Morgan County homelessness group plans street outreach, seeks volunteers

Morgan County leaders are preparing to take their homelessness response off the page and onto the street. A group led by Salvation Army captain Justian Corliss, alongside Jacksonville alderman Joe Lockman and former Jacksonville police chaplain Alan Bradish, plans to send volunteer teams into the community in July to speak directly with people who are unhoused.

The effort is built around street outreach, not a meeting or a one-time drive-through count. Corliss said volunteers will be given questions to ask, and teams will go out in groups of four. That structure is meant to do more than gather anecdotes: it is designed to collect usable information about why people are homeless, what keeps them there, and what barriers stand in the way of getting help.

That information gap matters in Morgan County, where leaders have been weighing how to respond to a visible and growing problem without a clear local picture of who needs what. Street-level outreach could help show whether the county needs more emergency shelter space, stronger referral connections, mental health support, transportation help, or tighter coordination among law enforcement, churches and social-service groups. For a community trying to build a practical response, the difference between assumption and direct contact can shape where money goes and which services get built first.

The local push comes after earlier Jacksonville and Morgan County discussions about the lack of a shelter option during frigid weather. That meeting included Bradish, Sue Brosmith and David Bergman of New Directions, along with a representative from In His Service. At that time, New Directions said it could handle up to 20 people, with a 60-day limit, sobriety requirements and police background checks, underscoring how limited local options remain even when residents and agencies agree help is needed.

The broader numbers show why the county’s outreach is not happening in a vacuum. The Illinois Department of Public Health says roughly 10,000 people in Illinois experienced literal homelessness between 2017 and 2023 in annual January Point-in-Time counts. Nationally, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development counted more than 650,000 people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2023, a 12% increase from the year before.

The Salvation Army’s role in Morgan County has also stretched beyond this outreach effort. WLDS previously reported that its Jacksonville Red Kettle campaign funds are used to help Morgan County families in need year-round, giving the organization an established local base as leaders try to turn street-level contact into a clearer service plan.