Just Neighbors Interfaith Homeless

Emergency shelter program: Interfaith Hospitality Network of Greater Fort Wayne, Inc. (dba Just Neighbors Interfaith Homeless Network) is a private, not-for-profit organization. We began providing emergency shelter for families in 2000. Our emergency shelter program is innovative, effective, and cost efficient. Our program is unique because: 1) it is the only local program that services entire families in need of immediate emergency housing and keeps them together as an intact family unit; and 2) there is a significant volunteer component with an opportunity for families to volunteer to serve other families who are Homeless. All evening meals throughout the year are donated, prepared, and served by our dedicated group of 26 churches and community volunteers. As a result, we offer home-cooked, sit-down, and nutritious evening meals 365 days a year. The interaction that occurs between volunteers and guests provides lasting impressions and life changing lessons for everyone involved. Populations served: as a general reality, our clients are low-income or at least in economic crisis. We use area median income as our main income metric with 30% of ami as our threshold for low income. Our core goal is to be on the front lines to provide shelter, compassionate advocacy and other necessities for families who are caught in the crisis of homelessness. We assist them to move toward independence and self-reliance as quickly as possible. Services provided: as previously mentioned, we provide overnight shelter and meals. Our staff also provides case management including a need assessment to determine medical, educational, and employment needs. We assist guests with applying for services from other social service agencies. The average length of stay in our program is 39 days. 55 families received shelter and supportive services in 2023. 80% of families served in 2023 successfully moved to safe transitional or permanent housing (national average is 55%). 100% of sheltered children stayed in school, and 100% of families received a detailed need assessment with a case management plan that moved them along their way to self-sufficiency. Outreach case management program: outreach case mangers serve as advocates for families and are present where families are first requesting assistance at off-site partner locations. We find the right service at the right time and counsel the family the entire way during their time of crisis. We believe that this provides dignity for the entire family and is a data- driven response to ending homelessness. In 2023, our off-site outreach case manager provided referral services to 504 individuals. We believe we should make the first move in identifying those in need instead of waiting for them to come to us. Same city food truck program: with the pandemic, street outreach teams had to switch how they operated and distributed food. As a result, same city food truck was launched in june 2021. By giving our street team partners a licensed, mobile kitchen in which to serve, we are providing tools needed to continue their efforts. In addition, a Just Neighbors on-site case manager gathers guest information. This provides resource information to connect individuals to appropriate programs within the community. We believe that building community can bring better outcomes for a typically wary unsheltered population. By serving meals through local restaurant partnerships, the food truck has become a hub of activity for those whose meals often mean standing in a kitchen line and taking whatever food is offered. During 2023, we served 3,642 free meals to the unsheltered. Eviction intervention program: in june 2021, a new program was added to provide support to those facing the possibility of homelessness. We assign a full time staff member to work alongside Indiana legal services during hearings to assist in reviewing client files and to actively support families that are facing the possibility of eviction. We also work with local property owners and rent and utility programs to help families in need before evictions are filed. This program would not be possible without the collaboration between Just Neighbors, the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana legal services, and the united way of allen county. We have served 4,168 households in this program during the last two years with 2,248 of those evictions being dismissed (54%). Total households served in 2023: 1,960 (approximately 6,200 people). Program executive summary: Just Neighbors continues to be a front-line organization with a record of innovative, collaborative projects that improve our city. We work exclusively in areas that have been historical challenges such as rising eviction rates and growing numbers of Homeless families. We tackle this by planning projects that make new connections with existing service providers, producing programs that efficiently achieve those goals. We believe that advocacy is the key to wellbeing. Working generationally person-to person is the key to eradicating homelessness. We believe our model, through organic connections, provides space for our clients to grow spiritually, mentally, and physically. As Fort Wayne's only emergency Homeless shelter for families, we have a huge task before us in caring for families in crisis. We are the only organization in our area with comprehensive case management for families integrated with an emergency shelter to address the issue of 2,800 Homeless children who live in our region in any given year. We work alongside over 900 dedicated community volunteers from local congregations, corporations, and various civic organizations. We believe we have a truly innovative and intentionally collaborative model that not only works, but it also recognizes the dignity of all people. Poverty is isolating. It limits opportunities, takes a spiritual toll in its propensity to deepen despair, creates mental health challenges as people struggle to survive, and attacks physical health. But we have seen that people can do about anything when they no longer feel alone. Therefore, our model is intentionally built around understanding trauma while almost ignoring the usual model of 100% resource-based care. To be sure, people need food, shelter, and access to resources, but they also need to know their rights, their obligations, their deeper issues, but most importantly that, together, we have this managed. This is where we excel- our case managers will walk alongside you. As a result, we see our whole- person, wrap-around service model helping people at the lowest point in their lives.