Recently, Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services was honored at the 17th Annual OTR Community Housing (OTRCH) "Walk Our Blocks" event.
Below, are the words of Andy Hutzel, Director of Housing Services at OTRCH. He explains how our organizations began working together and the impact our relationship has had on our community's most vulnerable - those with severe mental illness who have no place to call home.
"In 2006, leadership from the Drop Inn Center shelter and those managing our county’s homeless services system came to OTR Community Housing and asked if we would build a facility for the community’s longest term, most vulnerable homeless individuals. A permanent housing facility that accepted people as they were and made no conditions for entry. OTRCH said yes but we knew we needed skilled, resilient, and creative service partners to have a chance at being successful. Oh, and we couldn’t pay them anything, so resourceful was also a key attribute.
On July 26, 2006, I received an email, which I still have, from Jeff Kirchner, who I did not know at the time. Jeff worked for Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services, commonly referred to as GCB. The email said, “I spoke to Mary Burke today about the possibility of meeting to explore how we might work together to better serve homeless mentally ill clients.” And there it was! Little did we know this would be the start of one of OTRCH’s most important and impactful partnerships.
After a couple grueling years of trying to find a site to house our most vulnerable homeless individuals, we found it on Odeon Street in OTR in 2008. While OTR Community Housing hustled to find $4-5 million to develop the site, it was Jeff Kirchner and GCB who led an ambitious effort to go after a multi-year, multi-million-dollar award from the federal government to bring intensive and comprehensive supportive services to all of the program participants. While he enlisted several valued partners in the effort, Jeff demonstrated enormous leadership and vision to pull it off. Jeff and GCB were ultimately successful and were awarded an unheard of 5-year federal contract! The ambitious initiative was on its way.
GCB was all-in on this effort to make a significant impact on reducing our community’s CH issue. We created 65 permanent supportive housing units, 40 in the community and 25 units at the Jimmy Heath House, which opened in Dec 2010. We call the combined effort Paths to Recovery. We served 100 very vulnerable residents those first 5 years. But it wasn’t just giving someone keys to an apt. GCB walked the streets and had to build trust and rapport with those living outside.
Scott lived outside in a homeless camp for over 7 years. GCB staff visited Scott in his camp for almost 2 years before he finally felt safe enough to leave his camp and move into his first apt. Scott needed a lot of support after getting those keys and stayed in supportive housing for 9 years. He has graduated and has been in independent housing for the past 2 years.
Another example, Rick has been in the homeless system since 2004. He bounced from streets, to shelter, to housing and back to the streets for almost 20 years. It wasn’t until Rick was connected to GCB’s Paths to Recovery team in early 2024 that he finally opened up to receiving the services he needed and deserved. Matt, Cierra and Donna, GCB staff, walked with him and made him feel safe, supported and dignified.
These are just two examples of the care and compassion that GCB’s Paths to Recovery staff have displayed to our program participants. Since 2009, GCB, OTRCH and our other program partners have served over 300 chronically homeless individuals. I may be biased but I strongly believe this commitment and approach have had the most significant impact on the effort to reduce chronic homelessness in our community over the past 20 years.
I want to thank all the GCB staff here today - Julie, Matt, Cierra, Donna, Nikki…
And I want to single out Jeff Kirschner for starting it all. Jeff, I am so grateful that you reached out to us 18 years ago, in 2006, and I sincerely thank you and all of the GCB staff who have committed themselves to this difficult but worthy effort ever since. Thank you! "
Learn more about the efforts of Over-the-Rhine Community Housing (OTRCH) on their website: https://otrch.org/
