LANSING — Two Lansing groups – one providing mental health peer support services, the other, a new homeless shelter – have been squabbling over use of the name “The Nest.”
Frances Kanous is founder and executive director of the Grassroots Groundwork, which has been offering free one-to-one and group mental health peer support services to Greater Lansing residents through its program, The Nest, since 2024.
Shelbi Frayer is president and CEO of The Nest, Lansing’s newest homeless shelter, now days away from opening its doors for people who are unhoused.
After some back and forth between the two groups, it appears they will co-exist, even if the arrangement is less than cozy.
“We’re not changing the name,” Kanous told the State Journal. “We’ve grown this thing from a very small operation. We don’t have any plans to back away from who we are as an organization.”
Kanous said she reached out to Frayer in December, when she found out the McLaren Greater Lansing Foundation was holding a fundraiser for The Nest.
Frayer, Kanous said, was not willing to give up the name.
Frayer said the nonprofit took the proper steps to register its name.
“The Nest Lansing is registered appropriately through the State of Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) and the U.S. Copyright Office,” Frayer said in a statement. “At the time of registration and copyright in September 2025, we were not aware of another organization using the same name, as it was not formally registered.
“We only became aware of the other organization after our legal filings were complete,” Frayer added. “Since then, we have been working diligently on fundraising and preparing our facilities with an eye on our goal to house 56 individuals and families overnight, and provide day center services to hundreds in our community.
“We are one of many organizations in our region committed to helping our neighbors access the support and stability they need, and we look forward to further amplifying this impact.”
Kanous said she’s been worried about the possibility, unlikely as it may be, of any negativity arising from the new homeless shelter tainting the reputation of her own program, which is much smaller, entirely volunteer-run, with an annual budget of less than $10,000.
When asked why she didn’t pursue registration sooner, Kanous said, “We were trying to get legal representation in order. To kind of go back to who we are as an organization, we’re not professionals in this area in starting a business, in starting an organization necessarily. We didn’t want to make any assumptions about what the next best step was.”
Now working with an attorney, Kanous said her main pursuit is to make sure the two efforts going by the same name aren’t confused.
The website www.lansingnest.org provides more information about the Grassroots Groundwork’s mental health peer support services.
More information about the new downtown Lansing homeless shelter at 332 Townsend St. can be found at https://www.thelansingnest.org.
Frayer has said her organization received a loan from a private donor for the $1.3 million purchase of the building previously home to the Michigan Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association. Renovations amounted to $800,000 to $900,000 in improvements.
Operating The Nest will cost about $1.2 million annually
It’s scheduled to open by mid-May, offering 56 beds, prioritizing populations often overlooked by shelter systems, including veterans, single fathers and families with teens. Construction delays pushed the opening date back from May 4, said Allison Raeck, who has been handling The Nest’s public relations.
Contact editor Susan Vela at svela@lsj.com or 248-873-7044. Follow her on Twitter @susanvela.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: What’s in a Nest, err, name? Two Lansing groups squabble over moniker
Reporting by Susan Vela, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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