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Created 1999 — opened November 2000
The institution: Fort Wayne's congregations act together in exactly one standing institution, and it is this one. In 1999 local congregations created the Interfaith Hospitality Network of Greater Fort Wayne, a chapter of the national model: homeless families sleep overnight in rotating local churches — a different congregation each week providing the rooms, the meals and the volunteers — and spend their days at a central day centre downtown. It opened its doors in November 2000. In February 2009 the network moved into a family centre on State Street, 2925 East State Boulevard, and took its present name, Just Neighbors Interfaith Homeless Network. It remains the city's only emergency shelter that keeps homeless families together rather than splitting them by age and sex, and its federal filings count its volunteer base in the hundreds, drawn from more than thirty local congregations — Catholic parishes, Lutheran and Methodist churches, the Temple and the mosques among them.
Sources:
- Just Neighbors Interfaith Homeless Network, federal Form 990 filings and program descriptions (ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer) — created 1999 as Interfaith Hospitality Network of Greater Fort Wayne, opened November 2000, the February 2009 State Street move and renaming, 950+ volunteers from 30+ congregations, 1,479 families and 3,489 individuals served since 2000.