Almost Home at St. John's

The goal of Almost Home and the Open Closet is to provide safe, supervised shelter services for families experiencing homelessness.

The focus of service is for single men with children and 2-person families with children who are homeless. In our community there are NO shelters other than ours that accept either population. We are not as well-known known as other shelters in our area and operate purely on donations, grants and fundraisers. We provide a safe place for the families to get back on their feet and to build a family unit which has been shattered due to difficult circumstances. These families come from backgrounds of trauma, abuse and instability which especially affects the children who lack structure and a safe place to lay their heads. Many come to us broken but through our staff and community resources, they learn to trust again and to have HOPE.

We provide a case manager who works one-on-one with the parent(s)to set up goals to be met during their stay and assist through community resource referrals, to achieve these. Goals include ensuring the children are in school and the parent learns how to help the child succeed; stable employment for the parent(s), referrals for healthcare and counseling needs; for clothing and essential items which is provided by our shelter, food from our local food pantry and to learn basic skills that may be lacking such as proper hygiene, laundry, cooking and cleaning which they are responsible for while at the shelter. The main goal is to provide the family with the tools they need to transition to their own housing and to maintain the family unit. 

Almost Home at St. John’s (Lutheran church) mission is to serve this marginalized homeless population as Christ calls us to do and we do not discriminate. We want the families to be contributing members to our community and to find acceptance and inclusion in our community. 

Through St. John’s Lutheran Church Ministry based on the teachings of Jesus Christ,we will strive to make lives better and help all who seek our services.