Dear Friends,
Ending homelessness is not impossible. It will take the efforts of many and systemic change. While working toward this ultimate goal, preventing homelessness is possible.
And it’s happening every day – thanks to your support. Your support of our work – CAP Helpline, Shelter Diversion and other programs – in 2019 was greatly appreciated. And we thank you.
These programs are vital. Often life-saving. But our community needs lasting change, on a larger scale.
But how?
Here are a few of the initiatives we are tackling now, and throughout the New Year, to create the change we all want to see.
One simple way to prevent homelessness is to keep it from happening in the first place. Evictions play a large role in creating homelessness. And the rate of eviction in Cincinnati is higher than the national average.
That is why we support the Eviction Prevention measures passed by City Council. And why we have made this a focus for 2020.
The #1 cause of homelessness is a lack of affordable housing. Here, 40,000 families cannot find an affordable place to live. Our City approved an Affordable Housing Trust Fund; now it needs funding.
So many of our clients have a voucher in hand ready to move into their own apartment. Ready to exit homelessness and achieve housing stability. But finding affordable housing is nearly impossible.
That’s why we will expand our efforts to partner with more landlords in Greater Cincinnati. To ensure those with vouchers are matched with current vacancies. We do this every day – in 2020 we aim to redouble our efforts.
Data is critical to informing the work of our system. That’s why we partnered with Kroger’s 84.51 team, industry leaders in data science. Together we’re analyzing years of data to inform our plans for this year, and beyond.
Ending homelessness is not impossible. Tackling the issues that cause homelessness will make it possible.
Let’s work together to end homelessness for more of our neighbors in 2020. I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas about these important initiatives.
Thank you,
Kevin Finn, President/CEO
Strategies to End Homelessness
P.S. We are grateful for your support every day. Whether it’s by reading this blog post or by making a monetary donation or by simply sharing our mission to end homelessness in Cincinnati. For that, we thank you!
