Our Mission

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MI Just Cause is committed to serving chronically disenfranchised men in the City of Lansing. Our target demographic is young men aging out of foster care, those on parole or probation for non-violent offenses, and the habitually homeless. We will provide all basic needs required for day-to-day living (housing, food, clothing, personal needs items, etc) in a clean and safe facility, as well as mentorship and employment and housing services. Spiritual guidance and bible studies will also be offered. We will work closely with other area organizations to refer out mental health assistance. Our goal is to equip these men with everything they need to get back on their feet and stay there. 

We will offer the following services:

Transitional Housing

• Includes  food, personal needs items and clothing

Employment Training

• Job seeking skills
• Job preparedness training.
• Resume writing
• Skills assessments 
• Career goals paradigms

Life Skills

• Mentorship programs
• Educational opportunities
• Conflict mitigation strategies for successful outcomes in relationships, work and other encounters
• Personal and family independence goals

Spiritual Counseling

• More than 23,000 children will age out of the US foster care system every year. 
• After reaching the age of 18, 20% of the children who were in foster care will become instantly homeless. 
• Only 1 out of every 2 foster kids who age out of the system will have some form of gainful employment by the age of 24. 
• There is less than a 3% chance for children who have aged out of foster care to earn a college degree at any point in their life.

Excerpt taken from https://nfyi.org/51-useful-aging-out-of-foster-care-statistics-social-race-media/

• Over 10,000 ex-prisoners are released from America’s state and federal prisons every week and arrive on the doorsteps of our nation's communities. 
• More than 650,000 ex-offenders are released from prison every year, and studies show that approximately two-thirds will likely be rearrested within three years of release. 
• For the communities to which most former prisoners return (communities which are often impoverished and disenfranchised neighborhoods with few social supports and persistently high crime rates), the release of ex-offenders represents a variety of challenges.  

What can be done to help people who are released from prison keep from being rearrested? 

• With no job, no money, and no place to live, returnees often find themselves facing the same pressures and temptations that landed them in prison in the first place. 
• Assisting ex-prisoners in finding and keeping employment, identifying transitional housing, and receiving mentoring are three key elements of successful re-entry into our communities.

Excerpt taken from https://www.justice.gov/archive/fbci/progmenu_reentry.html

Chronic homelessness is used to describe people who have experienced homelessness for at least a year — or repeatedly — while struggling with a disabling condition such as a serious mental illness, substance use disorder, or physical disability.

How Many People Experience Chronic Homelessness? 

• On a single night in January 2020 there were 110,528 homeless individuals with chronic patterns of homelessness. 
• That is 27 percent of the total population of homeless individuals. 
• 66 percent of chronically homeless individuals were living on the street, in a car, park, or other location not meant for human habitation. 

What Causes Chronic Homelessness? 

• People experiencing chronic homelessness typically have complex and long-term health conditions, such as mental illness, substance use disorders, physical disabilities, or other medical conditions. 
• Once they become homeless — regardless of what immediately caused them to lose their housing — it is difficult for them to get back into housing and they can face long or repeated episodes of homelessness.  

Ending Chronic Homelessness 

• Permanent supportive housing, which pairs a housing subsidy with case management and supportive services, is a proven solution to chronic homelessness. 
• It has been shown to not only help people experiencing chronic homelessness achieve long-term housing stability, but also improve their health and well-being. 
• Permanent supportive housing has also been shown to lower public costs associated with the use of crisis services such as shelters, hospitals, jails, and prisons.  

Excerpt from https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/who-experiences-homelessness/chronically-homeless/