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Over the years, the Audrain County Shelter Resource Coalition (ACSRC) has evolved and continued to expand. Our story has humble beginnings. It all started in 2013 when a local community organizer noticed individuals experiencing homelessness in urban areas while on vacation. This led them to consider what individuals in Audrain County do when they find themselves in that position. At that time, Audrain County didn’t have any housing resources. The organizer then started a series of networking meetings called “Community Conversations.”
These Community Conversations led to the forming of a grassroots network, the Audrain County Shelter Resource Coalition. We met monthly at the United Methodist Church in Mexico over lunch. This group involved members from the community, the faith community, and various local service agencies. For our first project, we opened and operated Room at the Inn, a winter emergency shelter, in January and February of 2015. Four churches in the community opened their doors, one week at a time, to host displaced individuals that winter. We began by modeling our program from the Room at the Inn in Columbia, MO, and have continued to operate Room at the Inn each winter. However, we have since forged our own path, developing our own guidelines and practices over time.
In 2016, we moved into the Mid-MO Evangelistic Center, just off the square in Mexico. This helped our guests know where to access services since we did not change the location of Room at the Inn each week.
In 2018, we moved to the Garfield Community Center, expanded our service season by opening in December, and started offering meals. We found that people in the nearby area would often stop by for a warm meal and company without the need for shelter, and we expanded to meet this need. We stayed at the Garfield Community Center until moving again to 409 Fairground in December 2020.
ACSRC became a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in 2015. We have always relied on the support of the community and volunteers to organize the coalition and run Room at the Inn, but in 2017, we were able to hire our first paid staff through the support of a local foundation and grant funding. We also took over the Point in Time Count reporting, recording the number of homeless individuals in the area. Through the years, we have walked beside other organizations looking to start their own programs and have shared the wealth of information we have acquired.
In July 2022, ACSRC took possession of Suite L in the Summit building to begin expanding our services beyond Room at the Inn. The Summit Transitional Housing Program opened in January of 2023. This program offers participants a safe, affordable place to stay while they build the payment history, personal skills, and management skills they need to maintain a sustainable lifestyle. Participants of The Summit meet with caseworkers regularly to coordinate eligible benefits, fill out job and housing applications, locate affordable housing options, and connect with physical, mental, and substance abuse treatment programs.
Also, in 2023, we opened The Laura Mae Miller George Community Resource Center. The Community Resource Center and the new ACSRC administrative offices are housed in The Summit Building located at 626 E. Summit St., Suite A. We designed our Community Resource Center to keep people in their homes. We can work with our clients who need rental and utility assistance and arrears by administering funds from the Federal Emergency Solutions Grant and the Missouri Housing Trust Fund. By providing them with rental and utility assistance and arrears, we are able to help individuals keep their homes, which is significantly cheaper than having them enter the homeless services system. When receiving assistance from the Missouri Housing Trust Fund or the Emergency Solutions Grant, our caseworkers help clients navigate available resources and skill-building services to help them maintain their housing status.