COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — A group that helps those in Columbus with housing insecurity was allotted nearly $15 million Monday to help fund programs for families and people who are pregnant.
Columbus City Council voted to extend its decades-long partnership with the Community Shelter Board, awarding them $14.9 million in contracts to help the board work on multiple projects, including decreasing homelessness for families and pregnant women.
“This is one of those most pressing, collective issues that I believe we need to lock arms with to ensure that these numbers do not continue to grow at this exponential rate,” Councilmember Shayla Favor said.
Columbus’ unhoused population has grown 6.9% in the past year, according to federal data, coming when Ohio residents have faced a nearly 20% increase in rent. With some community advocates saying Columbus is experiencing a housing crisis, the shelter board is one group working to help.
“That number is conservative,” said Shannon Isom, shelter board president and CEO. “But truly the number-one reason is that we need to see more development in affordable housing. We have a low vacancy rate [and a] low amount of affordable housing that is being produced.
“We’re probably going to continue to see that level of increase.”
The shelter board works with a number of partner agencies to help those who lack housing. Isom said the partners do the frontline work. They include:
- Center for Family Safety and Healing
- Community Housing Network
- Equitas Health
- Gladden Community House
- Home for Families
- Homefull
- Huckleberry House
- LSS Faith Mission
- Maryhaven
- Mount Carmel
- National Church Residences
- Netcare Access
- Southeast Healthcare
- Volunteers of America Ohio & Indiana
- YMCA
- YWCA
“The Community Shelter Board is really set up as a unified funding agency,” Isom said. “We’re able to take those dollars and really build out.”
Favor echoed that the mission must be year-round.
“We have been intentional about investing in warming centers, or having an emergency response for those seasonal months of the year where it’s really cold [or] when we get extremely hot weather,” she said.
The shelter said it has served 15,000 people over the past year, focusing on issues such as homelessness prevention, shelter, street outreach, rapid rehousing and permanent supportive housing.
Council President Shannon Hardin said helping the unhoused is not the shelter board’s responsibility alone. He said the city also bears responsibility, and that it will have to go even further than the city of Columbus to fix the issue.