Housing Resource Specialists

Homelessness Prevention Network

CSB’s Homelessness Prevention Network (HPN) launched in the fall of 2020 with support from the Nationwide Foundation, Battelle, Cardinal Health, and Franklin County. This is a comprehensive approach to stabilize more families facing homelessness. The purpose was to meet families where they are, expanding the locations where families and expectant mothers at imminent risk of homelessness can be identified and supported before they need emergency shelter. HPN partners use a standardized screening protocol to identify high-risk families and immediately offer them problem-solving assistance focused on housing. The program has been highly successful in preventing homelessness.

Several stakeholders convened to reflect and build on efforts to stabilize housing for families, expectant mothers, and single adults. This included representatives from the City of Columbus, Franklin County, CSB, the Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio, and key Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) implementation partners – IMPACT Community Action and COMPASS. Partners agreed in June 2023 to officially form a Central Ohio Stable Housing Network to provide a community-wide “network” approach to preventing evictions and homelessness and to promote housing security for all residents. The Central Ohio Stable Housing Network (COSHN) builds on decades of learning from efforts in Columbus and Franklin County and from around the country.

Thanks to a landmark investment of ERA funding by the City of Columbus, twenty-eight central Ohio agencies now have dedicated Housing Resource Specialists in place to work with the public. These specialists engage with families, expectant mothers and single adults who are experiencing significant housing instability and at-risk of literal homelessness. Specialists provide housing problem solving, linkage for immediate needs, referrals for rental assistance, and assistance with identifying longer-term supports and resources. The goal is to reduce evictions and literal homelessness. CSB’s HPN Manager directly supports the Housing Resource Specialists with training opportunities, guidance, and resources.

The COSHN uses the following core elements for coordinated prevention identified as key learnings from CSB’s HPN pilot:

1. Shared Vision, Understanding & Commitment to Prevention related to housing insecurity and literal homelessness.
2. Coordinated, Housing-Focused Access Points & Service Providers across a wide variety of “upstream” community-based and cross-sector settings.
3. Standardized Housing Insecurity Screening, Response, and Referral Tools and Protocols including broad use of housing problem-solving, coordinated access and prioritization approaches, and flexible funding to address urgent prevention and stabilization needs.
4. Shared Data Culture & Platform supporting data collection, service referral and coordination, and reporting.
5. Ongoing Backbone Entity Support for partner recruitment, ongoing training, reporting and analysis, and ongoing system management, expansion, and improvement.