Hamilton County leader 'deeply concerned' about spike in student homelessness

More than 4,000 students in the region are experiencing housing insecurity — an increase of 24% year-over-year, according to Project Connect, which serves homeless students in Southwest Ohio.

Hamilton County Commissioner Stephanie Summerow Dumas at last Thursday's board of commissioners meeting mentioned how "deeply concerned" she was about the alarming statistics.

"I'm a little tired of press conferences," Dumas said. "We've given millions, and it's not just housing, but I just think that we need, we put our money where our mouth is, then once we give these entities the money to do certain things, there needs to be a better follow-up."

Dumas was referring to the nearly $40 million that went to two organizations within the last year.

WCPO 9 News found out that $34.4 million went to the Cincinnati Development Fund (CDF) and $5 million went to Strategies to End Homelessness. Both organizations used the money to help families get affordable housing and to help families avoid going to a homeless shelter.

On Monday we reached out to both organizations for comment, but we never heard back.

During the Aug. 6, 2024, CPS joint meeting with the City of Cincinnati, council member Meeka Owens also talked about the steps City Hall is taking to help families with rental assistance and legal representation.

"Just uplifting that we are working together, we are, you know, investing $1.3 million, I think it is annually on access to counsel, slash rental assistance, but we need to grow that pot," Owens said.

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Community advocates like Iris Roley told us she's been meeting with some CPS students at Government Square who are experiencing homelessness. Roley said many of them want help, but it's up to us to change our approach when it comes to trying to help them.

"They wanted to be respected from the moment you laid eyes on them," Roley said. "If you respected them, then they could possibly open up and see you first, and then secondly what that did for you was give you an opportunity to see them."

Other organizations like "UpSpring" in Cincinnati rely on private donations and have been serving about 4300 students in the region.

"They're not telling their teacher, 'Hey, I slept in a car last night' or 'We're in between places' or 'We're at a hotel,'" said Katie Jensen, development and marketing director for UpSpring.

On Monday, some of its shelves were empty after the non-profit gave out hundreds of backpacks for kids. The organization has more backpacks, as well as hygiene kits, shoes, and winter coats ready for families who need them.

"It can be really debilitating for kids to experience homelessness the kind of instability and security that they have they feel like they don't belong anywhere they feel like there's no point in trying in school," said Jensen.