Helping Mentally Ill People Experiencing Homelessness Get Off and Stay Off the Streets

(Above) Our client, Boniface, is one of thousands of people we’ve rescued from the streets, placed in housing, and managed ongoing needs for. He was found on a brutally cold winter night, sleeping between two discarded mattresses in life-threatening temperatures. Someone had stolen all of his belongings and ID. He had trouble functioning due to mental illness. Servants Center staff found him during one of our “hikes”. Once we earned his trust, we got him into a subsidized apartment and supported him each step of the way. He’s been off the street and stabilized for many years. To hear more client stories, click here.

OUR MISSION - The Work of Servants Center is Unduplicated

Servants Center is a nonprofit non-denominational faith based organization with the mission to provide high quality, relationship-based street outreach and ongoing support services to mentally ill poor people experiencing homelessness in the Grand Rapids area. We organized in 1991, as a result of our concern about the drift of churches away from direct relationship-based poverty ministry. We work to be ambassadors for Jesus Christ as we carry out the Biblical imperative to help to the poor.

We provide initial and ongoing support with dignity, reflecting Christ’s love. Many great local organizations offer shelter and services to hundreds of homeless people in metro Grand Rapids on any given night. But to receive these services, people must go to these agencies on their own. Servants Center goes out onto the streets, day or night, searching for people sleeping under bridges and underpasses, in abandoned cars and buildings, and in the woods along the Grand River. We are so grateful for the other community partner groups who also now go out to find those in need where they are!

Servants Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity. All donations are tax deductible. To learn how you can help on our Give and Volunteer pages.

  • Show Christ’s love in all that is done

  • Help mentally ill homeless people get off and stay off the streets of west Michigan

  • Accept and pursue the most challenging cases

  • Provide crisis management

  • Provide ongoing support to keep clients stable

  • Serve as legal guardian and/or payee currently for 300 people, as we have for thousands of others since 1992

  • Establish caring relationships with those who are served

  • Educate the public on how to respond to mentally ill poor and homeless people

  • Collaborate with other agencies, ministries, and providers for the best care of the clients

Please Pray

Please pray for our dedicated staff of 12, and the 300 mentally ill previously-homeless people we currently serve as payee or guardian for.