Homeless Services
Please see below a list of our Agency Partners providing homeless services to more than 12,000 people annually in Cincinnati. Many have current Volunteer Opportunities. Every time you volunteer, you will leave knowing that you have helped our neighbors in need. Find the one that’s right for you!
Bethany House Services
Bethany House Services empowers homeless and at-risk families with the solutions to achieve housing stability and long-term self-sufficiency. Bethany House’s vision is to live in a community where all families have a place to call home and no one spends a night without shelter.
Caracole, Inc.
Caracole’s mission is simple: to reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS through housing, care and prevention. Caracole serves more than 1500 clients living with HIV/AIDS in an eight county region in Southwest Ohio: Hamilton, Butler, Warren, Clinton, Highland, Adams, Brown, and Clermont.
Center for Independent Living Options (CILO)
CILO provides services that empower people with disabilities to lead independent and inclusive lives in the community. Governed, managed and staffed by a majority of professionals, CILO follows the principles of an Independent Living Center by providing services that are community based and consumer controlled. CILO’s vision is that all people with disabilities will live productive, rewarding lives with pride and dignity.
Center for Respite Care
The mission of the Center for Respite Care is to provide quality, holistic medical care to homeless people who need a safe place to heal, while assisting them in breaking the cycle of homelessness. They believe in delivering quality care regardless of the client’s ability to pay. They respect the diversity among their clients and staff and believe that diversity complements one another and enhance their effectiveness. The Center for Respite Care is committed to unity and harmony among their clients and staff and within the community. They work toward goals with a commitment to sharing responsibility and accountability in the accomplishment of those goals.
City Gospel Mission
Founded by James N. Gamble of Procter & Gamble in 1924, City Gospel Mission helps the homeless and hurting break the cycle of poverty and despair … one life at a time. City Gospel Mission works to engage, equip and empower those in need with the spiritual, emotional, mental and physical skills and resources to achieve long-term life transformation and self-sufficiency. Their proven programs and services are centered on caring, personal relationships focused in four key service areas: food and shelter, recovery, at-risk youth and job readiness and placement. City Gospel Mission collaborates with more than 350 local churches and 2,500 volunteers to annually serve more than 6,800 adults and 3,500 youth.
Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky
The mission of the Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky is to provide shelter which is life-saving in the winter and life-changing in the summer. They believe homelessness is an emergency and that shelter is a basic necessity for human beings, and that only when this basic necessity is provided do human beings have the ability to recover from homelessness. Started by a group of concerned citizens and business owners who wanted to ensure that the most vulnerable population had a place to go to during the coldest weather, ESNKY opened its doors for the first time in the winter of 2008 as the region’s only cold weather shelter for adults. In the summer of 2010, they began providing shelter during the warmer months for men working towards achieving housing, income and improvement of health.
Excel Development Corp.
The mission of Excel Development Corp. is to provide qualified individuals affordable housing that satisfies their residential needs. At Excel Development, it is their goal to make the transition to independent living as easy as possible and to be a support to clients remaining in housing. Excel Development supports severely mentally ill individuals and their families in over 1100 apartments by providing rental subsidies and housing support in two different Permanent Supportive Housing Programs. Excel Development’s housing programs provide the necessary support for their clients to obtain and remain in suitable independent living situations. Excel Development’s Housing Department strives to simplify the process of finding housing by connecting their clients to Excel’s network of suitable housing throughout the City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.
Found House
The mission of Found House is to provide homeless families emergency shelter and hospitality through interfaith communities and to work with families to find and retain stable housing. Found House has been providing emergency shelter since 1991, working side by side with partners from the faith community to meet basic needs while offering professional wraparound services that change lives. In addition to shelter, they provide a full complement of ongoing housing supports and programs that keep families safe, warm, and together.
Freestore Foodbank
The Freestore Foodbank began in 1971. Its early beginnings come with a story – a man with a heart to help others. Frank Gerson, a worker at Cincinnati’s incinerator, saw usable household items being tossed away. He began collecting those items and distributing them to disadvantaged families. Freestore Foodbank believes food is a vehicle for a larger conversation, aimed at helping to create stability and self-reliance for their neighbors. Their Mission is provide food and services, create stability, and further self-reliance for people in crisis. Their vision is to be the leader of a community mobilized to end hunger and address its causes.
Generocity 513
GeneroCity 513 is an initiative aimed at helping individuals who have been driven to panhandling, including those facing unfortunate circumstances like homelessness, addiction and mental illness. Utilizing a multi-faceted approach, GeneroCity 513 has been designed to offer a positive alternative to panhandling, help connect panhandlers to social service agencies, and provide strategic case management to the most visible homeless persons in downtown Cincinnati. The initiative’s programs include a Jobs Van, Outreach Workers and Donation Stations.
