Our communities have seen dramatic rises in unemployment and homelessness over the past year, leaving our neighbors and their families vulnerable. The YMCA of Central Ohio and our community partners are dedicated to giving hope back to our clients, and we need your help! You can be the difference between sleeping in a shelter or having a home of their own.

Giving hope comes in many different ways, like an apartment down payment, a ticket to travel to family out of town, or the fee to obtain a birth certificate. Join us as we bring our voices together to support a worthy cause.

Oct 19th, 2022, 6:00 pm-7:30 pm 

The Fives, 550 Reach Blvd, Columbus, OH 43215

Enjoy an evening of magic in the stars at A Galaxy of Hope: A Star House event. For more than 15 years, Star House has been doing whatever it takes to lift youth out of homelessness and into a community of hope. As the only drop-in center for youth experiencing homelessness, ages 14-24, in Central Ohio, and the only drop-in center in the nation that hosts continuous, best-practice research, our center is the bridge between the streets and intensive services. In addition, at Carol Stewart Village—a collaboration of joint-owners and operators CMHA, Finance Fund and Star House—we offer 62 studio apartments with on-site access to a wide array of on-site social services.

At the gala, you will learn about the Star House community and the services and programs we provide by participating in interactive, immersive experiences that showcase what we offer at our drop-in center and Carol Stewart Village. Join us in empowering Central Ohio youth to exit homelessness for good. Purchase your ticket below today. 

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 To discuss sponsorship opportunities, contact Brittany Stricklen-Hillyard, bhillyard@starhouse.us.

In 2021 the city of Medicine Hat in Alberta became the first place in Canada to reach functional zero in the category of chronic homelessness. The functional end to chronic homelessness is defined as a city having no more than three individuals at risk of being chronically homeless for more than three consecutive months.

The city, with a population of 63,300, faces a 13 percent poverty rate and an opioid crisis, both of which strongly impact the housing stability of its residents. In 2009 Medicine Hat set out on a mission to end homelessness within its borders. Over the years the city developed a data-driven, housing-first approach – where people experiencing homelessness are provided housing without any preconditions. In this webinar, you will learn how Medicine Hat worked to develop relationships with landlords, strengthen its housing loss prevention efforts, and put housing first.

Presenter:

Jaime Rogers
Manager of the Homeless and Housing Development Department
Medicine Hat Community Housing Society

Jaime Rogers continues to work toward the goal of ending homelessness for all. Since 2009, Jaime has led the implementation and data monitoring of “At Home in Medicine Hat – Our Plan to End Homelessness.” Based on a housing first and systems planning approach, the success of this program has led other communities to implement the Medicine Hat approach. Jaime holds a Master of Social Work from the University of British Columbia and a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Calgary. 

This webinar is to pay what you wish to register. Pay any amount that you would like or nothing at all. Your contribution toward this seminar will be used to find even more amazing guests, cover hosting fees and organize seminars such as this one more frequently. A video of the webinar will be made available to those who register.

The City of Columbus, Grants Management Section would like to invite you to the first public meeting for the 2023 Annual Action Plan to review and discuss proposed programs for Department of Housing and Urban Development grant funds. The meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 18th at 5:30pm, in the garage conference room at 141 N. Front St. Parking is available in the garage, and the conference room is located on the first floor.

This year, we received 37 Community Development Block Grant applications from external agencies and 12 from internal departments, making this the most competitive applicant pool the City has seen for CDBG funding. We are still carefully considering all of these applications and have not made any final selections yet. Projects for the HOPWA, HOME, and ESG grants are also being presented.

Please join us on Tuesday if you are interested in learning about the project proposals we received for 2023 funding. A summary of all project proposals will be available on our website: https://www.columbus.gov/finance/financial-management-group/Grants-Management/. We will be accepting public comments on the proposed projects until October 24th. Comments may be sent to grantsmgmt@columbus.gov.

The Framework for an Equitable COVID-19 Homelessness Response project partners recently issued Immediate and Flexible Crisis Options for Children and Families, to explore and support the expansion of crisis options, paired with strong housing exits, that can be replicated, adapted, and scaled up or down as needs and/or scale of resources change in each community, with the goal that no child sleeps outside.

The webinar will feature presentations by three of the report authors - Barbara Poppe with Tiffany Haynes and Alexis Kramer, along with a panel of representatives from Spotlight Organizations that were selected and are featured in this report – Mahube-Otwa Community Action Partnership (MN), Cuyahoga County (OH) Office of Homeless Services, and Mother Nation Seattle (WA).

The panel will be moderated by Joe Savage, U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness and Tabitha Blackwell, Funders Together to End Homelessness.

