What We Do

We believe that everyone deserves a home.

Our Mission

With over 20 years experience, I have watched the housing costs SOAR and corporations not care. I have seen families, the elderly and single people struggle with trying to afford to live. I've watched as corporations would rather evict someone rather than trying to work with them or develop programs or even seek grants or other funding to help their residents. I have watched people on fixed incomes lose their homes because they can't afford a water bill or their furnace goes out. I've seen the homeless and at risk levels rise because of the area housing crisis. I've watched an 80 year old man be BULLIED out of his apartment during the eviction freeze because he didn't know his rights. I have watched as families were evicted from their homes because a landlord wouldn’t accept a housing voucher because they didn’t understand the program and refused to learn thinking it was just too difficult. I have simply decided that enough is enough.

I decided to create NaMi's to help make a difference.

What's in a name? Some of you may know that our grandma, the AMAZING and BEAUTIFUL Waustella Dooley, was and still is loved by so many in our area. She had the cosmetology school in Galesburg and sold it to Carl Sandburg College. She then retired as the director at the college. She always had this cute little beauty shop in the basement of her house. Feeling she was doing God's work because she had the ability to help a person have confidence and take pride in themselves, she also had this AMAZING way of telling a person off and then not realizing it until they were walking away. She was a WONDERFUL little spitfire and she was our Nana. Our mom, Jeanie Wilson-Scholey, was a ball of fire in her own right. Growing up, every child in town was afraid of her wooden, flat-backed hairbrush. Holy cow, did that bad boy sting. You only had to meet it once. She called us home every day, standing on the front porch ringing her cowbell. As a single parent, she did the best she could with what she had. She worked in social services and then spent 35 years working for Spoon River/Bridgeway. Once she started there, she found her home and mental health became a way of life. Before she was FORCED to retire because of a stroke, she was the highest certified W.R.A.P. coordinator in Illinois. Look it up, it's really amazing. To us, she was Mom. To the kiddos in the family, she was Mimi. Hence, Na (Nana) Mi (Mimi)'s Haven. I absolutely did not realize that it correlates with the National Association of Mental Illness, but it sure fits!

NaMi's Haven is a 501(c)(3) safe place. We are raising money to help prevent homelessness. We are advocates for renters to teach renter's rights as well as advocate those rights in court. Ultimately, we are raising funds and applying for grants to create our own neighborhood to fight the crisis and teach landlords and landowners how you can partner with residents and not take advantage of them.

Thank you for taking the time to learn a bit of our story. Together, we can create a brighter tomorrow.

What We’ve Achieved

  • Opening a Secondhand boutique store to help support our mission.

  • Working on partering with Knox County State’s Attorney office to educate renters and landlords to help prevent homelessness.

  • Partnering with our LLC Knox Street Investments to build our first sustainable neighborhood.

  • Partnering with mytinyhome.com to provide safe, clean, sustainable and BEAUTIFUL new homes.