Three days out of the week, volunteers for a local organization provide a community space, food, and other services for people with low-income and people experiencing homelessness through their drop-in center in west Belleville.
TOCO, which stands for Tapestry of Community Offerings, is a thrift shop at 825 W. Main St. which runs the drop-in center through Homelessness Assistance Programs.
Maria Maloy, co-director of Homelessness Assistance Programs and a volunteer, said about eight people show up on a slow day and 25 people show on a busy day. On any given day, she believes more than half of the attendees are homeless.
Homelessness Assistance Programs functions in a network composed of multiple organizations, which range from churches to ministries. One of its partners is the Salvation Army. The group uses its building located at 20 Glory Place to host the drop-in on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
The organization also collaborates with others in the metro-east to help get people shelter , furniture, health care, and important personal documents.
Immediate help for people who need it
Maloy said the first service a person who has become homeless needs to utilize is the Homeless Hotline at 618-825-3330.
The drop-in center is open from 10 a.m. to noon, but the Salvation Army’s building is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays. The building is also one of four cooling and warming sites in Belleville .
The Salvation Army has a pantry in the building’s basement, which is open in the morning and afternoon on weekdays. Nancy Traiteur, the pantry coordinator, said the center stocks food from stores like Aldi’s, Dollar General, and also from individual donations.
Maloy and Traiteur said a few high-priority items are preferred: socks and winter accessories; simple foods like protein bars, canned goods (ideally with a pull tab), jerky, bread, peanut butter, jelly, cereal, and mashed potatoes; and hygiene items like diapers, baby wipes, toothbrushes, and toothpaste.
The organizations will accept donations of other items, but the listed materials provide the most immediately useful aid.
People who use the drop-in center’s services may lack necessary appliances or ingredients to cook certain meals, such as milk and or an oven. This makes easy-use goods preferable since they can be cooked in microwaves, over a fire, or eaten without preparation.
Donated clothes will go either to TOCO or to the Salvation Army’s basement pantry.
Dawn Whitney, TOCO’s shop manager, said vouchers are provided for people who can’t normally afford their products. The vouchers can buy $20 worth of goods from the store and are given out every three months.
Besides giving to homeless people, the groups also work on alleviating some of the structural difficulties that cause and perpetuate homelessness. Maloy works with multiple people each week to help with these various issues.
One issue is theft. Maloy said homeless people are often targeted by thieves since they lack security. This can mean the loss of a phone, which may lead to missed phone calls from clinics, housing providers, or employers, she said.
Another issue is a lack of documentation. If a homeless person loses or has their state-issued I.D. or driver’s license stolen, they need to have their social security card, birth certificate, proof of residency in Illinois, and a homeless certificate to get a new one.
Getting any of those three documents reprinted can take many months, which will delay replacement of other essential documents.
Without proper documentation, a person can’t apply for social security benefits — a process that alone can take up to a year — or housing. As it is, social security benefits don’t provide sufficient funds to live in St. Clair County, Maloy said.
Other needs are unmet
Maloy said that, while housing is a key factor in helping people escape homelessness, it’s not the only necessary solution. Without other services that help with addiction, mental health issues, and without regular welfare checks, some people may end up back to square one, she said.
Since the drop-in center is available only until noon, and the Salvation Army closes at 4 p.m. and for the weekend, assistance is only temporary. There are no homeless shelters or overnight shelters in Belleville, and there hasn’t been one since 2009. The closest overnight shelter is at St. Vincent de Paul in East St. Louis.
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