GeneroCity 513 is a partnership between the Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. (3CDC), Downtown Cincinnati Inc. (DCI), the City of Cincinnati, City Gospel Mission, Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services, and Strategies to End Homelessness.
Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services
As an organization, Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services has held the space for hope when their clients may have run out of it. With every merger, acquisition, and expansion, they’ve chosen the hope-filled path—guided by the belief that they can make life better and brighter for people with mental illness, addiction, and related challenges. The GCB of today—a $41 million organization with 600 staff serving 15,000 people annually—is the sum of many parts. They officially became GCB in 2004 with the merger of two long-running mental health agencies, Cincinnati Restoration, Inc. and Queen City Case Management. GCB is now the most comprehensive mental health agency in the Greater Cincinnati area, serving people of all ages and walks of life, through a menu of carefully honed programs.
HER Cincinnati
The mission of HER Cincinnati is to provide affordable housing, supportive services, and education programs that assist urban women, children, families, and communities to realize their greatest potential. HER Cincinnati has been caring for people in Cincinnati since 1830, and operates three programs: Early Childhood Education at four Head Start preschools, which provide kindergarten readiness and care for children ages three to five; Off the Streets, which provides services for women victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation; and the Anna Louise Inn, which provides safe and affordable housing for women.
Jewish Family Service
Jewish Family Service of Cincinnati strengthens lives and the community by providing professional social services to families and individuals in times of need. The vision of JFS is to lead the way to a Jewish community where everyone lives with dignity, security, and hope. Since 2014, Jewish Family Service has been part of a federally funded program, the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Rehousing Program, as one of six United Way funded agencies to help people who are at imminent risk for homelessness. They are one of five agencies part of the Shelter Diversion Program under contract with Strategies to End Homelessness’s Prevention and Rapid Rehousing Program. STEH’s work in case management is the major component of each of these Federally funded assistance programs.
Joseph House
Joseph House is a progressive treatment facility serving veterans affected by addiction and homelessness. Located in the heart of the Over-the-Rhine district in downtown Cincinnati, Joseph House focuses on the treatment and recovery of veterans, reintegration into the community and promoting healthy, sustainable lifestyles. The mission of Joseph House to meet the needs of military veterans affected by addiction and homelessness within the Greater Cincinnati region; providing counsel, education and support to help clients recover, reintegrate and thrive in the community while maintaining a healthy, sustainable lifestyle.
Lighthouse Youth & Family Services
The mission of Lighthouse Youth & Family Services is to advance the dignity and well-being of children, youth and families in need. Operating since 1969, Lighthouse is nationally recognized as an innovator in services for families in crisis, for homeless youth and young adults, and for youth learning to become self-sufficient. The agency provides early childhood services; behavioral health and psychiatric services; home-based services to families; services to youth engaged with the juvenile justice system; community residential treatment facilities; foster care and adoption; independent living services; and opportunities through education.
New Life Furniture Bank
New Life Furniture Bank is Cincinnati’s only nationally registered furniture bank serving Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Their mission is to collect donations of gently used beds, dressers, dining tables and chairs, sofas, and lamps, store the items briefly in their warehouse, and deliver them to the empty houses of low-income families striving to escape homelessness, domestic abuse, and disasters like fires and floods.
Northern Kentucky Independent District Health Department
The Northern Kentucky Health Department serves the residents and visitors of Boone, Campbell, Grant and Kenton Counties of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The Health Department provides the functions of community assessment and surveillance, public health policy development, and the assurance of the essential public health services in the community.
Ohio Valley Goodwill Industries
As a member of Goodwill Industries International, OVGI is a part of the world’s largest and most successful network providing employment and training services for people with disabilities and other barriers to employment. Ohio Valley Goodwill Industries was founded in 1916 and is one of the largest providers of rehabilitation services in the State of Ohio. Ohio Valley Goodwill helps thousands of individuals to find meaningful employment every year. Ohio Valley Goodwill Industries strives in an ever-improving mode to be the leader in quality and effectiveness of vocational, educational, social and human services in the State of Ohio.
Over-The-Rhine Community Housing
OTRCH is a non-profit community development organization that provides a wide spectrum of affordable and supportive housing options with life-changing programs that help low-income residents in Over-the-Rhine succeed. At Over-the-Rhine Community Housing, they develop and manage resident-centered affordable housing to build inclusive community and benefit low-income residents.
Their vision is to create a community in which quality stable housing for all in a socially, racially and economically inclusive community.
