WHAT SHOULD I BE DOING INSTEAD OF THIS?
 
 
by Andy Brownfield 11.07.2012
Posted In: 2012 Election, City Council, Homelessness, News at 05:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
 
 
city hall

Council OKs Application for Homeless Relocation Loan

Loan would help move three homeless shelters out of Over-the-Rhine

UPDATE 11-8-12: An aide to Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls tells CityBeat that the $7 million loan will only go toward moving two of the shelters: the Drop Inn Center and a new women's shelter to be operated by the YWCA. Because the City Gospel Mission requires a religious component to is outreach to the homeless, it cannot receive federal funding. The original story follows below.City Council on Wednesday signed off on a plan to apply for federal loans to help move three Cincinnati homeless shelters to new locations. Council members voted with all but one approving the application for $37 million in loans, $7 million of which would move the Washington Park-area shelters. If the loan is approved, the City Gospel Mission would move to the West End, a new women’s shelter would be build in Mount Auburn and the Drop Inn Center would move to a yet-undetermined location.  Cincinnati had pledged $10 million toward relocating the shelters. The loan would be paid back at $532,000 a year for the next 20 years. Councilman Chris Smitherman was the sole dissenting voice. He said he supports the homeless, but he is wary of the risks of the loan and the city’s ability to pay it back. Councilman Chris Seelbach, who said he moved to Over-the-Rhine shortly after the 2001 riots, voted to approve applying for the loan, but also voiced some concern. “The reason I moved is because I loved it; I fell in love with the diversity of the neighborhood,” he said, noting income diversity as well as racial and ethnic. “I would hope that we could find a location for the Drop that is in Over-the-Rhine and there isn’t a continued effort to push low income people out of Over-the-Rhine.” Josh Spring, executive director of the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition, said the shelters the city has now are perfectly adequate and the money could be spent better developing affordable housing and creating jobs to help eliminate homelessness. “Historically a majority of shelters started between 1982 and 1990 because in that era we cut dollars to housing and employment,” Spring said.  “Shelters were never created to end homelessness. Shelters were created for people to have a safe place once everything else had failed them. We shouldn’t let everything else fail them.”
 
 

A Simple, Rough Life

For some homeless, camps are preferable to shelters

2 Comments · Wednesday, September 29, 2010
For reasons that are obvious, there are more homeless sleeping outdoors and outside of local shelters in the warmer months than during the winter. The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless counted 77 people living outdoors around downtown last winter and estimates there are about 200 persons camping out at any given time. Take a look inside the lives of Baldy and Lee, who camp on a permanent basis.  

Brian Trotta and the Drop Inn Center

1 Comment · Wednesday, August 18, 2010
With temperatures in the 90s, even sitting in a car with the windows rolled down and the air conditioning turned off is a sweaty proposition. So whether Cincinnati Police Officer Brian Trotta last week had an alleged "family medical emergency" or not, it would've taken just a few minutes to leave his police dog with a colleague or a few seconds to at least roll down the windows. Trotta did neither, and the dog died.  

A New Road to Recovery

Drop Inn Center tries peer-based approach

0 Comments · Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Due to limited funding, the Drop Inn Center has eliminated its clinical recovery program for alcoholics and narcotics users. In its place, they've instituted a peer-based recovery approach that will expand its scope from the former 18-person residential recovery program to a program covering the entire shelter.  

Winners and Losers

Ups to Antioch and The Drop, down with Boehner and Bronson

0 Comments · Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Financially troubled Antioch College in Yellow Springs is getting a new lease on life. The campus, closed since last year, is being bought by a group of alumni for $6 million. The group plans to reopen the school in about two years as an independent college unrelated to Antioch's campuses in Los Angeles, Seattle, Santa Barbara, Calif., and New Hampshire.  

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