If you or a neighbor are ever in a hard spot, it helps to know exactly where the door is. This week, Columbia’s Voluntary Action Center is opening the door to a much bigger one: the Opportunity Campus, a new $18.6 million homelessness-services hub on Bowling Street near Business Loop 70, is moving into full operation, according to ABC 17 News.
Rocheport doesn’t have its own shelter or resource center, and for folks here who hit a rough patch, Columbia’s Voluntary Action Center is usually the closest real help — it’s the county’s main clearinghouse for homelessness and poverty services, serving all of Boone County, not just the city. That makes this week’s opening worth knowing about even if you never expect to need it yourself; you may end up pointing a neighbor, a coworker, or a family member toward it.
What the new campus actually offers
The new building runs more than 30,000 square feet and was built to serve upwards of 7,000 people, according to ABC 17. It includes 150 overnight shelter beds plus overflow space, private rooms set aside for people who are ill, a commercial kitchen and dining hall, showers and laundry, mail service, computer access, and secure storage for belongings — the everyday logistics of homelessness that are easy to overlook until you’re living them. There’s also an on-site medical clinic run by Centerstone, and, notably, kennel runs and a wash station for pets, since a shelter that won’t take the family dog is a shelter a lot of people won’t use.
The campus has been rolling out in phases for months — construction started back in February 2024 — and the Columbia Missourian reports the daytime resource center, named for Cindy Mustard, is now running Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. Shelter director Jessica McNear told the paper that’s where staff will be “offering services” day to day — things like gas and clothing vouchers, help getting replacement IDs and other documents, and a food and hygiene pantry, for Boone County residents experiencing homelessness.
Who’s eligible, and how to start
Voluntary Action Center’s broader resource-center services — beyond the emergency shelter itself — are open to Boone County residents at or below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines. Rent and housing assistance is handled by phone on Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to noon, by appointment. The center doesn’t cover utility bills or motel vouchers directly; for those, it points people to Central Missouri Community Action. The general contact number is 573-874-2273, and current hours and services are kept up to date at vacmo.org.
Columbia’s most recent State of Homelessness count put the local homeless population at roughly 300 people in a given year, per ABC 17 — a number that’s stayed fairly steady even as the city has built out more capacity to respond to it. A bigger, better-equipped campus doesn’t make that number smaller on its own. But it does mean that when someone from our stretch of the county needs a hand, there’s finally a front door built to actually hold everyone who walks up to it.
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