The National Homelessness Law Center is excited to share its newest report on the criminalization of homelessness: Housing Not Handcuffs 2021 – State Law Supplement. While the Law Center has tracked close to 200 cities for their laws criminalizing homelessness, finding dramatic increases over the past decade, we previously had not tracked statewide laws that perform the same function. This supplement to our last Housing Not Handcuffs 2019 report fills in that gap, finding that 48 out of 50 states & DC have some form of law criminalizing homelessness at the state level. To hear more about the experience of people with criminalization, the findings of the report, concerning trends, and exciting efforts to repeal state laws please join us:

Wednesday, December 1, 2021
2-3 ET/1-2 CT/12-1 MT/11-12 PT

Confirmed speakers include:
Rajan Bal, report lead author, formerly with the National Homelessness Law Center, now at Children’s Law Center
Delaware State Rep. Eric Morrison, (RD-27)

Other speakers to be announced.

Please join Starry Internet and Huckleberry House at Land-Grant Brewing Company on Wednesday, October 20th from 5-10pm ET to enjoy some beverages, and raise funds for the Huckleberry House!

As a mission driven non-profit, Huckleberry House is committed to helping young people and their families find ways to improve even the most difficult situations. Huckleberry House provides safe, stable housing for at-risk youth.

Starry Internet and Land-Grant will be donating a percentage of beverage sales to Huckleberry House, so make sure to come by and drink up (responsibly)!

Huckleberry House is also accepting the following donations at the event (all items need to be new/unopened):
- Any toiletry item
- Deodorant
- Bar soap
- Toothpaste
- Toothbrushes
- Wet Wipes
- Ethnic hair products
- New Hats/Gloves

Bring in an item to donate and receive a FREE drink on Starry Internet!

Date: Wednesday, October 20th, 2021
Time: 5:00pm-10:00pm ET

Interested in Starry Internet? You can pre-order their service and lock in 3 months of free internet. Go to Starry.com/LandGrant to see if your address is covered.

Please join us for a virtual event about affordable housing for people with very low income, especially those who are homeless.

About this event

Columbus faces a serious challenge with developing affordable housing and providing rent subsidy for people with very low income. Most of the affordable housing in development now doesn't work for people with very low income. The Coalition is proposing a 3% set-aside of new housing units for people who experience homelessness for any project that receives tax abatement. What other ideas do you have to share about how to develop and sustain affordable housing?

Individuals with a co-occurring disorder are those diagnosed with both a substance use disorder and a mental health disorder. Co-occurring disorders can be difficult to diagnose and/or treat, and meeting the needs of individuals with a co-occurring disorder in the homeless and housing system can be even more challenging. Join this webinar to hear how providers from around the state in urban and rural communities have leveraged resources and services, and utilized harm reduction practices to assist with housing and housing retention.

For 36 years, we’ve gathered during lunch to honor a select group of Columbus women who have made extraordinary contributions to their families, workplaces, and communities. This year’s Women of Achievement event will take place virtually on Wednesday, June 23, 2021 from 12-1 pm.

PURCHASE VIRTUAL PASSES

A panel event to discuss housing and homelessness in the United States on April 30, 2021, from 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM with audience Q&A.

About this Event

The AEI Executive Council at Rutgers University is hosting a panel event about housing and homelessness in the United States on April 30, 2021, from 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM. Our esteemed speakers will first answer questions from our student moderator on the topic. After the moderated Q&A, audience members will have an opportunity to ask their questions to the panel.

Our panelists:

• Barbara Poppe — Founder and Principal, Barbara Poppe and Associates; Former Executive Director of US Interagency Council on Homelessness

• Robert Robinson — Housing Rights Activist; Leader of the Take Back the Land Movement

• Jorge Soto — Associate Vice President of Public Policy & Advocacy, National Fair Housing Alliance

• Eric Tars — Legal Director, National Homelessness Law Center

Join a virtual town hall discussion to learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine. Hear from professionals who work with people facing homelessness about why they made the choice to get vaccinated, and their experience with the vaccine process.

Columbus Coalition for the Homeless is pleased to offer this educational webinar about Racism and Homelessness. The 90-minute course explores how historical and modern systemic racism influences homelessness for Black and African American citizens and how people can change patterns of racism and discrimination. This program is available at no cost to participants thanks to grant funding from The Columbus Foundation and technical support and assistance from COHHIO.

In September 2020, Invisible People surveyed more than 2,500 U.S. residents in 16 cities to identify public attitudes about homelessness and measure support for common policy recommendations. You can find
the research report here: http://invisiblepeople.tv/2020research/ ​​​​​​​

​​​​​​​Join us for an interactive review of the research and discussion on homelessness messaging to influence policy change.​​​​​​​

Even before the COVID pandemic, nearly 60,000 New Yorkers – 40 percent of them children – slept in city-run shelters and more than half of the city’s residents were rent-burdened, paying more than a third of their income for housing. In This Is All I Got, author Lauren Sandler makes these issues personal by following Camila, a young, homeless single mother for a year as she tried to find stability and shelter in New York City.

