Found House Interfaith Hospitality Network

990 Nassau Street
Cincinnati, OH 45206

Family Emergency Shelter with Child Enrichment

Found House IHN continues to split funding from The Charles H. Dater Foundation between Emergency Shelter and Child Enrichment Programs. By splitting the funds, Found House IHN is able to provide both shelter, food, and added services to families as they work to obtain permanent, affordable housing.

Family Emergency Shelter combines community-support with?professional services to provide Emergency Shelter to families experiencing homelessness. This includes emergency overnight shelter, three meals per day, developing a case plan, and ongoing services provided by our professional shelter staff.

FHIHN’s Child Enrichment is an embedded service in the Emergency Shelter program, which focuses on minimizing factors that would otherwise put children’s futures at risk, providing educational support, structured activities, and integrated assessment services. In 2023, Child Enrichment services expanded to include the families in our new Melrose Place PSH program.

The transition back to FHIHN’s traditional congregational host model encountered numerous challenges. Unfortunately, the reality is that the pandemic has changed the network of support that allowed us to serve eight to twelve families at a time in shelter using two or three host congregations each week. Fewer congregations are willing to host due to health concerns. In addition, we lost the use of CAIN’s Grace Place facility in College Hill due to zoning issues, and we have not been able to find a similar building in the current property market. We are committed to serving four to five families at a time with the support of our current network. In order to increase emergency shelter capacity, we are currently working to bring on more congregational partners. We are also actively looking at properties to build or renovate, which would include space for site-based capacity.

The length of stay in shelter continues to rise due to the lack of affordable housing and increased wait-time for CNHA approval. In 2023, the average emergency shelter length of stay was 77 days as compared to 30 days just six year ago, which further decreases the number of households we can serve.

FHIHN’s most recent accomplishment is the opening of Melrose Place in January 2023. Melrose Place is a newly constructed, 26-unit, pet-friendly apartment building in Walnut Hills. Melrose Place is a site-based, permanent supportive housing with community space and on-site services that include case management, mental health care, children’s programming, and pet supports and increases FHIHN’s successful PSH program capacity by 50%.

During the time-period of July 1-Dec 31 of 2023, FHIHN’s emergency shelter served 14 households comprising of 50 individuals of which 34 were children (68%). Of the children, 11 were under the age of 5 years. The vast majority of the population served identified as Black/African American (92%) and 68% identified as women. In addition to emergency shelter families, the Child Enrichment program provided services to families in the Melrose Place PSH program. Melrose Place PSH served 28 households comprised of 74 individuals of which 43 were children (58%). The population at Melrose Place identifies as 78% black/African American, 7% multi-racial, and 15% white.

Grant funding supports staff salaries and programming costs. Case managers and shelter aides maintain regular contact with families in shelter and provides resources to each family based on their individual needs. These services include ASQ assessments for children 5 years old and younger, children activities and educational supplies, referral for other social services resources, as well as other basic needs such as food, hygiene supplies, baby formula, bus tokens, etc. The most important thing provided by Found House IHN is the people. People who care, listen, and support families while they work to obtain stable and permanent housing. The positive outcomes that kids and their parents achieve through FHIHN’s programs in the short-term can have long-lasting effects that follow them into brighter futures.

Website: http://www.foundhouse.org
Amount: $30,000
Date: July 2023