CHAMPAIGN – The freezing temperatures Friday night didn’t stop community members from showing up to support the homeless community in Champaign-Urbana.
Bundled up in coats, hats, scarves and gloves, people of all ages began setting up tents and makeshift shelters in the parking lot of The Venue CU on Friday afternoon. Chatter and laughter echoed throughout the lot as groups worked to set up their housing for the night. Some pitched tents while others constructed makeshift shelters out of cardboard boxes.
One Winter Night is an annual event put on by C-U At Home, a faith-based nonprofit and mid-barrier shelter and homeless services provider.
The event is designed to raise awareness and empathy for those experiencing homelessness.
This year, 89 participants pledged to raise $1,000 — funding that helps C-U At Home run programs year-round, said Executive Director Melissa Courtwright.
“People agree to stay outside on one of the coldest nights of the year and really experience something that thankfully they don’t normally have to experience,” she said.
“At about 2 a.m., most people feel like they thought they were prepared, and they kind of have this moment where they start thinking, ‘What if this was every night for me? What if I didn’t have a home to go to in the morning?’ and that’s really where the empathy comes from.”
In addition to shelter services, C-U At Home offers a transitional housing program called Pathways for Progress, which provides clients with structure, stability and a nurturing environment.
Alexander Coker, 31, said Pathways for Progress changed his life.
“That was the program that took me in and gave me a chance and gave me an opportunity to start from ground zero,” Coker said in an interview. “Being out on the streets, you really have nothing. Your family is someplace warm, you’re out in the cold, and you’re just wishing that… you had someone around that cared about you.”
Coker spoke at the event Friday night and said he was previously homeless and incarcerated but was able to move into his own place for the first time in his life.
According to the 2025 Point-In-Time Count in Champaign County, 355 individuals were identified as homeless, an increase of 76 from 2024. The 2026 count was conducted last month, but results have not yet been released.
As a mid-barrier shelter, C-U At Home provides housing to clients for 12 to 18 months while they undergo mental health counseling, substance use recovery and set goals for their future. C-U At Home clients do not pay rent, so fundraising through events like One Winter Night is critical to enable the group to provide housing and other services as people transition out of homelessness.
Among this year’s participants was Taylor Thomassie, a sophomore at Central High School in Champaign.
“I want to be able to make a change and volunteer and do all of this stuff to help out with my community, and I feel like, just because I’m a high schooler, I feel like that should change whether or not I can do stuff that I really, really care about,” Thomassie said.
Joanna Lin, another Central High School student, said she’s lived in Champaign her whole life and appreciates the opportunity to help those in need: “Our community has really given so much to me, even though I am young, so I want to be able to give back.”
Courtwright said the show of support from the community sends a powerful message to people who are homeless.
“They so often feel overlooked and marginalized, and they wonder oftentimes, does anybody care? And an event like this really reinforces: You have an entire community behind you as you take your steps forward,” she said.
For Coker, the support and people’s readiness to spend the night outside is what empathy is, and One Winter Night is a meaningful way for the community to understand the struggles of the homeless population in the area.
“For someone to put themselves out in that position willingly is empathy,” Coker said. “You walk by, you see a guy sleeping outside, you have sympathy for them, but when you go out and do it yourself, you feel what they feel to some extent.”
