About Us

The mission of the Fort Wayne Media Collaborative is to bring together Fort Wayne’s media resources to address complex community challenges by creating and disseminating solid, evidence-based journalism. We envision transforming the nature of local journalism in Fort Wayne and giving our community greater access to solutions-oriented news that encourages civic engagement.

FORT WAYNE CITY GOVERNMENT CANDIDATES DEBATE THE QUALITY OF LIFE

FORT WAYNE CITY GOVERNMENT CANDIDATES DEBATE THE QUALITY OF LIFE

by | Oct 31, 2023

Fort Wayne Media CollaborativeWhat makes a neighborhood healthy? Did Fort Wayne’s glorious, new, sparkly downtowndeprive city neighborhoods of crucial funding they need for amenities of their own? Does the city’s 50-year-old policing system that divides Fort Wayne into quadrants need a reboot? Eleven candidates for city offices debated these issues and more at the Allen County PublicLibrary on Oct. 7 during a forum sponsored by the Fort Wayne Media Collaborative. The collaborative ismade up of seven area news organizations that have banded together to focus on the affordable housingcrisis in Fort Wayne and northeast Indiana and the development of healthy city neighborhoods. ElectionDay is Tuesday, Nov. 7. Healthy NeighborhoodsAsked for a definition of a healthy neighborhood, all 11...

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INDY NONPROFIT PROVIDES SOLUTION TO CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS FOR STRUGGLING RESIDENTS

INDY NONPROFIT PROVIDES SOLUTION TO CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS FOR STRUGGLING RESIDENTS

by , | Aug 28, 2023

“THE SOLUTION TO HOMELESSNESS IS HOUSING.” INDIANAPOLIS - Across the board, activists, social workers, academics, and others grappling with the national housing crisis agree that helping people experiencing homelessness find permanent housing is enormously challenging. But beginning in the early 1990s, communities across the country embraced a philosophy that came to be known as “Housing First,” and began providing permanent “supportive” housing with few or no barriers to entrance, while helping clients solve the complex problems that contributed to their homeless status in the first place. In 1993, Indianapolis banker Frank Hagaman recognized that the city was filled with abandoned buildings, while thousands of residents desperately needed safe, affordable housing.  Drawing on his...

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Is ‘Housing First’ Worth the Cost to House the Homeless?

Is ‘Housing First’ Worth the Cost to House the Homeless?

by | Jul 13, 2023

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of stories that explores the development of the Housing First philosophy and its use in communities around the U.S. and Europe. Housing First programs provide "permanent supportive housing" for people who experience chronic homelessness. This article was developed in partnership with Input Fort Wayne. Many people who experience homelessness choose to sleep on the streets of Fort Wayne rather than leave their beloved pets behind to enter a shelter. Others can’t stand the idea of being separated from a spouse or a partner who is not allowed to stay there.  Still others who struggle with addiction find they can’t honor a promise to stay drug and alcohol free in a shelter.   Those restrictions are among dozens of barriers to...

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City of Fort Wayne Announces New Plan to Combat Homelessness

City of Fort Wayne Announces New Plan to Combat Homelessness

by | Mar 16, 2023

Even before the pandemic closed businesses, schools, and scattered millions of Americans to work from home in early 2020, lower income homeowners and renters everywhere were staring down a housing crisis that threatened their ability to put a roof over the heads of their loved ones. But as the country has started to return to normal, the crisis has remained, as many face rising rental costs and the increasing risk of homelessness. In an effort to address Fort Wayne’s homelessness problem, city officials in February released its Everyone Home comprehensive plan. The plan calls for an increase in affordable housing stock throughout the Summit city, and improvements and additions to services provided for homeless or near-homeless residents. It also emphasizes coordination between various...

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City of Fort Wayne to Invest $600,000 in Habitat for Humanity’s Affordable Housing Project

by | Oct 4, 2022

Cecelia Thomas noticed a small crowd of people outside a house under construction at 3009 Warsaw St. Tuesday afternoon as she returned from the grocery, and got excited. “I dropped my food at home, and ran back up here to find out what was going on,” she said. “I still get excited when somebody moves into a house.” While nobody was moving into the unfinished house, Thomas got there in time to watch Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry announce that the city’s Community Development Division has awarded $600,000 in federal funds through the HOME Investment Partnerships program to Habitat for Humanity of Greater Fort Wayne to build six houses in the La Rez, Oxford, and Poplar neighborhoods. “Everyone deserves a safe and affordable place to call home, which is why we are pleased to partner with...

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