Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless

ADVOCACY AND ORGANIZING: The Coalition membership includes dozens of direct service organizations, faith groups, civic organizations and people experiencing homelessness. Together, we work and organize with people experiencing homelessness or housing instability to address their needs in multiple ways. The SYSTEMIC CAUSE OF HOMELESSNESS is the lack of 40,000 affordable housing units within Hamilton County and the City of Cincinnati. We organized our member organizations and other interested parties to put forward a ballot issue that would result in $40 to $50 million being invested in truly affordable housing every year, giving access to truly affordable housing to between 1,200 and 2,100 additional Cincinnatians every year. Although it did not pass, 25,000 people voted for it. Our support and strength is growing and we will continue to organize until we reach success. We have efforts continually organizing people living in properties having thousands of at-risk affordable homes. In the past several years, these efforts have resulted in more than 1,000 affordable homes being saved, and in empowering the existing strengths of many more residents through collective efforts to force landlords to address unsafe and unhealthy conditions in their properties. To further prevent the loss of affordable housing and resulting homelessness, we are working to create more just eviction processes. At many levels, we ORGANIZE AND ADVOCATE with people experiencing homelessness or without a permanent address with respect to their physical needs, as well as their civil rights. We support the winter shelter and work to make its availability known throughout the winter. A number of our member organizations are shelters which provide emergency shelter and social workers to assist people in finding housing in the midst of our crisis-level affordable housing deficit. We organize to protect the civil liberties of people experiencing homelessness, having, with the assistance of voluntary lawyers, filed a significant federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of local policies that are used to force people without homes, in a city without enough affordable homes, off public land at the threat of arrest. Orders from the judge in our case have been positive as it relates to basic rights and we are now in settlement discussions with the City. Our activities have made significant strides in building a movement to ensure the emergency needs of people experiencing homelessness are met, basic human rights are protected, existing affordable housing is preserved and healthy, and we create local municipal policies that tackle the systemic problem of a lack of affordable housing through a major effort allocate significant local government funds to build new homes affordable to households with low incomes.

STREETVIBES: Streetvibes is an alternative newspaper and part of the international street newspaper movement. Read biweekly by thousands, it is distributed by individuals experiencing homelessness or poverty as a way to earn supplemental income. Streetvibes focuses on homelessness and social justice issues, reporting the often-invisible story of poverty in our community. Streetvibes includes creative writing, poetry, articles, photography and interviews written by people who have experienced or are currently experiencing homelessness. Streetvibes serves an educational function and provides a forum for dialogue for those often left ignored, marginalized and without a voice.

EDUCATION: The Coalition connects more people with its advocacy efforts through education of the general public, community leaders and local officials. Our SPEAKERS BUREAU reaches approximately 5,000 students and adults each year, partnering with individuals who have experienced or are experiencing homelessness to share their stories to put a face on homelessness and raise awareness about those struggling in our community. The CINCINNATI URBAN EXPERIENCE is a 3-7 day immersive alternative break program for high school and college students. The SOCIAL JUSTICE WALKING TOUR travels through the streets, alleys and parks of Over-The-Rhine and clarifies the meaning and direction of decades of neglect and how the priorities of today's investments have caused displacement, loss of affordable housing and homelessness. The Coalition offers several more educational opportunities as well. The Coalition now offers a full online training curriculum regarding homelessness, policy and housing development.

COORDINATION OF SERVICES (MEMBERSHIP): The Homeless Coalition is an organization founded on and driven by our members. Our membership includes our primary constituency - People experiencing homelessness throughout Geater Cincinnati: people residing in shelters and transitional housing, living outside and in places not meant for human habitation, and households who are bouncing from one doubled-up situation to another. We have dozens of direct service provider member organizations which provide services including all forms of shelter, affordable housing development, subsidized housing, supportive housing, street outreach, mental and medical health services, addiction detox and recovery, spiritual care, food and meal provisions, clothing, domestic violence response, services for school children, legal services, housing discrimination prevention and response and more. We facilitate the connection of our many members not only in the areas of advocacy and education, but also in the strategic implementation of services.

MAIL SERVICE FOR PEOPLE WITHOUT AN ADDRESS: The needs of people experiencing homelessness or without a permanent address are greatly increased by the isolation experienced without a mailing address to communicate, or receive communications from employers, potential employers, government agencies and services, as well as family and friends. A major issue is that, without an address, people who are eligible for government assistance, cannot receive it. To meet that need, the Coalition uses its postal address at which any person without a permanent address can receive mail communications and benefits. We receive mail to over 3000 individual names. Our staff sort hundreds of items of mail daily, safely store them and make them available when the addressees come to collect it. Generally, people collect their mail from a staff person in our building. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was not possible to utilize an open lobby. As a result, we set up a window on the front of our building where recipients can pick up their mail. Thus, people without homes, using this service, have been able to continue to receive their mail. Different people receive different important items through our mails, including but not limited to: social security benefits, pension checks, medications, disability benefits, veteran's benefits, health insurance cards, medical reports, child report cards, IDs, birth certificates, notifications about housing applications, letters from family members and children, food stamp cards, packages with tents and other basic items, and much more. We estimate that over $150,000 passes through our mail service each month. These funds are necessary for the survival of the people who have earned them, and subsequently contribute to the local economy. In normal times our building serves as a respite for those who might be outdoors in bad weather, a place to rest for a bit, have conversation, catch up on news and collect mail. We look forward to using our building for this purpose once control of the pandemic makes this possible. In short, our mail service provides otherwise impossible connection to life-sustaining necessities.