Ohio set to receive $204M for homeless
Columbus will be receiving $16.4 million and Franklin County $3.16 million toward affordable housing and services for homeless people, part of a total $204 million in federal money the state of Ohio and its local governments will be receiving overall.
“That’s a good amount,” said Bill Faith, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio. “This is a boost to the normal effort we get from the federal budget.”
The money comes from $5 billion in money from the American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, being distributed through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The city receiving the most in Ohio is Cleveland with $17.7 million. Cincinnati is receiving $9.9 million.
One story shared during Thursday afternoon’s event came from Holocaust survivor Al Miller of Butler County.
He remembered being spit on by classmates who he once called friends, hearing harsh, ugly words from teachers and the growing realization that Germany – the country his family called home for generations – was no longer safe.
“Any lie can become the truth if it is not contradicted,” Miller said.
In many ways Miller’s immediate family was lucky. They escaped Berlin and eventually immigrated to the United States. But in other ways they were not, losing family and friends in the concentration camps and leaving behind a lifetime of possessions from the only country they had ever called home.
His story and many others are part of The Nancy and David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center in Cincinnati.
Dewine said these stories are a way to prevent people from misusing Holocaust imagery and “really disrespecting
our Holocaust survivors.”
Both House Speaker Bob Cupp and Senate President Matt Huffman said they intend to make sure personal stories are part of the Ohio Holocaust & Genocide Memorial & Education Commission’s work.
Created in December, the commission
is tasked with cultivating “knowledge and understanding of one of the most tragic occurrences in the world’s history.”
“The past and the lessons and warnings that it holds for humankind can easily be lost,” Cupp said. “Human memory is a fleeting thing.”