NO PLACE LIKE HOME

As family homelessness climbs, the only emergency shelter in Greater Lafayette dedicated to keeping parents and children under one roof is finding its footing again

The first thing you notice, walking into Greater Lafayette’s only emergency shelter for families, is how hard everyone is working to make it not feel like one.

There are pictures on the walls. There are curtains. There is food in the kitchen. There is, now, on Elmwood Avenue in Lafayette, a newly renovated living room with new furniture, a foosball table, an entertainment area, shelves of toys and more. It’s a room that has been deliberately, effortfully made to look like the room in a house where someone lives because they want to, not because they have nowhere else to go.

Across the United States, family homelessness rose nearly 40% in the most recent national count, the highest figure recorded since the Department of Housing and Urban Development began tracking it. In the eight-county region around Greater Lafayette, the one-night tally of people experiencing homelessness jumped from 219 to 304 between 2024 and 2025, a 39% increase in a single year. Of those counted, 46 were part of households with children. The shelter, which has five rooms that can accommodate up to six people each, housed 42 children last year.

“This is a really special day, not because it’s a huge announcement, not because it’s the flashiest thing that’s happening in our community — but because it’s a really meaningful thing,” said Erin R. Easter, Mayor of the City of West Lafayette.

Families typically stay 30 to 90 days, though the shelter extends that when circumstances require it. Through sublet agreements with partner agencies, additional units provide more runway for families working toward permanent housing. Each family is assigned a case manager; a partnership with LTHC Homeless Services runs parallel, focused on securing that housing. Follow-up referrals and check-ins continue after families move out.

“The reality is, there are a lot of families — working families — who hit a rough patch,” said Mikel Berger, president and CEO of Greater Lafayette Commerce. “Costs go up, something unexpected happens and suddenly they need help. That’s where places like the Greater Lafayette Family Shelter step in.”

Even so, the math is unforgiving.

Federal funding for homelessness programs is being cut despite rising demand. The national stock of rental units priced below one $1,000 a month has declined by more than 30% since 2013. Research compiled by the Government Accountability Office found that for every $100 increase in median rent, homelessness rises 9%. Indiana’s minimum wage has not budged in 15 years.

All of it — rising rents, stagnant wages, shrinking supply — converges here, in five rooms that seldom sit empty.

The organization has been filling that gap since 2009, when it launched as Family Promise of Greater Lafayette and relied on rotating church congregations to house families week by week. In 2018, it opened a permanent facility on the Northend Community Center campus, swapping the weekly rotations for a stable address and allowing church volunteers to shift from overnight hosts to weekly meal providers.

It is an organization that has had to fight to exist. Around 2023, it nearly didn’t. By 2024, steadied by new leadership and the community that refused to let it fail, it rebranded to the Greater Lafayette Family Shelter.

“This is my job, this is my field and this is how I live out my faith and this is how I contribute,” Steven Flowers, executive director of Greater Lafayette Family Shelter, said at the unveiling. “But you can contribute a lot more outside the field supporting the shelter.”