"Unlike other years, they will eat their food in their spot and take their coffee into their ," she said. The partitions will help with guest, staff and volunteer safety, Graham said. This includes partitions between cot sleeping areas and and at least 10 feet by 10 feet between cots, rather than what used to be the typical 18 inches. Room at the Inn, as a homeless shelter, is having to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for COVID-19. Otherwise, the shelter's main operation will happen at he Universalist church. If there is an extreme weather event this winter, where warming centers end up closing, Room at the Inn also will use the Rock Bridge Christian Church fellowship hall as overflow shelter space of another 16 cots. "We have been able to keep our guest roughly at the same number if we had them all upstairs," Graham said. It just depends on which is the host church in a particular year. The number of people the shelter can host is site-dependent. It still will serve about 33 at the church, but now they will be spread in the upper and lower levels. When Room at the Inn does open, it definitely will have a different look, Columbia Interfaith Resource Council President Debbie Graham said. "We offer housing coaching and have successfully placed many in permanent housing." "We are making every effort to help homeless families and vulnerable people, but the need is great," she wrote. There is a hope for more, Williams wrote. has worked to increase the capacity of its transitional home this year from three to six families with children. "We do not have enough shelter space in the best of times and, now, shelters are challenged by social distancing restrictions and need for quarantine rooms." "Our primary focus is on homeless families with children and individuals with disabilities," Williams wrote. is a nonprofit aimed at helping Columbia residents in poverty. Room at the Inn is operated by the Columbia Interfaith Resource Council, while Love Inc. 13 at the Unitarian Universalist Church on Shepherd Boulevard. There is about another five weeks before the Room at the Inn shelter opens Dec. Executive Director Jane Williams wrote in an email. The closure of the car camp means there is now a gap in services, Love Inc. Those in motels, whether they are a positive case or potentially exposed as a close contact, are having to isolate themselves. They were aided, in part, by the Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services Department because at least one person who was staying at the car camp tested positive for COVID-19. Some ended up at Welcome Inn on North Providence, while others are at the Extended Stay America on Business Loop 70 West if they had nowhere else to go. 30, it meant about a dozen of those living there - either in their cars or in tents - had an immediate need to find another place to stay. When the Gail Plemmons Memorial Car Camp and Triage Center on Paris Road had to close Oct. Some Columbia homeless may have nowhere else to go until then.The winter homeless shelter Room at the Inn does not open until Dec.At least one tested positive for COVID-19, so quarantine/isolation procedures are in place.Those who were there displaced to motels.