Michiana Five for the Homeless reaches out to those without shelter, extending friendship, trust and kindness through the simple act of providing necessities to survive the streets. This first small step helps our volunteers build a relationship with our homeless neighbors, allowing us the chance to provide further assistance, with the ultimate goal of finding a home for everyone who wants one.

In 2023, as the pandemic lingers but people try to adjust to the new normal of combining basic safety with resuming activities, Michiana Five is doing the same.
We resumed our distribution at Our Lady of the Road in late 2021, and never stopped bringing items to weather amnesty, even in 2020 when we left the items outside the door for staff there to distribute.

In 2023, we will resume distributions at Guidance Ministries in Elkhart, and look for a suitable place in Goshen. We are establishing a new partnership with the Mishawaka Food Pantry to combine resources to help the homeless there. Michiana Five continues to work closely with Motels4Now, the low barrier shelter in South Bend, by referring people there, and have forged a closer working relationship with the local Veterans Administration outreach worker, helping more of our homeless veterans than before. In 2022 we added two new board members (see their information on that tab) and together with the existing board, they will be tackling the major projects of sustainable funding and a new location. Hopefully by the end of the year we will have a new home!

COVID protocols: Michiana Five does require volunteers to wear masks at any large distributions or if riding in a vehicle with another volunteer or client.