In July 2024, Marie was homeless, staying with a series of friends and relatives while the 27-year-old single mother searched for a stable and safe environment for herself and her 6-year-old daughter. Then a health professional treating her for injuries from a car accident mentioned Justin’s Place.
“I looked them up, and I was like, ‘Oh, wow!’ ” recalled Marie, who preferred not to use her last name. “I thought it was a shelter, but it’s not like that at all.”
Justin’s Place is a Fort Worth organization that for nine years has served single mothers from East Fort Worth with programs to help them develop stable careers, move into permanent market-rate housing, and stop relying on government services. In March, the nonprofit opened The Nest, a residential property off Sycamore School Road that helps single mothers build skills ranging from crafting résumés and managing personal finances to public speaking and earning career skills certificates. Supporting components include mentorship and a supportive community of families led by single mothers.
Although it sounds like a fairly typical social service offering, The Nest is something more — a brand-new, purpose-built facility that takes a long-term, comprehensive approach to empowering single mothers who have lived below the poverty line to achieve independence and self-sufficiency.
To build it, Justin’s Place founder and executive director, Donna Floyd, and colleagues raised $10.5 million from private and public donors, including the City of Fort Worth, Tarrant County, the Sid W. Richardson Foundation, The Fondren Foundation, The Paul E. Andrews Foundation, and the Amon G. Carter Foundation.
Photo By Mark Henricks
On several acres gifted by a donor, Justin’s Place erected seven residential duplexes. The project also includes administrative offices and a community building with a fitness center and classrooms. The first families moved in last March.
The result resembles a well-appointed subdivision for affluent retirees rather than a property for single mothers struggling with poverty. After she applied, was approved, and first laid eyes on where she would be living, Marie said, “I thought I was dreaming.”
Floyd said the sparkling finish of The Nest is intentional.
“There’s such a scarcity mentality,” she said of the mothers they have served. “So, we have always tried to give them the very best and do it consistently.”
The Nest isn’t designed to pamper mothers into self-sufficiency, however. Residents pay rent for their two- to three-bedroom units, at rates set to 30% of their monthly income. They are asked to get jobs and fund a savings account.
A key element consists of developing and executing a life plan to acquire the skills, certifications, and other assets to establish stable careers. The goal is for each mother to consistently earn at least $60,000 per year. There are rules as well, including being a drug-free property, and consequences for nonpayment of rent.
Floyd anticipates that participants will stay at The Nest for two years on average. By then, it is expected they will have viable careers and sufficient earnings to support their families in market-rate housing.
The program can be challenging. Marie said she works two restaurant jobs and will begin training as a patient care technician in September. Other residents are similarly busy, which Marie said can make tapping the community portion of The Nest’s offerings challenging. But the facility’s four-person staff includes a therapist, who assists moms and families with the inner work of escaping poverty. And, as The Nest adds more living units and services like on-site child care, the sense of community will likely grow and strengthen.
Photo By Mark Henricks
Floyd was spurred to create Justin’s Place and The Nest after bringing a boy from Stop Six into her family. Today, the program’s namesake is a college graduate living in Denver and working in marketing. But when she met him in 2015, Justin was a Paschal High School sophomore playing football with her sons and living in challenging circumstances with his single mother. A few years later, Floyd began the work that became Justin’s Place. She said it is still about honoring Justin’s life and what she learned from it.
Floyd, a Baylor graduate and longtime church staff member, said her Christian faith drives her devotion to helping single mothers. Mothers do not have to profess faith to participate. However, Floyd said, “My hope is that God’s love will be shared in this place every day.”
Floyd patterned her operation on The Restoration House in Knoxville, Tennessee. Daniel Watson, who co-founded The Restoration House 20 years ago, said that he has consulted a number of programs and that The Nest most closely resembles his own.
“When [incoming CEO] Lori Haskell … and I were there a couple of months ago walking around The Nest and at their fundraising event, we saw all kinds of things they got directly from us,” Watson said.
Watson said he’s happy to share what he and his team have learned, and Floyd said she’ll be happy if The Nest works as well as The Restoration House. Three-quarters of families that enter eventually graduate from the two-year program, according to Restoration House’s records. Half of the mothers return to school seeking diplomas or professional certifications, and for the last four years, all who did so completed their training, Watson said.
Locally, Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker is a fan. “I wholeheartedly believe the way we care for mothers and children in Fort Worth is a true measure of our city’s success,” she said in a statement to the Weekly. “Justin’s Place and The Nest continue to meet critical needs, providing single moms and their kids with a strong foundation of support and opportunity. Their work will transform lives for generations, and I’m deeply grateful for the lasting impact Donna and her team are making in our community.”
Floyd is already expanding to help more families. The Nest has nine families in the dozen existing units, and Floyd expects 12 more units to come online in September 2026.
The expanded capacity won’t be too much. Floyd said more than 200 families are on the wait list, and referrals arrive steadily from courts, hospitals, child protective services, and other sources. Always, she said, applicants from Stop Six go to the front of the line. “That’s because that’s where Justin came from,” Floyd said.
For Marie, The Nest has already brought a profound change in what she feels entitled to hope for. Before connecting with Justin’s Place and moving into The Nest, she was focused on finding safe, stable housing. Now she’s looking much further and higher.
“My goal for the next two years is to be financially stable, and I’d like to buy a home,” Marie said. “I don’t want it to be for my kid like it was for me.”
