Transcript 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.

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
([email protected])
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?
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?
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.