Homeless

The Columbus City School District has reclassified Youth Academic Advocates as civil service employees, eliminating their union status. We’ll talk about the controversy surrounding the change and consider the challenge of homeless students in public education.

Using her own money, Joi Jones decided to make a difference. She opened her first house for homeless women on Columbus' eastside 7 years ago. Within a few months realized she needed to do more. Joi Jones now has two houses for women struggling with homelessness, substance abuse, and mental illness.

Homeless advocates say pandemic relief funds helped many stay afloat, but with that money gone, paying the rent will become a struggle again.

The annual homeless count by the Department of Housing and Urban Development shows an increase in people living outside. The 2020 numbers in the report do not reflect the impact of the pandemic.

Columbus Public Health is making efforts to vaccinate impoverished and displaced people through mobile vaccination clinics.“We knew that not everyone…

The combined efforts of the City of Cleveland, the Cuyahoga County Board of Health and MetroHealth System have already gotten the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine to 100 people at the largest homeless shelter in Ohio — and hundreds more are at the ready. MetroHealth received about 1,000 vaccine doses for the effort, which began Friday at the Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry Men’s Shelter and will completely vaccinate 500 people, said MetroHealth family physician Dr. Michael Seidman.

Local homeless shelters made it through the recent patch of bad weather, but like so many other things, COVID-19 added new complications to their efforts.…

A community health center is now immunizing the local homeless population. But vaccination logistics, already complex, are compounded by the additional barriers in communication and transportation.

Advocates for the homeless are concerned after the city of Columbus closed Heer Park on the South Side over the weekend.Sophia Fifner with the Columbus…

The Cleveland Hostel is opening its doors as a seasonal homeless shelter this winter, as advocates look for socially distant ways to house people during the continuing coronavirus pandemic. Homeless service providers told Cleveland City Council on Monday they needed more space close to downtown that could handle a sudden influx of people seeking shelter. The hostel, on West 25th Street in the Ohio City neighborhood, fit the bill.