Long-delayed shelter for homeless vets set to open

EAST ST. LOUIS -- A long-delayed, $2 million shelter for homeless veterans in southwestern Illinois is nearing completion.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony has been set for June 26 in East St. Louis for the Joseph Center shelter that'll take in its first residents this summer and fall.

The center is sponsored by the nonprofit Eagles Nest of St. Clair County and originally was scheduled to open in early 2003. But costs have ballooned, slowing the project along with contractor disputes and interior work that needed to be redone. Last year's theft of air-conditioning units at the site didn't help.

Over the last six years, Eagles Nest has provided and retracted a series of opening dates for the shelter.