As Bass Pro's singing bell ringer brings in the donations to his kettle, those at Salvation Army headquarters are keeping count.

As of December 7th, the kettle campaign was at 37% of its $555,000 goal. The money is for those in need.

"It feeds all of our programs here," says Jeff Smith, the organization's Social Services Director.

Those programs benefit people like Rebecca Voisey.

"We needed a place to stay because we lost our house," says Voisey.

She once lived at the salvation army, now she's in their 'New Start' transitional housing program.

"Thanks for the salvation army, I've been able to have the stability as a single mom where there was some points in time I wasn't sure what we were gonna be able to do," says Voisey.

Like most of Springfield's service providers, the salvation army is at capacity now.

"We turn people away every day who call us, and say, 'do you have a room?' and was say, 'sorry, we're full,'" says Smith

The Missouri Hotel has a waiting list now so long, if it emptied all of its beds and refilled them, there would still be people waiting.

"I can't speak for every shelter in town, but my guess would be that every one is operating at or near capacity all year long," says Randy McCoy, the grants writer for Springfield's Continuum of Care, a program through the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

It has been working to come up with a 10-year plan to end homelessness in Springfield.

"I don't think you will truly ever end homelessness. I think we can reduce the number of people through more effective prevention techniques and keep them housed," says McCoy.

The continuum says Springfield needs to open a free emergency shelter and increase funding to battle homelessness.

McCoy says if the city does decide to form a new task force, it should be to implement what the continuum has already discovered, not try to re-invent the wheel.

"If the task force want to come in and study homelessness, it could be a waste of time because the continuum really has focused on that for a number of years now," says McCoy.

In the meantime, the salvation army will battle with a bell.

The Salvation Army does offer free emergency shelter when the wind chill dips below 14 degrees. So far, it's been open three days, and housed a total of 13 people.

Contact: dmagditch@kspr.com