Haven House has provided temporary shelter for homeless families since 1983. Over the years, the scope of our programs and services has increased dramatically. Not only do we support our residents with basic needs such as shelter, food, clothing, and personal needs items, but we have developed programs that will make an impact on the lives of our families after they have left our shelter.

Giving our residents the opportunity to improve their lives through goal setting, training, and education enables them to become more productive and less apt to become homeless in the future.

Our Mission: Haven House provides emergency housing and support services for one-parent and two-parent families with children. The shelter helps families who are homeless prepare for permanent housing by developing and promoting self-sufficiency, stability, and financial responsibility.
 

Program Highlights

• Staff members meet daily with residents to discuss progress in finding permanent housing and provide advice in dealing with landlords and local agencies. Residents develop personal budgets that are realistic and goal plans that are productive.
• Staff members meet with residents once a week to develop a Weekly Plan which includes plans for seeking housing and meeting personal and financial needs.
• Once a week we have a Great Parents Great Start representative work with parents and children birth to 5 years to learn positive parenting skills.
• Our tutoring program helps children maintain educational progress during a time of family crisis.
• A visiting nurse from the Ingham County Health Department provides assistance to our residents.
• Many volunteers help in the office, provide activities for children and families, handle many other tasks to assist residents and ex-residents and help the shelter run smoothly.
• Upon exiting, our residents receive an "exit bucket" filled with cleaning supplies and personal needs items. They may also receive a Food Bank box of food to help them get established.
• Local schools work closely with us on getting our children enrolled in school or keeping them in their former school. We expect all school- age children to attend school every day.
• Our Partners in Progress is a transitional housing program that assists families after they leave the shelter. A staff member works with the former residents to set realistic goals and monitor progress in employment, budgeting, arranging childcare, improving parenting skills, and connecting with the neighborhood and the community. Our goal is to build strong families, increase employment success and prevent future homelessness.
• A HUD grant enables us to provide subsidized rents and services to several families with disabilities.

Challenges

Funding has become a significant challenge as a troubled economy affects private donations and government grants. While we are looking for ways to reduce our costs, we must constantly look for ways to increase contributions from individuals, businesses, service clubs and the interfaith community.

Affordable housing is becoming scarcer and landlords are screening prospective tenants very carefully. It is taking longer on the average for families to find housing, thus increasing the length of shelter stays.

Low-paying jobs and part-time jobs make it hard for families to afford rents that go up each year. A tight job market has made it difficult for families to find jobs.

Staff and volunteers must be aware of constantly changing government regulations and area services in order to be most helpful to our residents. For example, possible reductions in Medicaid could negatively affect health services to low-income families.
 

President
Debbie Henrie-Parks
WLNS-TV

Vice President
Roman  Tyszkiewicz
Law Office of Roman Tyszkiewicz

Treasurer
Dan Ilgen
Dept. of Psychology, Michigan State University

Secretary
Suzanne M. Olivier
Retired
State of Michigan Civil Service Commission

Members At Large
Carol Brownell
Retired
East Lansing Public Schools

Anne Craft
UZoom Media

Dorian V. George
Student
Michigan State University College of Law

Kimberly Hall
MESSA

Mary McCardel
 

Jeff Powers
MSU Federal Credit Union

Jerry Smith
Citizens Bank

Nancy Siddall
Kappa Kappa Gamma, Delta Gamma Chapter

Nathan Triplett
East Lansing City Council

Melissa Weipert
State Representative Terry Brown's Office 
                                                                                                                                                               

Our Privacy Policy

Haven House respects the confidentiality of all residents residing at the shelter. We rarely share client-specific information, and when we do it is under the following guidelines:

• With written permission from the family
• When required by a court order
• When someone is potentially in danger, and the release of information can alleviate the threat
• When we receive a call asking for a specific resident, we will acknowledge that the person is a resident and offer to take a message if they are not here.