YWCA
of Greater Cincinnati Selected to Develop and Operate New Emergency Shelter for
Homeless Single Women
Currently, most emergency shelter beds that
are available to serve single women are located at the Drop Inn Center, which
also serves a large number of homeless men in the same facility. The Homeless to
Homes Plan, which was submitted to the City of Cincinnati by the
Cincinnati/Hamilton County Continuum of Care for the Homeless, Inc (CoC, Inc.)
recommends a new separate emergency shelter facility for homeless single women,
as many women are uncomfortable in the same facility with men.
Since the release of the Homeless to Homes
Plan, questions have arisen regarding what agency would be most appropriate to
operate the new Emergency Shelter for Homeless Single Women. Two agencies
expressed strong interest in this project: the Drop Inn Center, which currently
has 42 beds for single women and the YWCA of Greater Cincinnati which has 60
beds in its Domestic Violence Shelter serving both single women and women with
children.
To resolve the question of what agency should
operate the new Emergency Shelter for Homeless Single Women, on June 3, 2010,
representatives from the YWCA, the CoC, Inc., the City of Cincinnati, 3CDC, and
the Board of Directors of the Drop Inn Center agreed to the following: the CoC,
Inc. would issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) to identify the most appropriate
operator for a new Emergency Shelter for Homeless Single Women. It was specified
in the RFP that the provider should have significant experience providing
services to women, have experience with the specific needs of homeless women,
and have the capacity to provide emergency shelter and services for single women
in a women-only facility within the Cincinnati/Hamilton County community. It was
also specified that the proposals would be reviewed by a panel of national
experts on homelessness among women, and the panelist recommendations followed.
Proposals were submitted to the CoC, Inc. at the
end of July, and then reviewed by this panel of experts. After a month of
consideration and question and answer, the review panel unanimously selected the
YWCA of Greater Cincinnati as the most appropriate operator of the new Emergency
Shelter for Homeless Single Women.
As the Homeless to Homes Plan has been accepted
by Cincinnati City Council, and incorporated into the Consolidated Plan
submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, all City
funding and City-allocated HUD funding for providing emergency shelter to
single-women is anticipated to be allocated to the YWCA as the agency designated
through this process.
~Homeless to Homes~
On October 8, 2008, an emergency ordinance
was passed by Cincinnati City Council which mandated that the CoC "address
the inadequacies of the current provision of services for single homeless individuals
in the City of Cincinnati, and to put in place a comprehensive plan to implement
such services." Further , the ordinance states "the plan must ensure
that as a critical segment of the homeless community, single homeless men and women,
will have access to safe, appropriate shelter facilities and that such facilities
will provide comprehensive services necessary for homeless individuals to obtain
and maintain housing." This ordinance, combined with Council's instructions to "take
a blank slate" approach, set the framework for the Homeless to Homes planning process.
The Homeless to Homes Plan provides
a comprehensive framework for ensuring that single homeless men and women have access
to safe, appropriate shelter facilities that provide them with the necessary services
to move out of homelessness. This plan represents hundreds of hours of work by more
than 70 individuals representing City and County government, housing and human services
providers, the business community, philanthropists and funders, and leaders in the
faith community, working with the common goal of taking a blank slate approach toward
designing a model system for Cincinnati's homeless citizens. This plan is only the
beginning, as it makes recommendations regarding how our current homeless services
system for individuals should develop over the next three to five years.
Highlights of the Homeless to Homes Plan
include:
-
A higher level of service system-wide to move individuals out of homelessness quickly
-
An ambitious increase in transitional and permanent supportive housing, with a workable
strategy for its development
-
Targeted services, specific to the individual's gender, age, or special needs,
with reduced reliance on emergency shelter
-
Homeless to Homes in the News~
Watch a May 3, 2009 Channel 12 Newsmakers interview on Homeless to Homes
here.
Watch a March 21, 2010 Channel 12 Newsmakers interview on Homeless to Homes
here.