Join veteran journalist Katherine Seligman, in conversation with United Way’s Senior Vice President of Community Impact Michael Wilkos, to learn more about her riveting debut novel, At The Edge of the Haight.  The book won the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction for its empathetic and uncompromising depiction of one of the most urgent issues facing society today: the surge in homelessness amid the rising tide of urban wealth, privilege, and inequity. 

United Way of Central Ohio, the Community Shelter Board, and Lutheran Social Services are Community Partners for this important Gramercy Books discussion.

Registration is on Eventbrite where you will receive login information and full instructions close to the event. A general admission ticket to access the event is $5; a ticket that includes At the Edge of the Haight (available any time after its January 19th publication date) waives the admission fee and is $29. Registration closes at 5:00 pm on the day of the event.

“To read At the Edge of the Haight is to live inside the everyday terror and longings of a world that most of us manage not to see, even if we walk past it on sidewalks every day,” says Barbara Kingsolver, who established the Bellwether Prize. “As a time when more Americans than ever find themselves on the edge of homelessness, this book couldn’t be timelier.”

In San Francisco, where the unhoused sleep near apartments charging astronomical rents, 20-year-old Maddy Donaldo finds her way to Haight Ashbury, long a haven for young travelers, drifters and seekers. She lives with her makeshift family of fellow homeless citizens in the hidden spaces of Golden Gate Park. The delicate balance of her life, where she knows who to trust, is upended when she witnesses the killing of a young homeless boy. Suddenly, Maddy is the unwilling focus of attention—from the police, from the boy’s parents, and from the killer. When she feels pressured to reveal details about her own past and the family from which she ran away, she must decide the best course of action: to stay lost or be found. Against the backdrop of a radically changing San Francisco, a city which embraces a booming tech economy while struggling to maintain its culture of tolerance, At the Edge of the Haight follows the lives of those who depend on makeshift homes and communities.

Katherine Seligman has lived in the Haight for decades and reported on social issues, homelessness, mental health, and urban life for both the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner. Along with serving as a correspondent at USA Today, her work has appeared in Redbook, Life, Money, California Magazine, the anthology Fresh Takes and elsewhere.

Michael Wilkos' expertise is in community revitalization. His team at United Way of Central Ohio develops effective strategies to improve our community and invests in programs that carry out these strategies.

At the Edge of the Haight (Hardcover)

By Katherine Seligman

$26.95

COVID-19 Vaccination for People Experiencing Homelessness 
Tuesday, January 19
2-3 p.m. ET 

CDC staff will provide the most recent updates about COVID-19 vaccination for people experiencing homelessness. The webinar will cover COVID-19 vaccine basics​, safety​, the prioritization of persons experiencing homelessness for COVID-19 vaccination, special considerations for the vaccination of this population, and an example strategy from the Minnesota​ Department of Health.

Presenters: 

• Emily Mosites, PhD, MPH: Homelessness Unit, CDC Community Interventions and Critical Populations Task Force

• Nathan Furukawa, MD, MPH: Disproportionately Affected Adults Populations Team, CDC Vaccine Task Force

• Blair Harrison, MPH: Minnesota Department of Health

This one hour webinar is intended to provide information about COVID-19 vaccination for people experiencing homelessness. The webinar will consist of a presentation from CDC COVID-19 response and a state health department followed by a Q&A session.

The National Housing Law Project is excited to announce a new series of discussions and listening sessions for Housing Justice Network members to share feedback on NHLP's public policy priorities and to offer challenges from the field that may have federal solutions.

Our first discussion is about the presidential transition. Please check out NHLP's recommendations to the incoming administration.

Noëlle Porter, NHLP’s director of government affairs, will present federal policy advocacy opportunities in the important context of the Biden-Harris transition. She will share how the Housing Justice Network has informed NHLP’s advocacy to date, and how we would like to open the dialogue further.

Natalie Maxwell, director of advocacy and litigation at Three Rivers Legal Services, Inc. in Gainesville, FL, will discuss the role of legal services attorneys in helping frame the national conversation around tenants' rights and the need for affordable housing.

Both Porter and Maxwell will answer questions about how to get more involved and how to directly or indirectly engage federal officials. Deborah Thrope will moderate this discussion. 

Presenters:

·    Noëlle Porter, Director of Government Affairs, National Housing Law Project

Natalie Maxwell, Director of Advocacy and Litigation, Three Rivers Legal Services, Inc.

This webinar will discuss the housing rights of domestic violence survivors during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Localities have reported increases in domestic violence during shelter-in-place orders, and, as always, housing stability remains crucial for survivors needing safety.

To prevent the spread of COVID-19, states, localities, and the federal government have taken steps to protect renters from eviction in order to help slow COVID-19 transmissions. However, these actions have thus far not forgiven rent owed, leaving renters with potentially large amounts of back-rent.

