Where We are Going
For more than 20 years, Next Step has been a leader in homeless services in the Fort Smith community. From a single day room for the homeless to a resource center to transitional and permanent homes for veterans, families, and individuals, Next Step has continually responded to the everchanging homeless population in our community.
Today Next Step provides transitional and supportive housing to men, women and children across nine homes as well as individual case management and supportive services to more than 400 individuals per month. Our housing has been purposefully placed in neighborhoods throughout Fort Smith, allowing our residents to live a normal life within a community. We are also the only homeless services organization in the area with a transitional housing contract with the Veterans Administration, allowing us to uniquely serve homeless veterans.
Unsheltered homelessness worsens people’s health and jeopardizes their safety, so we understand the critical nature of meeting a person’s most basic needs of shelter, food and security. Therefore, Next Step is evolving again, and the focus of the organization is shifting more heavily toward supportive housing and helping people get ready for and into transitional and long-term housing.
This will be done through the creation of and move to a bridge housing neighborhood located at I and South 6th Streets.
This new neighborhood has been modeled after successful bridge housing programs across the country. It will become the first step in housing for dozens of homeless in our area who are ready for more than nightly emergency shelter through the use of 30 individual tiny homes.
We will create a safe and secure environment for our residents, and it will include a communal laundry, dining space, classrooms, clothes closet, meeting space for social workers and residents, and office space for staff.
Social workers will continue to work with each resident to seek solutions to their unique situation with direction toward self-sufficiency. Individual case management will continue to include health and medication stabilization, regular nutritional meals, life skills training, job readiness counseling, budgeting, and assistance with affordable housing searches.
The new neighborhood is a lower barrier program than our traditional housing program, and it is not an emergency shelter. Applicants will be seen by appointment only.
Construction is slated to begin soon with completion expected by mid-2027.