Homeless services in flux: City touts work by Homefull; shelter funding at issue

In June, Clark County approved a $750,000 contract with Homefull to provide its piece of the funding for another year of emergency shelter and case management services, and to potentially expand to more people.

The amount is $400,000 more than last year’s county contract and contains funding from an additional source, effective through June 12, 2025. Clark County Job and Family Services Director Ginny Martycz previously said this would allow the nonprofit to provide more services.

During Tuesday’s Springfield City Commission meeting, an emergency ordinance to renew Homefull’s bid to provide services at the Executive Inn failed, with Commissioner Tracey Tackett voting no, saying she needed more information on the “efforts of the city and county working together.”

City Commission has since scheduled a special meeting for Monday, at which the issue may be reviewed again.

Ross Cunningham, city of Springfield federal programs manager, said Homefull was the only agency that submitted a proposal to manage services at the Executive Inn.

During the meeting, City Manager Bryan Heck said recent meetings involving Homefull, Sheltered Inc. and OIC “on future collaborations” have been promising. OIC of Clark County is Opportunities for Individual Change, a nonprofit that has been the state-designated Community Action Agency serving economically disadvantaged residents.

According to the proposed agreement, Homefull would be expected to serve about 450 “unduplicated” low- to moderate-income clients in 12 months.

The city had been considering Homefull’s application for services for several weeks. According to a document requesting emergency action, the action would be justified “so as to continue operations of the shelter without interruption of reimbursement for shelter operations and supportive services.”

If passed, the new initial term of the new agreement would be effective from June 23 of this year through July 1, 2025. According to the agreement document, the city could decide to unilaterally extend the term of the agreement three times, each for a period of one year or “successive fractions thereof.”

Sheltered Inc. was previously considered by the city as the agency to oversee functions at the location, but the project went to Homefull due to “financial issues” that Sheltered faced in the aftermath of a county contract cancellation, Heck said during a city commission meeting last year.

Cunningham said this was “an emergency situation” and because Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds (TANF) were involved and would fund supportive services at the Executive Inn, it “became too much of a risk” to move forward with Sheltered Inc.

“Part of the reason that we approached Homefull in the first place is they had experience, just a very unique set of skills to be able to come in and operate a shelter, especially on a short timeline,” Cunningham said. “They also have just a really good proven track record of providing services for families and singles experiencing homelessness and also providing housing, kind of that whole continuum of services.”

The county cut funding last year with local nonprofit Sheltered Inc., which has the only emergency shelters in the county that house single individuals who have not experienced violence. That came after the county said a state audit of the Department of Job and Family Services found “multiple violations” in regards to the reimbursement of funds.

Sheltered Inc. has disputed the allegations, and last month asked the city to revisit previous support and resolutions regarding homelessness and the nonprofit’s role in the crisis.

Sheltered Inc. Executive Director Elaina Bradley, who resigned at the end of July, told the city that the Department of Job and Family Services did not monitor the funds it administered and pulled its funding after it was audited.

The Executive Inn provides non-congregate shelter space for families. It has around 70-72 rooms that could be used for shelter space, but now there are around 40 functioning rooms, with others in case a family needs to be moved due to maintenance or other issues, Cunningham said.

Several rooms have experienced issues related to plumbing, including a burst pipe last year causing flooding and water damage.

Cunningham said that the current demand for shelter at the Executive Inn is much lower than the length of the waiting list previously, like when the COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in individuals and families experiencing homelessness. Prior to opening up the Executive Inn, there were more than 100 people on a waiting list and now there are more often openings or a shorter wait, which gives families experiencing homelessness more certainty that they will have a place to stay.

“Homefull I think has done a really good job in trying to kind of determine which rooms they can put money into that bring them online so that people can utilize them but then keeping rooms that just would be too expensive to repair offline,” Cunningham said. “I think if we saw more numbers on the waitlist for families, that might be different. We might say, ‘Well, we should invest additional money there,’ but since we aren’t seeing a lot of people on a waiting list, we’re just being mindful of the cost.”

Each room has a bathroom facility and other basic necessities, deputy community development director Steve Thompson said. He said it’s enough to meet each person’s needs and meets basic sanitary standards, but it’s important to keep in mind that the shelter is intended as a temporary solution.

Homefull is responsible for maintenance of the facility, and the city provides support as needed.

The shelter opened last year in July. It was originally intended to serve as a temporary homeless shelter for about a year while the city worked to bring another, more permanent housing site online, but that site, the former Villager Inn on North Street, was demolished in August after city leaders declared it a public nuisance months after purchasing it.

The city bought the Executive Inn for $2.2 million in January 2023 through American Rescue Plan Act funds and approved a $1.34 million agreement with Homefull in April. Officials have said the site would be redeveloped once a more permanent solution was found.

Springfield recently gave Sheltered Inc. its usual funding after the city found no issues with management of funds.

Sheltered Inc. was supported for several months by OIC of Clark County until its funds ran out and recently faced the threat of closure by July 1. OIC is now funding the nonprofit on a per-head and per-family basis through Ohio Department of Development American Rescue Plan Act dollars, for which single men, single women, children and families will all be eligible.

OIC previously funded Sheltered Inc. through the Homeless Assistance Program with ARPA dollars, spending more than $607,000 to support more than 600 people at the nonprofit’s shelters and local hotels.

Those funds ran out around the same time as ARPA funds for OIC’s rental assistance for landlords and tenants, which Sheltered Inc. leaders said previously is one of the major challenges contributing to the homelessness crisis in the Springfield area.

Cunningham said he has been pleased to see nonprofits and local government officials working together with Homefull, which while not the initial planned partner, has worked well with the community.

“There’s a lot of good people working every day to keep people out of homeless situations and move people into housing, and everybody works together as best they can to do that,” he said.