Voluntary Action Center fully opens new Opportunity Campus in Columbia
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Voluntary Action Center's Opportunity Campus in Columbia officially opened the doors to its overnight shelter Monday to support people experiencing hardship and homelessness.
“I would not be at all surprised if we reached 150 overnight guests tonight,” Voluntary Action Center Executive Director Ed Stansberry said.
The 30,000-plus-square-foot facility, capable of serving over 7,000 people a year, is located in the 1300 block of Bowling Street. Construction on the $18.6 million facility began in February 2024 and part of the Opportunity Campus opened its doors as an overnight cooling center earlier this month.
“New Day, formerly Turning Point, just today started their third week of day services here," Stansberry said. "A week ago today, Loaves and Fishes came down and started providing meal services. So the third component is the overnight shelter.”
The campus includes 150 beds, an overflow bed area with private rooms for sick individuals, a commercial kitchen and dining room area, showers and more.
"The day shelter's had somewhere between 80 and probably 120 [visitors]," Stansberry said. "Our unsheltered neighbors have been kind of shower starved. And one of the things we designed in here was a significant amount of showers."
The day center has been reporting about 40 showers a day, according to Stansberry.
The overnight Waypoint Shelter will now open doors to more people. It can divide up sleeping spaces for veterans, visitors with sensory issues, pet owners, etc.
While most shelters in Missouri don't allow pets, the Opportunity Campus offers a veterinary exam area, a pet washing station, indoor/outdoor kennel runs, and more for those with pets.
“If they can't take their fur baby, they're not going to come. So that's an additional group that we've eliminated a barrier for,” Stansberry said.
People will also have access to an on-site medical center run by Centerstone, mail delivery, laundry services, computer access and secure storage spaces.
According to Columbia's 2025 State of Homelessness Report, 309 people experienced homelessness last year. The city's homeless population has hovered around the 300 mark for at least three years, with 323 reported in 2024 and 270 in 2023. The report was not done during the pandemic from 2020-22.
Opportunity Campus leadership and Ward 3 Columbia City Council Member Jacque Sample believe the facility can truly transform the homeless community in the city.
“To me, success is going to be seeing the number of unhoused persons in our community decrease," Sample said. "I think with the consolidation of these services in one place, it's going to be a much more organized effort.”
Stanberry previously told ABC 17 News that about 30 nonprofits and organizations will be offering resources at the campus. Having a centralized location to get help, he said, is something the city hasn't tried before.
“Communities that are most successful at addressing homelessness are those that have radical collaboration between the nonprofits in those communities,” Stansberry said.
Visitors will also work with "case managers" during their time at the Opportunity Campus.
“Case managers will begin to form relationships, and already have with our unsheltered neighbors, to make sure that we are getting them the services they need and then not duplicating those services across other nonprofits in the community,” Stansberry said.
Half an hour before the overnight shelter opened at 6:30 p.m., an ABC 17 News crew saw a line of about 20 out the door. A shuttle was also seen bringing people to the campus.
