Voluntary Action Center announces additional funding for $18.6 million Opportunity Campus project
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
On GivingTuesday, the Voluntary Action Center announced it has been awarded a $745,400 challenge grant award from the Mabee Foundation to support The Opportunity Campus project.
The project is being built along Business Loop 70 and Bowling Street in central Columbia to support transitional services for the homeless population in Boone County. Plans for the campus include a shelter with 150 beds, a resource center and medical clinic.
As of October, the Boone County Coalition to End Homelessness says there were 347 people experiencing homelessness in the county. This is up from from 189 people in October 2023.
According to a Tuesday news release from the VAC, the project is expected to cost $18.6 million which is up half a million dollars from the estimate in August. ABC 17 News has reached out to the VAC to see why the project cost has been increased. The VAC says it has raised 80% of the $18.6 million goal which equates to $14,880,000.
The organizations says the challenge grant award required VAC to raise an additional $1,361,600 toward the resource center in order to secure the funding from the Mabee Foundation. The VAC says it recently accomplished this goal.
“The challenge grant awarded by the Mabee Foundation was a catalyst to raise additional funds for the capital campaign of The Opportunity Campus,” said Ed Stansberry, who is the executive director at the Voluntary Action Center. “The Opportunity Campus will provide programs and services to support our homeless and economic-stricken neighbors with the goal of making homelessness a brief, rare and nonrecurring experience in Columbia.”
The Opportunity Campus is set to open in the fall of 2025.
