, some of the programs that helped me don’t exist now. That’s a symptom of there being no help for the homeless in Springfield because the local government forced shelters to close. Worse, some aspects of being homeless are Class C felonies, making criminals out of those who can’t help being homeless…