Emergency shelter season begins at St. John’s Ministries

GREEN BAY – With temperatures quickly starting to drop across Northeast Wisconsin, St. John’s Ministries officially opened its doors for the 2025-26 emergency shelter season last weekend, offering a warm, safe and welcoming place for those experiencing homelessness, including those who may not qualify for other area shelters.

“We are a low-barrier shelter, so we exist as a place for people to go who have few other options,” said Jesse Brunette, executive director of St. John’s Ministries. “That means that we serve people that are struggling with a variety of different things like drug or alcohol addiction or mental health concerns… A shelter like us, being a low-barrier, last-resort shelter, we’re always going to be needed in moments like this.”

After completing the intake process, adults experiencing homelessness can find overnight shelter, connection and community at St. John’s nightly.

“The doors open at five o’clock and we go through a standard intake process to just ask basic demographic questions and things to determining eligibility, but because we’re a low-barrier shelter, we try to remove the barrier so that people can access our services and we are set up to shelter people who maybe don’t qualify for other shelters or have other housing options,” Brunette said.

“They go through an intake process and then go through our line where we orientate them to our services and welcome them in. They come in and every night of shelter season we provide a warm meal given to them by our volunteers… Our services are available for guests who need us during their experience of homelessness.”

St. John’s Ministries operates two emergency shelters — one for men and one for women — but the services they offer don’t end when the emergency shelter season ends on April 30

“Many people may not realize that we’re a year-round provider of shelter services in some capacity…” Brunette said. “We have two daytime resource centers (Micah Center and Wellspring) that operate year-round. People can come in and connect with case management. We have a talented case management team that is very dedicated to helping people transition into long-term housing. This year, we have a peer support specialist. That’s a person that is working with others through their lived experience with drug, alcohol or mental health issues, so that’s new for us. We also have a program coordinator now, so we’re going to the homes of former guests — people who were once guests and now housed — in hopes that they don’t fall back into homelessness.

They’re still vulnerable to that, so now we’re doing home visits to make sure that people have the things that they need once they transition out of homelessness.”

Brunette said that St. John’s Ministries’ programs are based on a strong emphasis on building relationships with the people being served.

“It’s all about relationships,” Brunette said. “So much of what we do is based on building relationships and maintaining relationships, because when you have a relationship with someone, then they’re more likely to accept the help or guidance that you provide them.”

The issue of homelessness, Brunette said, is often more complex than many people realize.

“I just wish people would understand how deep this issue is,” Brunette said. “They might see just the surface issue — a person living on the streets or a person who is unhoused. But when you understand the years and years of trauma that may have accumulated for many of our guests… Or something like drug or alcohol addiction, if it was a matter of just quitting, a lot of people just want to quit. But there’s so much of that issue that is deeply rooted within people.”

But taking the time to build relationships and understand what factors may be contributing to an individual’s experience allows St. John’s Ministries to better address the root issues.

When you see someone experiencing homelessness on the street, maybe the natural thought is, ‘Well, just go to a treatment center or go reconcile with family.” If you don’t know that person when you provide those sorts of advice or recommendations, it’s not going to go anywhere. You have to get to know people and the issues, because the issues around homelessness are so deep-rooted in many of our guests… Building those relationships is the core of what we do at St. John’s. So much of the issue of homelessness is extremely complex and we have to understand a person’s full circumstance before we can help them move on in life.”

Last season, 646 individuals were served by St. John’s for a total of more than 25,200 nights of shelter, marking a 15% increase from the previous year — a trend that Brunette said he expects to see continue.

“I anticipate equal numbers, if not more numbers,” he said. “It’s hard to predict and every shelter season is unique, but given the trends throughout the country and with some of the challenges people have in finding affordable housing and all the other social factors around the issue of homelessness, I don’t anticipate those numbers going down.”

This season, St. John’s Ministries’ Women’s Shelter has expanded its capacity to serve 70 guests each night — up 20% from the previously permitted 58-guest capacity.

And looking to the future, St. John’s is preparing to offer a program-based shelter for women outside of the emergency shelter season with increased safety, privacy and program opportunities to better meet the needs of women experiencing homelessness in Brown County.

Those looking to help St. John’s Ministries in its mission have multiple ways to offer assistance, whether that be by joining the staff or donating time, money or needed items.

“We’re always looking for seasonal staff to help us get through the shelter season…” Brunette said. “Volunteer to provide hospitality, to sort clothing, to serve a meal at the shelter… We’re a community-supported nonprofit so everything that we’re able to provide has been provided to us by the community that supports us.”

More information on St. John’s Ministries can be found at stjohnsgreenbay.org.