Joy Fellowship Free Methodist Church’s emergency homeless shelter is operational in Jamestown, providing shelter for homeless families and individuals during “Code Blue” nights.

Lead Pastor Dodi McIntyre said that while the shelter’s capacity is typically seven beds, the shelter has enough beds to house nine people.

McIntyre explained that the shelter can house either single homeless individuals or families, but that the church’s insurance will not allow the shelter to house both at the same time. As a result, the church can provide emergency shelter to either individuals or families on any given “Code Blue” night, depending on the need or a first come, first serve basis.

Associate Pastor Mario Angeli added that while single individuals like coming to the shelter, the church’s first priority is providing shelter for homeless families with children.

“Our priority is families, so if we have one or two singles that are here and a family comes in, we relocate the singles,” McIntyre said.

Nevertheless, McIntyre explained that the shelter had at least one situation where it made more sense to relocate a family, rather than relocating all of the single individuals at the shelter. In that particular situation, McIntyre said the church was able to provide the family with a hotel room for the night. Following a night in the hotel room, the family was able to stay at the church’s emergency shelter for a week and a half. McIntyre said the experience with that particular family resulted in an opportunity for the church to work together to help the family in a unique way.

“They have a goal of relocating to Florida,” she said. “They agreed to share their testimony with our Wednesday night group, and they shared what it’s like to be a family living on the streets. It was a very moving time, and by the end of the night, we had all the money needed to buy bus tickets for the whole family to send them to Florida. They presented it as just a goal. They did not ask us in any way for that. It was just on our heart to do that.”

McIntyre said that the church plans on purchasing bus tickets for the family and transferring them from the Joy Fellowship shelter to a shelter in Fort Lauderdale that accepts homeless families.

Currently, the Joy Fellowship emergency shelter is open from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m. During the day, the church encourages the guests to head to the Mental Health Association’s daytime location or the library’s indoor warming location.

Every Wednesday, guests at the Joy Fellowship emergency shelter are invited to stay at the church until 2:00 p.m. McIntyre said the church has a cafe that is open from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The church also has a Bible study and potluck dinner every Wednesday night, which many of the guests have attended.

When the emergency shelter first opened, McIntyre said the church was averaging two or three homeless individuals each night. While Joy Fellowship’s shelter assumed that the opening of the Mental Health Association’s shelter would result in a decrease of guests, McIntyre said the “opposite happened” and the church’s shelter became full.

However, following the recent week and a half stay by a homeless family, McIntyre said many of the shelter’s “regulars” relocated to the Mental Health Association’s shelter and have become comfortable at that location.

“We haven’t had anyone for the past three nights, which has been disappointing to us,” she said. “We’ve just realized this morning, part of the challenge is we make them take all of their things with them when they leave in the morning because we thoroughly clean after they go, and MHA lets them keep their things there. Though there are some folks who say they would rather be here, it’s hard to transport their stuff with them all day long. We’re going to talk about that. We haven’t made the decision on whether we want to reconsider that.”

Ultimately, McIntyre said the Joy Fellowship emergency shelter has enjoyed a “great partnership” with the Mental Health Association’s emergency shelter.

Mayor Eddie Sundquist highlighted the importance of the two emergency shelters, claiming that Joy Fellowship’s shelter and the Mental Health Association’s shelter are the only two emergency shelters in Chautauqua County.

During the course of Joy Fellowship’s shelter operation, McIntyre said the Jamestown Police Department has played an important role in referring many homeless individuals to the shelter. Once a person is referred from the Jamestown Police Department, McIntyre said the shelter has many individuals return and tell their friends to come to the shelter as well.

“We know that there are needs in this area,” McIntyre said. “We see them walk by every day. We are not looking to be in the business of being a full-time shelter. There are people who would move in here if we let them, but that’s just not feasible for us. It’s not what we feel called to.”

Since the church’s homeless shelter opened, McIntyre said there have been two things that have surprised her. First, she said she has been surprised how much “ownership” the guests take of the homeless shelter. McIntyre said that many of the guests have even used their food stamps to donate and provide food for other guests at the shelter.

The second surprise for McIntyre has been the amount of engagement the shelter has had with the family members of homeless guests.

“My heart is broken because a lot of these people are missing from their family,” she said. “When the family hears they might be here, they want to know that they’re safe, they want a connection. I have a mom that checks in every two days, faithfully. She just wants to see if we’ve seen her daughter because she doesn’t know if she’s alive or dead.”

McIntyre said that the shelter has had some form of contact or engagement with the family members of roughly 75% of the shelter’s guests.

As a result of the church’s decision to provide a homeless shelter and the experiences the church has already had, McIntyre said her vision of Jamestown providing a “Dream Center” for individuals in need has been reinforced.

“It has rekindled a passion that I’ve had for a very long time that someday the Lord’s going to do here,” she said.

In addition to the success of Joy Fellowship’s homeless shelter, McIntyre and Angeli said the community’s donations and support have been “overwhelming.”

“At least two or three times a week for the past month since the big article went in most recently, we have received checks in the mail unannounced,” McIntyre said. “Just individuals saying, ‘I saw this in the newspaper and wanted to be part of it.’ It’s been good.”

Angeli said that while the donations are not always “big,” the important thing is that each donation is “from the heart.”

Along with donations from the community, the Joy Fellowship homeless shelter has also experienced an increase in volunteers. McIntyre and Angeli said the shelter has roughly 20 “amazing volunteers” from multiple churches in the community.

“Those volunteers, the warmth that our guests are talking about, all come from them,” McIntyre said. “It’s not us. The volunteers have just been amazing.”

As Joy Fellowship continues to serve homeless individuals and families in the community, both McIntyre and Angeli emphasized the impact the experience has had on them as well as the success the shelter has enjoyed so far.

“We couldn’t have scripted this any better,” Angeli said. “God knows what he’s doing, we don’t. We just try to be obedient and listen. What he tells us to do, we do it.”