SPRINGFIELD -- Forget your stereotype of homeless people. In Springfield, they are your neighbors, classmates and friends.

"I was in a home and just wasn't able to continue with that, so I ended up here," said Bert DeWitt, a resident of The Salvation Army's Harbor House.

Terry and Louise Suit stopped for lunch at Harbor House on Tuesday.

"We were making payments since September," said Terry Suit. "But this month we could not afford the house payments and the landlord was not going to work with us. He said, 'You've got to go.'"

More people, including whole families, are in this situation for the first time than ever before. This winter, community leaders say, this problem needs a Band-Aid -- fast.

To do it, leaders of the City of Springfield, Greene County, Victory Mission, The Kitchen Inc., and many other agencies are joining forces to make changes -- for the long term and now. The first step comes next Monday night. Springfield city staff will present City Council with a declaration of 'economic calamity.'

"It allows facilities to be open that would not be considered shelters made under the typical definition of the zoning ordinance," said Ralph Rognstad, the city's director of Planning and Development.

The declaration would free up churches and agencies to shelter people where they couldn't do so before. Still, it won't erase all rules. If passed, the city says it would set safety parameters specific to each location willing to open its doors.

"We're trying to balance the issue of, 'It's not safe to be out when it's wet and cold,' against 'It's not safe to be packed into a building,'" said Rognstad.

City Council will see the economic calamity declaration at its meeting on Monday night. For some perspective, the last calamity declared in Springfield was during the ice storm in January 2007.

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News release from City of Springfield, Dec. 9, 11:30 a.m.

The Springfield City Council will consider at its Dec. 14, 2009 meeting a resolution to expand the definition of "emergency shelters" to allow more types of buildings in Springfield to be used to house and provide food for people who are homeless.

Council Bill 2009-308 will declare an "economic calamity" based on the current Greene County and Missouri unemployment rates of more than 8 and 9 percent respectively. It would remain in effect until May 1, 2010, or the local unemployment rate drops to 5 percent for two months in a row, whichever occurs first.

The resolution is intended to address the need for additional temporary shelter space based on the waiting lists for families and individuals to be placed at recognized homeless services' facilities. The resolution will move forward for the Dec. 14 agenda after receiving endorsement from the newly formed Task Force for Homeless Young Children at its initial meeting Tuesday.

If the resolution is approved Monday, it would allow individuals, churches or other agencies that meet building, safety and health codes to voluntarily offer temporary shelter or offer food without being defined for that use in the City land-development code. The Springfield Fire Department would perform an initial inspection and possible random inspections during this time period to assure that life-safety requirements are met.

Under the Springfield Zoning Ordinance, a declaration of "natural disaster" or "calamity" allows exceptions to the definition of a shelter and the Zoning Ordinance's requirements for shelters.