Our Mission
The Siena Francis House welcomes, shelters and empowers individuals experiencing homelessness to navigate their path to housing.
Our History
The Siena Francis House is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization, founded in 1975 as an emergency overnight shelter for women at 19th and Burt Street in Omaha, Nebraska. A couple of years later, the organization added an emergency overnight shelter for men – along with a dining room and kitchen – at 19th and Cuming Street.
In 1994, the Siena Francis House consolidated our women’s shelter and our men’s shelters, under one roof, at 1702 Nicholas Street. It was at about this same time frame that the Siena Francis House began operating our in-house, residential addiction recovery program, since re-named our “Miracles Addiction Treatment & Recovery Program”, which includes transitional housing.
Due to the overwhelming increases in homeless individuals requesting services, in 2005, the Siena Francis House opened a facility addition known as our Baright Shelter, across the street (east) from our main facility. The Baright Shelter, located at 1111 North 17th Street, housed our men’s emergency overnight shelter, kitchen, pantry, dining room, clinic space, shipping and receiving dock and storage areas.
In late 2012 and early 2013, the Siena Francis House added 48 units of Permanent Supportive Housing for chronically homeless and disabled individuals. These apartments were designed to better serve individuals experiencing homelessness, who are in need of housing and supportive assistance, in order to maintain that housing. This phase included the construction of two Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) apartment facilities and a Services Center. The two Permanent Supportive Housing facilities each contain 24 efficiency apartment units (48 total units). Each apartment houses a formerly homeless man or woman who has a disabling condition which was a variable in his or her homelessness. The Siena Francis House’s Permanent Supportive Housing program provides co-located support services to these once-homeless tenants. Individuals under lease in this program work with a case manager to maintain stable housing. These apartment facilities, located on the west edge of our campus, complement our emergency overnight shelters, as well as the transitional housing we currently provide as part of our Miracles Program. The Services Center is located adjacent to the Permanent Supportive Housing apartments. This facility contains a reception area, offices for staff, classrooms and meeting rooms.
In December 2019, Siena Francis House opened a new 43,000 square foot facility to provide emergency shelter to up to 100 women and 350 men, nightly. The facility also has a commercial grade kitchen and dining room, a centralized clothing room for providing material assistance to guests, an easy access loading dock for in-kind donations, a heat room for sanitation purposes, and centrally-located service offices for case managers, shelter staff and community partners to assist guests in developing their housing plans.
Shortly after Siena Francis House moved our homeless services operations into this new emergency shelter facility in December 2019, renovation work began on the former Baright Shelter, creating residential, programmatic and administrative space, to serve as the new home of our Miracles Addiction Treatment & Recovery Program. We anticipate moving both clients and staff into this newly-renovated facility in November 2020.
