A project to renovate a former children’s home into 16 permanent supportive housing units might soon provide an option for homeless people near Athens.
Permanent Supportive Housing is a government-subsidized housing program in which participants put less than 30 percent of their income toward their rent.
“It’s very expensive to have homeless people in a community,” Angela Stoller-Zervas, supportive services manager for Community Properties of Ohio said. She added that Permanent Supportive Housing is a better way to serve homeless individuals and families than regular sheltering.
The Corporation for Supportive Housing is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to creating specialized housing. Locally, the CSH has provided training and technical assistance with different specialized housing projects.
Sally Luken, director of the Ohio office for CSH, said that one specific six-month training institute, Opening New Doors, resulted in the formation of two current housing projects: Pearl House and Rutherford House.
The Rutherford House project in Lancaster is currently restoring three historical structures, including the former Fairfield County Children’s Home, and will be turning them into three one-bedroom apartments, seven two-bedroom apartments and six three-bedroom apartments — a total of 16 permanent supportive housing units.
One of the organizations in charge of the project, the Lancaster-Fairfield Community Action Agency, is working to provide permanent supportive housing for family units instead of just individuals.
Families with housing instability, very low income (at or below 35 percent of the area median income) and the additional challenge of having to address a physical or mental special need within the family are potential candidates for living in the Rutherford House structure, said housing director Donna Fox-Moore.
“We’re serving the very most vulnerable families in our community,” Fox-Moore said.
In addition to having somewhere to live, future residents of the Rutherford House supportive housing units will be provided access to services like early childhood care and case management.
The Lancaster-Fairfield Community Action Agency also has partnerships with recovery, health, developmental disability and other service providers that Rutherford House residents can be connected to if need be.
Most of the candidates to live in the new apartments will be local to the area, Lancaster-Fairfield Community Action Agency executive director Kellie Ailes said.
There is an application process, and families can also be referred to the agency by shelters. However, they must meet the aforementioned criteria in order to be eligible for residence in the Rutherford House.
“We are providing housing and support that can provide for immediate need and look at long-term need,” Fox-Moore said. “We’re providing a resource through which (we hope to) break the cycle of poverty.”
“In addition to being more cost-effective, permanent supportive housing can help families to be successful and stay together,” Luken said.
“The agency wouldn’t have been able to go through this process on its own,” Ailes said.
“It can’t be understated how much we appreciate the programs, funders and different community organizations that helped us get to this point,” Ailes said.
“This has certainly been a long journey to get from the formation of the idea of the project to the reality of beginning construction. It’s more than just
a building.”
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