Jessie’s House was founded in 1983 as a grassroots response to the growing presence of homelessness in our community. Since then, homelessness has proven to be a persistent social problem, and Jessie’s House has become an established and respected community institution. Here are highlights from the shelter’s history:

• Two concerned citizens, Catherine Bennett and Priscilla Braman (now Priscilla White), were among the first to call for local action to meet the needs of homeless people in Hampshire County. In 1981, Bennett, who was running First Call for Help, a social services hot line in Amherst, and Braman, a student working as an intern at the help line, scraped together enough local financial contributions and drummed up inter-agency support from the professional social services network to produce a persuasive needs assessment of the extent of the homeless problem in the county. They counted more than 200 homeless people and to establish a make-shift emergency shelter called Prospect House in Amherst.
• By the time Prospect House closed for lack of funds, the state had created a first pool of money for shelter development and White, who had moved on to a staff job with the Center for Human Development, wrote a successful grant of roughly $100,000 to launch Jessie’s House in Northampton. Under the umbrella of CHD, White became the first director while Bennett became the new shelter’s full-time housing advocate, working both to assist clients to find permanent housing and to advocate in the community and statewide for more affordable programs and more services to help prevent homelessness.
• Jessie’s House was named for Jessie Benoit, who for many years at her Red Lion Diner on Strong Avenue in Northampton provided hot meals for a pittance, part-time jobs for needy regulars, and friendly encouragement to the homeless and penniless. White first heard of Benoit while she was conducting her county homelessness survey. Local police officers told her the Red Lion was the place to which they regularly referred the homeless and the hungry. Jessie became a part-time staff member at Jessie’s House after bequeathing her diner to her daughter Kathy and continued to work at the shelter until her retirement in 2001. Jessie passed away in 2003 but her legacy of compassion lives on at Jessie’s House.
• Grace House (for homeless addicted women and their children), Family Outreach of Amherst (which grew out of the former Helen Mitchell House for single women and their children), the Single Room Occupancy (SRO) Outreach Program (providing support services to rooming house residents) and the related Transition to Work program all are direct descendents of the community outreach and advocacy efforts that were part of Jessie’s House from the beginning. All of these programs, along with the Not Bread Alone soup kitchen in Amherst and Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Hampshire County, today are jointly overseen as the Hampshire County Programs division of the Center for Human Development.
• As other emergency shelter programs were started to meet the emergency needs of single men and women – among these, the Grove Street Inn and the Hampshire County Interfaith Cot Shelter – Jessie’s House eventually re-focused its mission to serving families only.
• In 1989, Jessie’s House relocated from 82 Bridge Street in Northampton to a facility one-third larger at 143 West Street. This handsome brick duplex had served as a residence for staff doctors at the former Northampton State Hospital.
• In 2005, Jessie’s House traded locations with Grace House and moved to 17 Seelye Street in Amherst. The move was necessitated by a state demand that Grace House double in size in order to remain in operation. The move reduced the number of families that Jessie’s House can serve at one time from eight to six but did not alter our commitment to serving and guiding families towards a future of hope, good health, and safe place to call home.