State restores some funds for homeless services

By Dan Petrella/CU-CitizenAccess -- The TIMES Center will see some of its state funding restored thanks to a measure Illinois lawmakers passed in late November during their fall veto session, but officials say it won’t be enough fully restore services at the transitional shelter near downtown Champaign.

In October, we reported that the program, which serves homeless men, is facing an uncertain future due to state funding cuts of about $95,000. Some of that money was part of $4.7 million that was cut statewide from programs that provide emergency and transitional shelter for the homeless.

During the veto session, the General Assembly reversed the $4.7 million cut, which came from the Illinois Department of Human Services budget. As a result, the TIMES Center expects to receive about $25,000 in restored funding, said Shelia Ferguson, CEO of Community Elements, the nonprofit agency that oversees the program.

Ferguson said that Department of Human Services funding was only one of three sources of state revenue that the shelter saw cut this year.

“That certainly is not going to help us restore the total service package that we had before the cuts were made,” she said.

As a result of the cuts, the TIMES Center eliminated one and a half staff positions and is now closed during daytime hours, although its daily soup kitchen continues to operate.

While she would prefer to see full funding restored, Ferguson said she is happy the state was able to provide some relief.

“We certainly are very pleased to see that the legislators have worked really hard on our behalf and thank them immensely because we chose to keep operating with some cuts and reductions in order to make sure that people had somewhere to go this winter,” she said.

The Department of Human Services currently is working to determine when the funds will be distributed to the TIMES Center and other programs across the state, according to a spokeswoman for the governor’s budget office.