“I’d like to help you, but ….” RHISCO PROJECT 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness Hocking County Think of every excuse you ever had to give someone to say why your services could not be made available. Wouldn’t you like to be able to say “ … I know where you can get it.”

Logan, Ohio, as seen by the majority of people visiting Hocking County. Logan is the county seat, population of 6,704 in 2000, estimated at 7,368 in 2006 (+9.9% change). White Non-Hispanic (97.5%) Estimated median household income in 2005: $29,900 (it was $29,691 in 2000), Ohio $43,493. Estimated median house/condo value in 2005: $83,800 (it was $77,500 in 2000), Ohio $129,600. County population in 2005: 29,009 (31% urban, 69% rural) County owner-occupied houses and condos: 8,194 Renter-occupied apartments: 2,649 Reported by City-Data.com

Who’s seen this before? How are these pictures any different than thousands of other pictures taken in any urban center across the country? Each abandoned home, empty storefront, or weed strewn factory has a story behind it, and you’re likely to hear it in a small town. Perhaps it’s the same in a larger city, the impact on a small town can be devastating.

Do we export our problems? These are the distances to the nearest emergency shelters to Logan. None of the shelters are in Hocking County. Someone needing shelter has few options – pack your troubles and leave, or “camp out” somewhere. The perception by a fair number of people in our community was we didn’t have a homeless problem. We’ve averaged between 10-16 people homeless by HUD definitions during our last three PIT studies.

Luckily, we’ve developed some high tech tools to cope with the problem of helping someone who is homeless.

We have one more bit of ingenuity.

HCHC has been meeting since 4/04. We’ve moved from trying to hold onto what resources we had, into what can we do differently. Put another way, we were trying to manage homelessness … individually or through limited partnerships, to seriously moving toward ending homelessness in Hocking County and in our Region.

Hocking County Housing Coalition Started building a Continuum of Care. Got a diverse group of agencies together and looked at existing resources. Put that into a Resource Guide that was shared with the community. Studied the homeless population … and discovered we really have some. Completed our first CoC Plan and secured a S+C Grant for 16 vouchers over 5 years.

Partnering with the Athens County Housing Coalition to develop a Housing Coordinator position Increase funding options for different agencies that address affordable housing issues. Coordinate services to assist homeless individuals. Develop and enhance resources for securing and maintaining housing. Bring together and enhance the effectiveness of Housing Coalitions.