A new homeless shelter for single men slated to open in Valparaiso in the fall will offer a host of other services, including serving as a warming and cooling center in inclement weather and providing social services to those who need them, as well as taking the place of the overnight shelter that has been rotating at various churches.
The city of Valparaiso donated .8 acres on Don Hovey Drive off of Axe Avenue for the project, with a five-year lease for $1 a year and the understanding that the city will deed the property to Respite House, which is overseeing the project, said Mitch Peters, Respite House’s founder and the lead for the new facility, coined Daybreak.
The project also is receiving $150,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds from the city and has the support of current and former city administrators, with Mayor Jon Costas “extremely instrumental” in moving the shelter forward, Peters said.
“The city is fully committed to this,” said Peters, adding the shelter has been in the works for around two years.
In all, the shelter, which will be around 9,600 square feet and sits on the site of a recently demolished pole barn, is garnering about $1.26 million in donations from unions and contractors, Peters said.
The project — $3.1 million in all — is well on its way with fundraising “and we’re just excited to move forward as quickly as possible,” Peters said.
The shelter will house 12 single men initially but can be expanded for 24, Peters said, with a live-in structure similar to a halfway house. The facility also will have a resource center and a community kitchen that will offer one meal a day to start.
The resource center and free meals will be open to men and women, Peters said, and can accommodate 60 people, with side rooms for programs and case management.
“It’s not just about housing. We’re going to provide comprehensive services,” said Peters, whose two Respite House facilities, on Chicago Avenue and Union Street, provide services to men coming out of addiction.
Several service partners will provide health care, job readiness and counseling.
“To live here, the people will have to participate. We want to be as low a barrier as possible,” Peters said of the shelter’s expected residents. “Some of them just need a hand up.”
The goal of the multipurpose facility, he added, is to partner with Housing Opportunities in Valparaiso and Gabriel’s Horn in South Haven to identify who needs services and get them into stable living situations.
“The new shelter will offer additional shelter for single men, where they can live while they receive comprehensive case management, mental and physical health services, recovery supports, etc. until they are able to stabilize, save money, and eventually move into their own housing,” licensed social worker Sam Burgett said in an email.
Burgett, who is spearheading the effort with Peters, was a social worker with the Valparaiso Police Department and is now in that role with the Porter County Sheriff’s Department.
The new facility will also include a co-ed warming center, where individuals can stay overnight without having to meet eligibility requirements, Burgett said. “The warming center fills a large service gap in the community, as many of our unhoused community members currently have nowhere to go once Housing Opportunities’ resource center closes each evening,” she said.
Living Hope Community Church has operated a low-barrier overnight warming center during the winter months for the past two years, but the new facility will alleviate that need and will provide a safe place for people to sleep year-round, she added.
Peters hopes construction can begin in the coming weeks as the weather warms and the shelter is ready in October or November, ahead of next winter, and said one of the obstacles to moving forward was tearing down the old pole barn on the site, which the city did earlier this month.
The site now is nothing more than disturbed dirt behind a chain-link fence.
“I’m just so thankful that there are so many people in this community who are invested to act to make a difference in people’s lives,” he said.
By offering overnight shelter for men, which has been rotated between the city’s churches for several years and was overseen by New Creations until Respite House recently took it over, the people who need the service will not have to move from church to church, Peters said.
New Creations also provides services for homeless men and runs a resale shop to help fund its mission, which it will be able to better focus on without also overseeing the overnight shelter, he added.
“The goal is to get them stable because, in reality, no one is going to take their meds when they’re living in a tent in the woods,” Peters said.
In her various roles as a social worker in the community, Burgett said it has always been extremely difficult to provide effective services to unhoused clients, as much of their time and energy is spent simply trying to find a safe place to be.
“When they aren’t sleeping, cannot attend appointments, and consistently lose their belongings due to transporting them around town each day, any mental illness, substance use, or other issues often become exacerbated, making it even more difficult to help meet their needs,” she said. “When people have a safe, stable, consistent place to stay, services can be much more effective in helping them get back on their feet.”
