CINCINNATI — An initiative between the City of Cincinnati and several local groups seeks to end homelessness by working directly with the people who need the most help. Outreach workers with GeneroCity 513 walk the streets and meet with unhoused individuals, focused on getting them off the street and into a home.
While downtown Wednesday morning, GeneroCity 513's Laura Allen meets with a man who recognizes her purple jacket. Those colors are her calling card.
"You're the one I saw in the park yesterday, right?" she said to one man.
"Yes, yes," he said. "I'm reading to the first graders ... I'm going to go to the park over here and rehearse real good to make sure I don't stumble around."
Dawoo was reading to his daughter's first-grade class that day. He's a veteran working to make ends meet.
"There's some snacks in there, some wipes and socks, do you want to do a housing assessment real quick?" Allen asks him.
Dawoo is one of the thousands of people classified as homeless in the Greater Cincinnati area. He's been living in and out of various places since June 2019. He's also one of Allen's clients.
He agrees to do the housing assessment.
"I'm in a situation where I really need my own place for my child," he said.
Throughout the late morning, WCPO joined Allen as she met with five different people in 10 minutes. Most of them are in the process of applying for permanent housing. Others need to be connected for services involving mental health or substance abuse treatment.
"If you're severely mentally ill or dealing with substance abuse, you're just not going to be able to get up one morning and say, 'OK, I'm ready to just leave everything behind and be a new person,'" Allen said.
Marissa Reed, project manager for 3CDC, oversees the homeless outreach program. She said there's a balance between helping the homeless and following the law.
"If a person is not housed, they can't stably connect to other services," Reed said. "Looking at these individual situations to see what might work best versus blanket sayings we're going to follow the 72-hour notice."
The Supreme Court ruled last June that it is not cruel and unusual punishment for a city or municipality to punish someone for sleeping outside, even if they don't have a place to go. Days before that ruling, the City of Cincinnati and the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition reached an $83,000 settlement stemming from a lawsuit and how former city officials handled a large camp of people living in tents on 3rd Street in 2018. The city also changed its policy regarding how city officials handle complaints about homeless camps.
Under the new policy and settlement, Cincinnati police are no longer the first response to a complaint about a homeless camp. Instead, someone from the city manager's office has to go to the encampment, where a social worker will try to connect them with housing options.
The new policy says, "Proceed with the following notice of trespass process only after the city manager's designee has confirmed that each individual residing in an encampment has access to housing or shelter."
"People don't choose to live like this," Allen said. "There's a lot of generational trauma that's passed down, a lot of these people were raised in homelessness and it's all they know."
For Allen, getting someone into permanent housing can be complicated. Not only could there be issues of trauma, mental illness or substance abuse, but some may have a difficult time trusting someone. Building that trust takes time.
One couple approached Allen Wednesday morning needing winter coats. We're days away from the city opening its winter shelters. The temperature is already dropping outside, which can put homeless people in an even more vulnerable situation.
"You have to remember, it's a person and it's a life ... and you know we just all got to work together to figure out the best solution," said Allen.
