Clark County pulls funding after homeless shelter closes, calls issue sickening

“We had no problems with the provision of services; it was simply the shelter is not there [and] we cannot fund that shelter and I can’t fund any other shelters in Clark County now due to pending litigation,” Martycz said.

The county and Sheltered Inc. are in pending litigation over money the county says the nonprofit owes following the termination of a portion of a $700,000 contract over alleged “mismanagement” of funds.

Sheltered Inc. disputed the allegations, and the county entered into an agreement with the Ohio Attorney General in November 2023 to collect money it said is owed by Sheltered Inc., requiring the nonprofit to pay back more than $500,000.

On Wednesday, Clark County Commission President Melanie Flax Wilt called Springfield city commissioners’ vote to reject the Homefull contract “shortsighted.”

“They turned down a management contract with the only provider who responded to the RFP for services and snubbed $1 million in federal HUD funding that was supporting it,” Flax Wilt said. “There’s no telling whether those funds will continue to be available locally.”

She said that Sheltered Inc. owes the county more than $500,000 and the nonprofit has mortgaged its properties “to the tune of $250,000 each,” putting it at a deficit of around $1 million.

“These families are being used as pawns to distract from the fact that taxpayer monies were mishandled by a local nonprofit, and now are making a desperate attempt to stay in business,” Flax Wilt said. “It’s shameful to uproot these families during a time when they’re already in turmoil.”

Sheltered Inc. previously commented on these allegations, saying Job and Family Services did not properly monitor the funds it administered and pulled its funding after it was audited, not the nonprofit.

The contract under which Homefull operated the Executive Inn shelter was for those receiving TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) or Prevention, Retention and Contingency services only. Prevention, Retention and Contingency, or PRC, is a program through Ohio Job and Family Services that provides work support and other services to low-income families. This program is funded through TANF.

Flax Wilt said during the meeting that because Sheltered Inc. is facing pending litigation from Clark County, it is not eligible to receive TANF funds managed by the county.

“What’s happened now is the provider that is in the community does not have access to the funds that have been established to help people in this situation, and that to me is a shame that we aren’t utilizing the resources that are available to us from the federal government, from the state government, to help them house folks who are in this situation,” Flax Wilt said.

County Commissioner Sasha Rittenhouse called the situation “sickening” and expressed her disappointment that those who were sheltered at the Executive Inn until Tuesday were “being used as political pawns.”

“It’s nauseating and we know it happens but to see it in our community right here to people who live here, it’s sick,” Rittenhouse said during the meeting Wednesday.

Sheltered Inc. and OIC of Clark County, which is currently funding Sheltered Inc., assured city commissioners that no one from the Executive Inn would be put out into the street. OIC Executive Director Mike Calabrese said Tuesday said the majority of the 22 families removed from the Executive Inn were placed at Sheltered Inc. shelters, and the remainder were put in hotels.

Martycz said that there had been no referrals to Homefull for “quite some time,” although the Executive Inn had open rooms.

Sheltered Inc. serves as the community’s access point, meaning individuals and families at risk of or experiencing homelessness first go to the nonprofit, which will then help place them either in its own shelters or another location. This included the Executive Inn.

Martycz told the News-Sun that JFS cannot place individuals and families in hotels now and that it had done so previously as a “stop-gap measure” just before Homefull came in last year to manage the Executive Inn right after the county ended its contract with Sheltered Inc. She said there was and will continue to be “enough business” in the county to have multiple providers.

The area is experiencing a shortage in housing, and Martycz said she was hoping for a year of “stability” to build up better infrastructure for those experiencing homelessness and get a better handle on how the influx of 12,000 to 15,000 Haitian immigrants will impact housing.

“It’s a sad day for our community and it will be difficult for the community to move forward without all of the partners working together openly, and that did not happen,” Martycz said.