Homelessness is not just a problem of big cities - it can affect small towns and cities. 

Mexico is no exception. Ra’Vae Moore, executive director of the Audrain County Shelter Resource Coalition, spoke about the homeless issue at the March 21 Mexico Rotary Club meeting and in a Ledger interview, detailing how transitional housing strives to give people a hand-up, not a handout, in their lives.

Moore told the Ledger that the point in time count - which tabulates homeless people - for Audrain County was 75 people in January; broken down, it was 39 people on the street, 17 in transitional housing and 19 in the shelter. Homeless people can be found in abandoned houses, woods and tunnels - wherever they can find shelter, Moore said. The reasons for homelessness vary, with Moore describing, this year, a couple who were in the shelter after they had been in a rental property and the landlord sold it and they were unable to find an affordable place. 

People can stay for a period to be determined in transitional housing.

“It’s now a month-to-month program,” she said in the Ledger interview. “When they come in, in order to qualify for transitional housing, they have to have income, and they have to be ready to come out of homelessness and be ready for sustainable housing. They need to heal from whatever it is (that afflicts them). We know that homelessness is not the problem, it’s a symptom of a much larger program. What is the larger problem? That varies by the individual.”

Those problems can range from substance abuse issues to family situations to mental health problems to a lack of life skills, she said. 

“The key to transitional housing success is case management,” she said, noting that case managers work with people on their situation and provide whatever services they need. The agency has 17 rooms in transitional housing and they “are pretty much always full,” Moore said. Those rooms can have multiple people staying in them.

Moore explained how transitional housing works, including how people pay a program fee, and how residents have to abide by certain rules while living there. Moore’s agency tries to help people in various other ways, such as, starting in May, people living at the shelter can take classes on life skills, such as credit repair, how to be a good tenant and how to negotiate a lease. 

In the interview with the Ledger, Moore said the Room at the Inn program’s served 57 adults this year and more than 1,900 meals in the period from Dec. 1 to Feb. 28. As stated on the ACSRC’s website, the Room at the Inn is a warming shelter designed to provide emergency shelter during the cold Missouri winter months, as “the shelter can house any individual or family who needs a safe, warm place to stay.” Of the people served by the Room at the Inn, 21 people moved into transitional housing, Moore said, and six of those 21 people were children, ages one month to 11 years. 

At the Rotary meeting, Rotarians received an Impact Report 2024 that provided information on agency highlights, achievements and data and 2025 goals. 

The homeless can’t be pigeonholed as, for example, people who are committing crimes or don’t want responsibility for maintaining homes, Moore said.

“We need everybody to see homelessness like we see it,” she said, explaining the people her agency helps are people who found themselves homeless, don’t want to be homeless and want a hand-up. She told some stories about people who have come to her agency for help and programs that help people, explaining how important case management is to the operation as is the Neighborhood Assistance Program tax credit offered through the Missouri Department of Economic Development. That money is used to pay case managers and other staff and bills, Moore said.

ACSRC will hold a Spring Fling from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 3 at 626 E. Summit St., Suite A, in Mexico. Vendors are being sought, and people may call 573-567-5160.