Santa Maria Community Services
Santa Maria Community Services is an independent, 501(c)3 nonprofit organization originally founded by the Sisters of Charity in 1897 and based in Cincinnati Ohio’s Price Hill community. Santa Maria provides more than 3,000 individuals with educational tools and resources to build strong families, promote healthy residents, and foster neighborhood revitalization. The Mission of Santa Maria is to be a catalyst and advocate for Greater Price Hill families to attain their educational, financial, and health goals. Their vision is for Greater Price Hill to be a vibrant, thriving, and self-sustaining community.
Shelterhouse
The mission of Shelterhouse (formerly the Drop Inn Center), is simple – as a community of residents, staff and volunteers, they work together to provide basic human services for the men and women of the Greater Cincinnati area who are experiencing homelessness. Their primary commitment is to shelter – offering a place to stay for those in need now, and helping find and maintain a permanent place of residence for the future. For those who don’t have to imagine what it’s like to be hungry, alone, frightened, homeless, or for people for whom this is a reality, Shelterhouse is a place they can turn to – for hope, for help.
St. Francis / St. Joseph Catholic Worker House
St. Francis / St. Joseph Catholic Worker House is a safe and dignified environment where homeless men can work on securing immediate needs of housing, employment, drug/alcohol rehabilitation and case management. Since 1985, their primary goal has been to assist guests in finding permanent housing as soon as possible. As a Catholic Worker House providing an environment of communal living and spiritual values based on the philosophies of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, it is their mission to provide temporary housing for 15 men for up to 90 days.
Society of St. Vincent de Paul
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is an international Catholic organization of laypersons founded in 1833 by Frederic Ozanam and colleagues. Placed under the patronage of St. Vincent de Paul, the Society continues to derive inspiration from his thinking and work. The mission of the Society of St. vincent de Paul is to foster hope by providing spiritual, emotional and material assistance on a person-to-person basis to the poor, lonely and forgotten in the community. Their vision is to bring faith alive through service to others, one neighbor at a time.
Talbert House
Talbert House is a community-wide nonprofit network of services focusing on prevention, assessment, treatment and reintegration. Services are provided at multiple sites throughout Southwest Ohio for children, adults and families. Talbert House’s mission has two basic purposes: to improve social behavior and enhance personal recovery and growth. The organization has a culture of innovation that thrives on the creation of new services that meet the community’s needs while maintaining effectiveness, excellence and professionalism. Talbert House values an integrated system of high quality care focused on best practices, easy access to services, and providing a full range of services in a cost effective and efficient manner.
Tender Mercies, Inc.
Tender Mercies transforms the lives of homeless adults with mental illness by providing security, dignity, and community in a place they call home. Tender Mercies maintains 134 units of permanent supportive housing and 16 units of transitional housing in 6 buildings in Over-the-Rhine. Their model of housing is based on the belief that by addressing the root causes of homelessness, they can help an individual break the cycle of homelessness once he or she leaves Tender Mercies. Tender Mercies accomplishes its goals by providing an array of supportive services coupled with housing.
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is an international religious and charitable movement which, as a part of the universal Christian Church, is organized and operated in military fashion with its message based on the Bible. The Salvation Army is concerned with the needs of all humanity and helps all people in need-regardless of race, color, creed, sex or age. The Salvation Army in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky offers emergency disaster relief, emergency assistance, emergency shelter, housing, outreach programs, visitation programs, child care services, youth programs, a program to combat human trafficking, an adult rehabilitation center, and holiday assistance for needy individuals and families.
Veterans Administration
The mission of the Veterans Administration is to honor America’s Veterans by providing exceptional health care that improves their health and well-being. Their vision is to continue to be the benchmark of excellence and value in health care and benefits by providing exemplary services that are both patient centered and evidence based. Care is delivered by engaged, collaborative teams in an integrated environment that supports learning, discovery and continuous improvement. Care emphasizes prevention and population health, and contributes to the nation’s well-being through education, research and service in National emergencies.
Volunteers of America
Volunteers of America is a ministry of service dedicated to helping people reach their full potential.
Through thousands of human services programs, including housing and healthcare, Volunteers of America helps nearly 2 million people across the country – more than 23,000 in Greater Ohio alone. Established locally in 1896, their ministry of service has supported and empowered homeless veterans, at-risk youth, the frail elderly, men and women returning from prison, homeless individuals and families, people with disabilities, and those recovering from addictions. Their work touches the mind, body, heart – and ultimately the spirit – of those we serve, integrating their deep compassion with highly effective programs and services.
YWCA of Greater Cincinnati
The YWCA is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all. The largest women’s organization in the world, YWCA is an international movement with associations in 122 countries and more than 300 American communities. The YWCA of Cincinnati, the fifth association in the United States, was founded in 1868 to address the needs of working women.
