In response to the crisis of homelessness, Just Neighbors provides food, shelter and clothing to meet families' immediate needs. Our goal is to help families become and remain self-sufficient.
We are the only shelter in our community which accepts families. (Other shelters accept single males or single females; one shelter accepts mothers and children.) We operate at capacity year-round, and refer many families to other community resources when our shelter is full.

During their stay with us, adults meet regularly with staff to assess the family's needs and to determine progress on fulfilling educational goals, finding employment, and locating permanent housing. This is done in negotiation with families, so that they determine their own future.

In addition, we participate in community collaboratives to address systemic issues that contribute to homelessness. This results in increased community system-wide efficiency and effectiveness of services.

We provide comprehensive case management, education and support groups, tutoring and mentoring to help families build the skills and resources they need to return to self-sufficiency. We help families arrange child care and assist children to remain in or return to school.

Our policies are designed to increase accountability and enhance the self-discipline of our clients by requiring them to observe program rules, to develop personal and family goal plans, and follow these plans to achieve specific goals related to housing, employment and budgeting. Families accept responsibility for determining their own future and choosing a path to self-sufficiency that develops accountability and self-discipline.

We work closely with a variety of government programs, human service agencies, and community ministries to connect our clients with a wide range of services to obtain and maintain employment and transitional or permanent housing.

We have the staff, volunteers, and community support to achieve our goals. Our case managers are knowledgeable about the resources available in our community and how to help families find the services they need. We work with other shelters and refer single homeless individuals to the program or shelter that best suits their needs. Through the Planning Council on Homelessness (other agencies serving the homeless, including United Way and the City of Fort Wayne), we participate in community-wide efforts to address systemic issues that contribute to homelessness.

Our community has been generous in supporting our programs. More than 800 volunteers from 30 congregations prepare and serve meals daily. These congregations also support Just Neighbors Interfaith Homeless Network with in-kind contributions of clothing, linens, bedding, and children's books, games and toys; and with facility maintenance and repair as carpenters, electricians, and plumbers. Some congregations provide financial support as well.

We use a program model which focuses on acceptance and respect of each individual. Our warm welcome to clients and volunteers fosters an accepting and cooperative culture in our family center.

Low income families in our community continue to face challenges in supporting their families. They may come to Just Neighbors after living in an apartment without electricity or heat. They may have been living in their car. They may have been bouncing from the home of one family member to another. They may have lost jobs when their car broke down and they did not have money for repairs or when they experienced a medical catastrophe.

Just Neighbors Interfaith Homeless Network opened its doors to families in 2000. We used available space in local churches to provide night-time shelter for families. Each morning the families were transported to our day center in a small house in downtown Fort Wayne. The maximum daily capacity of the program was 14 individuals. In February of 2009, Just Neighbors moved to a new facility with a family center/shelter and staff office space so that it could increase capacity to 40 clients and provide on-site services. Since 2007, Just Neighbors has more than doubled the number of families served annually. Today, we serve nearly 300 individuals in 60+ families each year.

Indicators of progress are the security offered to homeless families with our shelter and the supportive services which help them prepare for independent living; the increased numbers served; the evolution to a program model in which families stay at the same site until they can move to transitional or permanent housing; the high percentage of adults who find employment; and the focus on children's needs and continued enrollment in their school during the period of homelessness.

Based on our experience working with homeless families for more than 15 years and our staff members' extensive experience in social services, we have developed sound programs and practices, documented by such outcomes as (1) the percentage of families we served who moved from homelessness to stable housing improved from 55% in 2001 to 83% in 2015; (2) a gradual increase to 73% for the number of parents obtaining living-wage employment; and (3) the number of individuals served each year grew from 67 in 2000 to 295 in 2015.

Economic and social conditions as under-employment and limited affordable housing have resulted in our family shelter remaining consistently at capacity. As a result, we seek to expand our case management services to track families for whom our services are not appropriate or available. By tracking and maintaining professional contact with these families, we seek to assist those who may be homeless and indigent through their crisis without need for shelter.