Overnight facility offers women safe place to stay

CHAMPAIGN – The van pulls up, and the survivors pile out.

Three women who've spent the day dodging the bone-chilling cold – at soup kitchens, the library, wherever they can find warmth – smile at their hosts.

This is Austin's Place, the winter emergency shelter in the basement of the First United Methodist Church, for women who – for whatever reason – have nowhere else to sleep.

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