What Would It Take to End Homelessness in Columbus?

The Community's Conversation

What if Columbus committed to becoming the largest US city to completely eliminate homelessness? How much would it cost? What specifically would we do with the money?

As Columbus works to hone a distinctive identity that differentiates it from other American cities, could its unique quality be that no one in Ohio’s capital city lacked a place to call home? We’ll soon know more about the current scope of homelessness in our neighborhoods: every year, a “Point-in-Time Count” of Columbus’ homeless population occurs on a single day in January. The next count will be held on January 25, 2024.

In January 2023, Community Shelter Board’s (CSB) count revealed the single largest increase and an all-time high in the number of people experiencing homelessness at a single point in time in Columbus and Franklin County. That count revealed an overall 22% increase of those who were experiencing homelessness in our community, and that 71% of the people were Black or African American (compared to being 29% of the general population).

According to the CSB, this inequality is the result of discriminatory “redlining” lending practices, restrictive covenants, structural racism, classism, and gender injustice. Predictions by a national research firm, Focus Strategies, show the housing availability crisis Columbus is experiencing locally will drive a decline in program outcomes and increase entries into homelessness, with those earning 30% or less of the area’s median income being the most vulnerable population.

With an expert panel we dive into homelessness in Columbus and ask the big question: what it would take to end homelessness in Central Ohio once and for all?

Featuring Shannon Isom, President & CEO, Community Shelter Board, Sheli Mathias, Director, The Open Shelter, Bob Weiler, Chairman of the Board, The Robert Weiler Company, and Letha Pugh, Co-Founder, Bake Me Happy, with host Ann Bischoff, CEO, Star House.

This forum was sponsored by The American Electric Power Foundation, Bath & Body Works, The Ohio State University, and The Community Shelter Board.

The forum was supported by The Ellis and by The Columbus Dispatch. The livestream was presented by The Center for Human Kindness at The Columbus Foundation and The Columbus Dispatch.

This forum was recorded before a live audience at The Ellis in Columbus, Ohio's historic Italian Village on January 10, 2024.