This webinar will cover: (1) how survivors living in federally assisted housing can continue exercising Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) housing protections during COVID-19; (2) what COVID-19 eviction protections are in place; and (3) best practices for advocates working with survivors regarding payment of rent during the pandemic.

Panelists will leave time for Q&A.

The 2020 Election has changed the political landscape for housing and homelessness advocates at the federal, state, and local levels. There will be new opportunities to move us toward the human right to housing and greater equity across race, gender, and ability lines. But there will also be places we will need to defend against policies that will take us further from the goal of housing justice. Join us Thursday, November 19th at 2pm, to hear from a diverse panel of experts on what advocates should be on the lookout for in 2021, and how you can get engaged! This webinar will feature: •Rep. Maxine Waters (CA-43), Chair, House Financial Services Committee (invited) •Sarah Fox, Director of Advocacy and Community Impact, Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness •Jane Nguyen, Co-Founder, KTown for All •Eric Tars, Legal Director, National Homelessness Law Center

Make a difference AND have fun with Maskquerade

FOR THIS VIRTUAL FUNDRAISING EXPERIENCE, WE’RE MOVING FROM FACE MASKS TO EYE MASKS TO HAVE A BALL TOGETHER AND RAISE MONEY TO PROTECT OUR MOST VULNERABLE NEIGHBORS.

Community Shelter Board and our network of partners are on the front lines of the pandemic to keep people safe and alive. We need your support now more than ever.

Let’s have a virtual ball together while raising money to help everyone have a stable home – something that’s more important than ever before.

One of the most exciting virtual events of the year, Maskquerade will provide the dress-up fun you’ve been missing without having to leave the comfort of your home! For singles, couples or besties in your quarantine pod, Maskquerade offers a unique experience for both introverts and extroverts alike! Get your eye masks ready and enjoy a fun evening in, while making an incredible impact. 

Event night includes:

*Local doorstep delivery or pickup  of experiential Cheers boxes filled with gourmet charcuterie and hors d'oeuvres, a seasonal mixology kit including commemorative event glassware and other fun goodies specially curated for this impactful evening. Need something to keep the kiddos entertained while you sip and dine? We've got you covered there as well. Cheers!

*A live program featuring The Maskquerade Singer! Local celebrity guests, masked in costumes, will each be performing throughout the night. With their identities concealed, can you guess who the Maskquerade singers are?

*An interactive mixology experience, entertainment, inspiring stories, exciting live auction opportunities and CSB’s mission moment – all through a platform that allows you to sit back, relax and enjoy the night! Magic!

Our Mission

Community Shelter Board leads a coordinated effort to make sure everyone has a place to call home. We are the collective impact organization driving strategy, accountability, collaboration, and resources to achieve the best outcomes for people facing homelessness in Columbus and Franklin County. We assure that homeless and housing service providers in Franklin County work as a system rather than as fragmented programs. Our system of care served more than 15,000 people last year, including over 2,200 children, with homelessness prevention, emergency shelter, street outreach, rapid rehousing, and permanent supportive housing programs.

Infusing Harm Reduction in your homeless and housing program is vital for individuals with a Substance Use Disorder, this is especially crucial during a pandemic. In this webinar, national experts will define and provide examples of harm reduction, understand the spectrum of paths for treatment and/or recovery, Identify Harm Reduction resources, build tools for management of substance use disorders in non-congregate shelter, isolation, and quarantine sites and much more.

In the third part of this 3-part series attendees will learn about: Beyond Disability – Retirement, Spouse/Survivor and Medicare for SOAR: Quick overview of Retirement/Spousal benefit eligibility, Enrollment periods for Part A/B Medicare, Review of SSI tie-in with Medicaid and Conditional Part A Applications for JFS QMB.

Hear from the BoSCoC regarding the CDC Eviction Moratorium and Homelessness Assistance.  On September 4th, the CDC issued an Order for a temporary eviction moratorium that applies to all jurisdictions and all landlords and residential property owners. Tenants who meet the eligibility criteria and who are facing eviction because of non-payment of rent may be able to use the moratorium to avoid eviction and, potentially, homelessness. In this webinar, presenters will the connection between the moratorium and homeless assistance projects, focusing on how the moratorium impacts program eligibility and provision of housing assistance.

With a looming eviction crisis, a pandemic, and the infusion of new resources, ensuring the utilization of best practices is key to optimizing assistance during this unprecedented time. In the second webinar of the Rehousing Strategy series, COHHIO will discuss best practices in Rapid Rehousing (RRH) to ensure programs demonstrate equity, efficacy, waiver utilization, and a full understanding of ESG CV waivers, requirements, and new opportunities. We will also learn about on-the-ground RRH strategies in Ohio.