Program areas at Star House
Star House operates central Ohio's only drop-in center for youth, ages 14-24, who are experiencing homelessness. Our drop-in center services are provided 24/7, 365 days per year. At our drop-in center, youth are provided access to food, clothing, hygiene items, laundry facilities, showers and a safe place to be. Beyond basic needs, our clinical team provides therapy and case management, and partner agencies provide on-site and community-based access to stabilizing resources, such as housing, transportation, health care, employment, education, addiction services, legal aid, government benefits, id cards and more.
We break down barriers to sustained employment by providing workforce development and transitional employment opportunities with pathways to living wage careers. According to our most recent needs assessment, after accessing Star House for 90 or more days, 75% of our guests obtained employment dispelling a myth that youth experiencing homelessness youth do not want to work. However, the path to sustained employment for many youth experiencing homelessness is too often filled with setbacks, lack of stable housing, transportation and more. To address this issue, we created Star works, our workforce development program that offers transitional, on-site employment and workforce education for young people while they are homeless and pathways to living wage jobs that they can sustain after they are housed.
Star House provides social services at carol stewart village (csv)a neighborhood for young adults, ages 18-24, with on-site programs and services. Csv offers 62 studio apartments with on-site access to transitional jobs, education, health care, mental health and addiction services and social connections through mentorships, peer support and community engagement options. Csv is a collaboration between joint owners columbus metropolitan housing authority (cmha), finance fund and Star House. Thanks to project-based vouchers provided by cmha, residents have the opportunity to live at csv for up to seven years while they acquire the credentials and experience necessary to thrive in long-term housing stability. Csv is part of a national institutes of health study, the home project, facilitated by the Ohio state university, which assesses for the first time the correlation between youth having a home and the prevention of opioid addiction. Residents pay 30% of their gross annual income for affordable rent and utilities and sign a year-long, renewable lease at the village.