Plans for homeless services starting with blank slate

The Cincinnati/Hamilton County Continuum of Care for the Homeless (CoC) will host a community forum from 6 PM to 8 PM at the Health Foundation of Cincinnati to gather ideas regarding current shelter facilities and services for homeless individuals.

The "Homelessness to Homes" initiative is a response to a Cincinnati City Council ordinance seeking "to ensure that single homeless men and women will have access to shelter facilities that are appropriate, safe and that will provide comprehensive services necessary for homeless individuals to obtain and maintain housing", which passed unanimously on October 8.

Kevin Finn, executive director of CoC, says that even though the current system of providing shelter and services to homeless individuals is strong, it's not the system they would create from the ground up.

"The city has given us the opportunity to undertake a process through which we will use a blank slate approach to design a system that is ideal to meet the needs of Cincinnati’s population of homeless individuals, including identifying where and how additional resources could be used to most effectively to move people permanently out of homelessness, which is of course the goal," he says.

A steering committee has been assembled with representatives from public and private human service agencies, the faith community, and business leaders.

Comprehensive recommendations are due to be presented before Cincinnati's council by March 31.

Finn says that CoC has always believed that the planning of homeless services should be done in an open and inclusive community process, and citizens who register at the event will have up to two minutes to speak.

"Development of this new comprehensive plan is only just beginning, so people will not be able to ask questions about it, as it does not yet exist," Finn says.  "However, I will be describing the job at hand as outlined in the ordinance, and anyone is welcome to come give input on what the plan should include."

Writer: Kevin LeMaster
Source: Kevin Finn, executive director, Cincinnati/Hamilton County Continuum of Care, Inc.