It’s not yet enough, but city is working for the unhoused
Compassion for individuals experiencing homelessness is deeply rooted in Columbus’ DNA.
As a community, we find it unacceptable to see any of our neighbors spending a single day without adequate food and shelter.
Putting this compassion into action is a persistent challenge. I know this firsthand, as YWCA Columbus is one of several community organizations providing direct services to unhoused neighbors. This work is extremely rewarding – but also complicated. YWCA Columbus is an advocate for housing justice. Housing justice means equitable access to homes for all people of our diverse and growing community. Prioritizing building more affordable housing in a mixed-income setting with access to resources, such as food and health care, transportation, in tandem with a healthy and well-funded shelter system will contribute to a thriving Columbus ecosystem.
As Columbus continues to growat an astonishing rate, there will continue to be an increasing need to help our unhoused residents, which was a point the homelessness service sector advocated around last year with our public sector partners.
This year, the City of Columbus provided increased funding for shelter operations and facility improvements, and just recently, the city contributed an additional $2 million to build capacity for nonprofits that address homelessness.
This increased investment is on top of the annual funding to the Community Shelter Board to support homelessness services, including – but not limited to – those offered by YWCA Columbus.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to addressing homelessness. Our system is constantly pursuing new partnerships to create innovative solutions to help meet the changing needs of our residents.
For example, with support from the City of Columbus – to the tune of nearly $5 million – our team has partnered with our peer organizations to develop a new crisis intervention network to assist those in shelter with increased mental health needs. Concurrently, we’ve also worked with Nationwide Insurance to pilot new workforce development services in the family shelter system.
These are just two new services developed by our incredible staff members working within this sector to improve the lives of individuals and families who are without permanent housing. We need to take a similarly collaborative and thoughtful approach in order to assist our neighbors living on the land.
Our data tells us that individuals and families living in outdoor encampments are in need of supportive services, including health care, healthy meals, clean drinking water, clothing, veteran’s benefits, and mental health services.
Our experience has been that the best way to deliver these services is to for the recipients to be housed or in shelter.
This is work I oversaw during the early 2000s, when I worked for the City of Columbus. We always had the best intentions, but looking back, I recognize that we didn’t always get it right.
We continue to learn from our mistakes, but I am pleased that the city is now following the principles of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.
These principles include collaborating with other entities, directly engaging residents toward solutions, and addressing their basic needs, including immediate shelter and eventual pathways to more permanent housing.
This is hard work. If it were easy, previous generations of leaders would have figured it out. But as I look to the future, I am encouraged.
Our collective efforts to aid our unhoused neighbors are not perfect, and they are not enough, but thanks to the commitment of the homelessness services sector and our partners, they are always getting better .
Finally, I would encourage anyone who is in need of rent and housing resources to please visit rentful614.com. For emergency shelter services, please call 614-274-7000.
Christie Angel is president and CEO of YWCA Columbus.