Last updated on October 6th, 2026
Street Outreach
CTSO supports unsheltered residents in Champaign County through regular outreach and ongoing engagement. Staff build relationships with residents and connect them with resources, services, and local agencies that can help meet their needs.
- Staff: Martel Miller, Phyllis McCoy, Jerome White, Marco Price, Ariel Davenport
- Services: Immediate Needs: food, blankets, clothing, toiletries, transportation; service referrals; connection to vital documents, LINK/Medicaid help, domestic violence, and mental & physical health services. To provide 3rd-party verification of homelessness, we must make contact with the person at the location of homelessness.
- Hours: Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 4 pm. May take up to 1 week to respond to a referral.
- Referral Process: Street outreach referral form.
- Capacity: No limit on referrals, but a limit of 50 supported at a time.
Housing Navigation and Supportive Services
CTSO supports Urbana families with children who are experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity by connecting them with available resources and providing housing navigation to families experiencing homelessness while waiting for shelter. Some participants in our Street Outreach program may also be eligible for services based on their circumstances and available program capacity.
- Staff: Ariel Davenport, Marco Price
- Services: Conduct assessments, support immediate needs (food, safety), make referrals. Refer families with income who are unstably housed (doubled up or self-pay at hotels) to Rental Assistance; those with no income who are unstably housed to GA and TANF; those fleeing domestic violence to Courage Connection; and literally homeless families to the Emergency Housing for Families waitlist. Case managers may also assist with housing navigation, application assistance, landlord advocacy and communication, and mental health referrals.
- Referral Process: There is no direct referral from outside agencies for this program.
- For families with school-aged children, general programming referrals come through USD 116.
- For families with children <6yo, referrals come through Crisis Nursery.
- For individuals, referrals may come from CTSO’s Street Outreach staff
- NOTE: All referrals and enrollments are based on eligibility criteria and case management capacity
- Capacity: No limit on referrals. Referrals are typically responded to within 48 hours.
Transitional Housing for Families
CTSO provides transitional housing and supportive services for literally homeless Urbana families to transition to more stable housing.
- Staff: Kerrie Peters, Tobi Nolley
- Services: Case management with intensive housing navigation, food, transportation assistance, connection to child care, health care, substance abuse, rape crisis, or mental health counseling, referrals for public aid: Medicaid, SNAP, GA, TANF, move-in support: rental assistance and housewarming gift.
- Referral Process: Referrals through USD116 and Crisis Nursery
- Capacity: 8 apartment units. Average stay of 4 months. Waitlist ranges from 1-15 families depending on need, and based on priority.
Thank you to the Housing Authority of Champaign County for their generous support of families experiencing homelessness. Thanks to their commitment to ending homelessness in Champaign County, we have been able to expand our sheltering efforts by 11 units between FY25 and FY26.
Rapid Rehousing
CTSO’s Rapid Rehousing program moves residents with income from literal homelessness into market-rate housing with up to 12 months of partial rent and utilities and supportive services.
- Staff: Queen Odudu
- Services: Housing navigation, support paying for rental application and move-in costs, partial rent and utility support for 3-12 months, credit repair and legal services, employment support, referrals.
- Referral Process: Members of the Continuum of Service Providers to the Homeless (CSPH) will be notified via email when there is an opening in the program.
- Capacity: 16 units.