Faith Voices of Columbia hosting mayoral forum Monday night; focused on addressing homelessness

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Missouri Faith Voices is holding a mayoral forum Monday evening, focusing on affordable housing and sheltering people in Columbia without homes.

It is expected to hear from mayoral candidates on how they would address the homelessness issue.

Columbia mayoral candidates are Tanya Heath, Barbara Buffaloe, David Seamon and Randy Minchew. Elections will be held on April 5.

This comes as there has been a push from citizens for the city to address homelessness in Columbia and build a 24-hour homeless resource center. There is currently no permanent no-barrier shelter in Columbia.

Watch the forum live in the player below.

Randy Minchew one of the four candidates was unable to attend the meeting, but left a written statement on what he would do if elected.

"If i get elected as our next mayor, my relationships with some of you and my experience will help inform me and my attempt to set new city policy and add additional resources to further the work of helping our homeless population," Minchew wrote.

All three candidates tonight stressed the importance of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money to fund the opportunity campus.

"As we go forward we need to look at how we can use our purpose to help our security issues with people not having homes," Tanya Heath said.

"Right now we're seeing a fractured council to be honest where seems like theres not unity between, so for tools addressing homelessness and universal housing we need to set the tone that this is an issue we want to solve," Buffaloe said.

David Seamon brought up the issue of the lack convenient public transportation, as something needing more funding.

"If we cant have a transit system, that can get you from that area to where you're going to then the resources are not going to be utilized," Seamon said.

All three candidates stressed using the ARPA funds to address inequalities, focus on the warming and cooling centers, and work together with and fund community providers who work day in and day out to address the issue of homelessness.

Over the past few months, homelessness has been a big topic at City Council meetings, as many people have been frustrated with the city's warming centers policies as well.

A protest on Jan. 21 focused attention on the city’s criteria for opening the Wabash Bus Station on Tenth Street as an overnight warming center.

In response, the city raised the threshold for the overnight warming center to open at 25 degrees.

Council says it will continue to work to establish a 24-hour homeless resource center and the strategic plan objective to achieve a functional zero level of unsheltered homelessness by the winter of 2024- 2025.

For about a year, local community providers, like the Voluntary Action Center (VAC), and several other organizations have discussed opening an “Opportunity Campus.” The city still has 25 million dollars from ARPA funds to address inequalities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the city council meeting on March 8, members of the council discussed opening a sanctioned homeless encampment on city grounds. No decision was made and the discussion was tabled.

Local housing and human services providers such as Voluntary Action Center, St. Francis Catholic Worker Community (Loaves & Fishes Soup Kitchen), Columbia Interfaith Resource Center (Room at the Inn), Wilkes Blvd. UMC (Turning Point) and Love Columbia work to serve people facing homelessness in Columbia.

Providers like The Salvation Army have expressed interest in expanding its operations and doing more to address homelessness but would need more funding from the city.

Masks are required to attend the mayoral forum.

The forum is at 5:30 p.m. at 702 Wilkes Blvd from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Virtual attendance is available for those who cannot attend in person.