VFW Facility Public Input

The City of Columbia has a contract to purchase property located at 1509 Ashley St. The property is owned by the Veterans of Foreign War (VFW) Post 280. The site is approximately 2.70 acres and is located between the City’s Municipal Power Plant and Interstate 70.

The main building is approximately 13,500 square feet and includes a large, open-space meeting room with a seating capacity of 300, several smaller rooms that contain a game room and lounge, offices and a commercial kitchen. A 3,000 square-foot outdoor picnic shelter is located on the east end of the property and is part of the sale.

The City’s short-term plan is to use the building to accommodate social service organizations, primarily Room at the Inn, a community organization that provides unsheltered people with a warm, safe place to sleep. Other providers may also be part of the facility, but that has not yet been finalized.

Over the next 1-3 years, construction of the planned Opportunity Campus should be completed. The Opportunity Campus will become a permanent home for these social services, providing individuals and families with temporary shelter, transitional housing, meals and wrap-around services with the goal of lifting people up and out of homelessness.

The City’s plan for how the nearby VFW facility will be used once the Opportunity Campus is complete has yet to be determined and needs to be finalized. Therefore, the City is seeking resident feedback as to how the VFW facility should be used once the Opportunity Campus is complete.

Residents can provide feedback by using the comment section at the bottom of this page or by emailing the City Manager's Office at CMO@CoMo.gov. Comments will be accepted until midnight on Oct. 10, 2022.

There will also be an on-site public input meeting Monday, Oct. 10, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the VFW Post 280 picnic shelter, 1509 Ashley St.

All comments received by the posted deadline date will be shared with the City Council at their Oct. 17, 2022, meeting.