Meghan Drakas
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Progress is being made at the Voluntary Action Center’s Opportunity Campus site at Bowling Street and Business Loop 70 in Columbia.
The $18.6 million site will house a resource center and a 125-bed shelter facility. After breaking ground in February 2024, the Opportunity Campus was planned to open this fall. It was delayed due to weather and the need to rework some plans after subcontractors came in over budget.
The Opportunity Campus plans to open its doors to clients next spring.
The design plan for the Opportunity Campus in Columbia includes the resource center and shelter facility. (Credit: Voluntary Action Center)
Cindy Mustard Resource Center
Voluntary Action Center director Ed Stansberry said his organization’s offices will be moving to the resource center once the building is complete.
“It’ll be the first quarter of next year when we begin to occupy,” Stansberry said. “But we feel good about where we are, and the pace at which things are happening is very impressive right now.”
In late June, ABC 17 News visited the construction site. Stansberry said the roofing for the resource center was in place, but not yet complete, and mechanical plumbing and electrical work were happening inside the building.
The Cindy Mustard Resource Center on June 20, 2025, in Columbia, Mo.
Rendering of the Cindy Mustard Resource Center by the Voluntary Action Center (Credit: Voluntary Action Center)
In the center of the building, a courtyard will allow clients and employees to spend time outside while at the resource center.
“I hope that we can have a garden club partner or somebody that would take an interest in helping us do some landscaping,” Stansberry said. “We do have some landscaping designed into this, but it would be great if somebody, a volunteer group or a donor was taking care of [it].”
Stansberry said the resource center will be named after former longtime executive director of the Voluntary Action Center, Cindy Mustard, who was inducted into the Boone County Hall of Fame in 2022.
The center will comprise the VAC’s offices, a community partner space and a medical clinic that will be open to the public. Stansberry said the offices will include a conference room for meetings as well as storage for items given out to clients, such as diapers, hygiene items, house cleaning kits and emergency food.
A look inside the portion of the Cindy Mustard Resource Center which will house the VAC offices, including a conference room and storage for client supplies on June 20, 2025, in Columbia, Mo.
“With our proximity to the shelter, the demand for VAC services is going to continue to go up,” Stansberry said.
He said that for three consecutive years, the VAC has had double-digit increases in requests for its services.
Stansberry said that without any further delays, he anticipates the resource center will open in March 2026.
Shelter
Just feet away from the Cindy Mustard Resource Center stands the steel outline of the shelter facility. The over 30,000-square-foot building will house facilities including the 125-bed shelter, an overflow bed area, a commercial kitchen, a dining room area, mail services, laundry facilities, showers and six kennels for animals.
Stansberry said the VAC is in talks with the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine about the kennels.
“One of the things that MU Vet has really helped us out with, is they’ve connected us to some organizations that their mission is to encourage or to inform best practices for pets in homeless shelters,” Stansberry said.
Stansberry says there will also be another room for some cats and smaller kennels, along with a bathing room and an exam area.
The steel structure of the 30,174-square-foot shelter facility stands at Business Loop 70 and Bowling Street on June 20, 2025.
A rendering of the shelter facility by the Voluntary Action Center (Credit: Voluntary Action Center)
As of June, the Boone County Coalition to End Homelessness said there were 213 homeless individuals in the county. This is down from a peak of 451 individuals in September 2024.
The center consulted people experiencing homelessness in the design process of the Opportunity Campus.
“We realized in talking to our unsheltered neighbors, they didn’t like the fact that traffickers, whether they’re drug traffickers or human traffickers, could loop a facility,” Stansberry said. “In other words, we didn’t want the parking lot to go [all the way] around. And we’ll have exterior cameras for security purposes, too.”
Stansberry said that with the affordable housing crisis, officials have been seeing individuals and families experiencing situational homelessness, which happens due to an unexpected life crisis, such as losing a job.
“As folks have had their rental rates raised, they can’t afford it,” Stansberry said. “So they leave that apartment only to find out that landlords are asking for double deposits, and the rent interest rates are still high.”
According to Apartments.com, the average two-bedroom rental in Columbia costs $1,156 a month. In August 2024, the average price for a two-bedroom rental was $1,048. That’s an increase of 10.3%.
A general guideline of spending no more than 30% of a person’s salary for rent would mean an individual would need to make at least $46,240 a year in Columbia to afford a two-bedroom rental. That’s up from a salary of $42,756 a year in 2024.
Along with its partners, Turning Point, Room at the Inn Como, Missouri Faith Voices and Loaves and Fishes, the campus will also have case managers.
“As we looked around that, shelters in the Midwest, a robust case management team really can make a difference in this population,” Stansberry said.
He said case managers help better understand what’s needed in a situation, whether that’s help with a person’s mental or physical health, support with substance abuse or assistance with housing. The goal is to find housing for clients within 90 days of entering the campus.
Stansberry said that if construction goes according to plan, the shelter facility will open a month or two after the resource center in April or May 2026.
The multi-million-dollar price tag
The $18.6 million Opportunity Campus is being paid for with multiple funding sources. Last August, Stansberry said the goal has always been to pay for the project with 1/3 state funding, 1/3 local government (city and county) and 1/3 private donations.
The local portion comes from $350,000 in ARPA money from Boone County and $3 million in ARPA funds from the city of Columbia.
In December, the VAC announced it had been awarded a $745,400 challenge grant award from the Mabee Foundation.
The courtyard area inside the Cindy Mustard Resource Center on the Opportunity Campus in Columbia, Mo., on June 20, 2025.
The VAC has raised 81% of the $18.6 million price tag but is still looking to fill the remaining gap with its capital campaign committee.
Stansberry said he doesn’t expect tariffs to delay construction or affect the cost of the project.
“We had all of the subcontracts in place prior to any worries about tariffs hitting the scene,” Stansberry said. “So we feel good about where we are pricewise.”
Stansberry says that moving into a new area, the Opportunity Campus wants to be mindful of the surrounding community. He says they’re developing a “good neighbor policy” to put expectations in place for clients to avoid negatively affecting surrounding homes and businesses.ansberry said that with the affordable housing crisis, officials have been seeing individuals and families experiencing situational homelessness, which happens due to an unexpected life crisis, such as losing a job.
“As folks have had their rental rates raised, they can’t afford it,” Stansberry said. “So they leave that apartment only to find out that landlords are asking for double deposits, and the rent interest rates are still high.”
According to Apartments.com, the average two-bedroom rental in Columbia costs $1,156 a month. In August 2024, the average price for a two-bedroom rental was $1,048. That’s an increase of 10.3%.
A general guideline of spending no more than 30% of a person’s salary for rent would mean an individual would need to make at least $46,240 a year in Columbia to afford a two-bedroom rental. That’s up from a salary of $42,756 a year in 2024.
Along with its partners, Turning Point, Room at the Inn Como, Missouri Faith Voices and Loaves and Fishes, the campus will also have case managers.
“As we looked around that, shelters in the Midwest, a robust case management team really can make a difference in this population,” Stansberry said.
He said case managers help better understand what’s needed in a situation, whether that’s help with a person’s mental or physical health, support with substance abuse or assistance with housing. The goal is to find housing for clients within 90 days of entering the campus.
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