CINCINNATI — When Carrie Simon moved into Bethany House in October 2022 with her 20-year-old son who lives with disabilities, she didn't expect to still be living there the following May.
Bethany House is the largest family-focused homeless shelter operator in Greater Cincinnati and it's grown even larger after opening the doors to a new shelter in Bond Hill. But the impact of a lack of affordable housing availability can still be felt by every family it serves.
Simon said while she's felt well cared for by Bethany House and its staff, the wait to get her own home has been stressful.
"I was frustrated and I just wanted to get a place," said Simon. "I just wanted to get out of here, because I've been here a long time."
Bethany House opened the doors to its new, nearly-60,000-square-foot shelter on Reading Road in September.
It's a move that took years to complete, starting with the journey to consolidate Bethany House's seven different buildings — three in Fairmount, two in Westwood, one in College Hill and one in Bond Hill.
In June 2018, the shelter bought 2.63 acres from St. Aloysius, followed by an effort to raise millions of dollars to achieve that feat.
Now, Bethany House has an expanded 43 bedrooms for families that can stay together in their own room. The new facility also means staff are working under that same roof, eliminating the need for families to travel to different locations to meet with case workers or the housing program.
"Before, we were in Fairmount in three smaller buildings where we had to go across the street to have meetings," said Juwana Glover, COO of Bethany House Services. "Clients had to come to different locations to meet with their case manager and so being in this one space has made it a lot easier for us to work together, work with our families, provide the services on-site so people can get whatever it is they need here, versus having to go to different places within the community."
The COVID-19 pandemic also forced many families relying on Bethany House into hotels, which created an even greater divide between staff, services and families, Glover said.
In the new facility, a variety of services designed to help families are under one roof. A physician is on-site Monday through Thursday, therapists can visit the shelter to see patients dealing with trauma and programming opportunities are available to help both parents and children. Life skills classes, financial management classes and after-school programs are all offered inside the new facility.
Despite Bethany House's growth, Cincinnati's need for emergency shelters serving families has also grown.
The pandemic created an increase in families experiencing homelessness, but even before that, numbers were climbing in Cincinnati.
In 2019, 1,700 families experiencing homelessness called Strategies to End Homelessness' helpline looking for assistance — a 20% increase over 2018.
Glover said in 2022, Bethany House Services served over 2,000 individuals.
"We serve about 14% of families that call our CAP Line, which is the 513.381.SAFE number, so that means that over 80% of families are not being served within our communities because the shelters do not have the capacity, and even though we grew coming into this location, there still is not enough housing for our families — enough shelters, emergency shelters, for our families."
Roughly 90% of Bethany House's clients are mothers, though the shelter serves entire families and single parents of any gender, Glover said. The people who pass through the rooms inside Bethany House range from infancy to elderly and across all racial demographics.
"Sometimes we have three generations — we'll have a grandparent, a mother and a child here in shelter due to varying circumstances," said Glover.
Despite a housing program that's connected to both the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Strategies to End Homelessness, those families are staying at Bethany House for longer as available affordable housing in Cincinnati has slimmed.
"When it comes to affordable housing in our community, we are lacking," said Glover. "The last time I heard, we were like 40,000 units that we needed in our community and we know that when individuals come in here they have children, they have barriers, they have evictions that they have to work through."
On top of that, units that were once affordable have risen out of reach of many families experiencing homelessness as landlords raise rents.
Bethany House's goal is to move families from its homeless shelter and into affordable housing where they can be self-sustaining in under 55 days. Recently, families have been forced to stay in the shelter for up to 70 days on average.
"We have landlords who are raising their rents sometimes 35% to 45% and individuals cannot afford that, and that has been a huge concern," said Glover. "So, instead of having individuals that stay in our shelter for 45 to 55 days, we have some people who have been here over 100 days because they cannot find an affordable unit for their family."
Simon and her son have been at Bethany House for over 200 days.
Her case is uniquely challenging, because of her son's needs — which includes the family dog, Max, who is being cared for in another shelter.
"He actually sniffs out when my son has a seizure," said Simon. "We had one while we were here so we had a little setback, but we're doing better and we're getting him there, and he's getting ready to have to do physical therapy."
Glover said accessibility needs like Simon's son's create further barriers to affordable housing for clients who already have to overcome a lot.
Despite those barriers, Simon's situation is looking up; she's found a place to live and is just working on paperwork to be finalized before she gets the keys to her new home.
"You know, all good things do come at slow times, you just have to be patient," said Simon. "It's rough, but we made it this far, we're gonna keep trucking."
She said that, although a journey like hers is frustrating, staying positive helps.
"It's hard. It's hard being stressed," she said. "Just keep being positive. Don't let things get to you, because I kinda did and it was really hard for me. But it's getting there, and I'm getting there. I just want people to know you're not alone. There's other people that go through this and there's other people that have it worse, so look at it like that when you're ready to lose it."
Bethany House accepts both monetary and item donations to help the families it serves. When a family moves out and into housing they are gifted a Bethany Basics basket filled with cleaning supplies and general household items to get them started. New, unopened items for those baskets are always needed.
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