Hocking County Housing Coalition Martin Hammar, BSSW, LSW ACPST Team Leader Tri-County Mental Health and Counseling Services, Inc. 541 State Route 664 N. PO Box 1145 Logan, Ohio 43138 740-385-6594 (mhammar@tcmhcs.org)

Why did we start our housing coalition? The simple answer is “fear.” Our agency is a direct service provider of mental health care, and it includes a residential program and rental subsidy program. We get our funding from the local mental health board administering funds from our state’s department of mental health. We had already seen cutbacks and longer waiting lists for other housing programs. Preventing homelessness was not our first priority. We wanted to hold onto what we had.

How did we start our housing coalition? We volunteered people. We researched the Continuum of Care process. We used the work of other communities and customized it to our needs. We set aside time to meet regularly and eventually developed a working steering committee. We organized our coalition and kept a record of our activities. We kept in touch with each other.

What has made our coalition successful What has made our coalition successful? We had something to share with the community. We developed a resource booklet about housing and housing related services. Our meetings were open to anyone, and we shared our information with everyone. We remained flexible. Individual participation would wax and wane, but there remained a dedicated core group that took on leadership roles to assure that the work continued. We did a lot of public education. We had support from our respective agencies to continue the work of the coalition even though there was no money to do this.

How will we address homelessness How will we address homelessness? As long as we face the challenge together, we can achieve our goal of ending homelessness. We’ve begun to combine resources, and coordinate services. We are learning more about the problem and solutions to homelessness and are working together to meet them.