The commissioners had a heated discussion last week about this topic.
“If this group is created and they’re all social service providers and they’re going to determine where these millions of dollars are going to go, who is going to be responsible for that money if something happens and goes awry?” Dixon asked Carpenter. “You’re taking taxpayer’s dollars and putting them in providers hands to make the decisions and they’re not accountable to the voters, they can’t be voted out.”
Carpenter replied, “There are so many safeguards in place that’s really, really, really unlikely to happen.”
Before signing the letter on Tuesday, Rogers objected to what he said appears to be a hazy plan at this point.
“As we understood it, there’s been meetings for more than a year, there is no specific plan or structure, how many employees it takes,” he said. “It appears it’s send the money first and then we’ll figure it out. That’s just not the way I do things.”
Butler County gets fewer dollars
The county receives money from HUD for the Permanent Supportive Housing program that provides rental assistance and treatment for the homeless who also suffer from mental illness. The YWCA and Serve City also receive some funding. Carpenter’s grassroots group wants to take over because they believe they can get more money to help the homeless.
She said for some reason, in 1995, the county was lumped in with the 80 rural counties in what’s called the “Balance of State” category for Continuum of Care funding. The larger urban counties are set up as independent entities, which is what Carpenter’s group wants to become.
“All the other urban counties get millions of more dollars that Butler County, we get $1.4 million currently, Hamilton County gets $25 million Montgomery County gets $14 million and so on so we are by far underfunded from the other counties,” she said during the board’s discussion, adding at last count in January there were more people living on the streets than in shelters. “So for the homeless service providers it feels like a crisis to them. That’s the reason they are organizing is to be able to at least govern their own future like has been offered to the other counties.”
Mindy Muller, president and CEO of Community Development Professionals, who has been administering the federal program for the county for 15 years, told the Journal-News at the official homeless “point-in-time” count in January there were 254 people on the streets and 231 sheltered for a total of 485. Last year the homeless count was 347 and the year before 266.
As for Carpenter’s claim the county could get millions more, Muller told the Journal-News HUD determines funding based on a number of factors including how much money should go to a geographic region and a Preliminary Pro Rata Need (PPRN) formula that takes into consideration population, poverty, housing overcrowding and age of housing stock.
She said the county’s PPRN in 2023 was $474,533 but they received $1.45 million, and “that means that had Butler County been its own CoC in 2023, the maximum federal funding awards would have decreased by $975,386.”
Rogers has noted Butler is the 7th largest due to it’s population, “however the other six in front of us are dominated by a large city, we are not. That’s the biggest difference.”
The awards for the 2024 application cycle for the three Butler County Permanent Supportive Housing programs are went to Serve City shelter for $218,868; the YWCA for $294,053 and the commissioners awarded $1.5 million, for a total of $2 million.
The PSH program is a voucher system and the commissioners applied for an additional 100 in 2022 but the state only approved 50, so now there are a total of 113. Muller said 120 people are being housed using the commissioners' vouchers.
Carpenter’s group sent a letter notifying the Balance of State Continuum of Care on Feb. 28 they intend to apply to HUD “for recognition as an independent, urban county Continuum of Care.”
“The Butler County Housing and Homeless Collaborative Board is committed to developing effective, data-driven solutions for Butler County’s homeless crisis,” Deb Wells, the group’s secretary, wrote. “By ensuring strong governance, strategic funding allocation, and collaborative partnerships, our Board will work toward a future where homelessness is rare, brief, and nonrecurring. Our initiative aligns with the other urban county Continuum of Care organizations in Ohio.”
Carpenter’s group has been meeting for years but only recently started organizing itself as an official 501(c)(3) so it would be eligible to serve as an independent Continuum of Care and handle HUD homeless funding. Wells told the Journal-News “we’re close.”
“The group has begun the process of establishing a board as directed by HUD,” Wells said. “We are in the process of formalizing membership, writing the governance charter and drafting policies and procedures.”
As to the objection the other commissioners sent she said, “it’s going to be up to HUD to determine whether or not they’re going to formally recognize the board as the entity for this area. I don’t know how much weight they will put to that, I don’t know if it will be part of their consideration, I don’t know what their process is.”
Carpenter wasn’t at the meeting when the objection letter was approved and could not be reached for comment.
The Ohio Department of Development and the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO) manage the Balance of State Continuum of Care for HUD. Marcus Roth, communications/development director for COHHIO, said they have “limited knowledge” of the process for an entity to separate from the 80-county group but have a general idea what must be involved.
“From our communications with HUD officials, it is our understanding that in order to form a new CoC a community must demonstrate widespread community education and a vote that shows consensus for separation among a broad array of partners that include direct service providers, people with lived experience of homelessness, civic leaders, and others who are engaged in the effort to address homelessness in the community,” Roth told the Journal-News.
Efforts to combat issue continue
The commissioners hosted two Housing Insecurity and Advocacy summits last year with representatives from across the county. In her letter to HUD on behalf of Dixon and Rogers Boyko mentioned the summits. She wrote they are “convinced sustainable impact on addressing the homeless circumstances requires input, consent and investment from all.”
Dixon has always maintained “buy-in” from all of the local communities is essential, hence the countywide meetings. He blamed Carpenter for lobbying for additional vouchers — which she said was a “painful” process — without seeking community support.
“If you talk to the safety service providers that have to deal with these they’ll tell you it’s been real painful for them, they were not geared up to handle anymore, they’re trying to manage the situations that they have and through your efforts you’ve put more services on them without their consent or buy-in,” he said. “Yes you did that and yes it was very painful for them, probably a lot more than you, and really painful for the taxpayers because they’re the ones that have to pay for it.”
Carpenter said the mayors of Middletown and New Miami and a Hamilton city council member among others are actively involved in the grassroots effort.
The commissioners have agreed to hire a homeless coordinator to direct the countywide homeless effort and Boyko said she is working on the job description and will have it ready for approval shortly. Another summit will also be scheduled soon.
When asked what she thinks of the grassroots effort, Muller said she wants to do what’s best for the county and “I can’t find a way that this is a better idea than what we currently have,” especially since COHHIO does the “lion’s share” of administering the federal program and it doesn’t cost the county a dime.
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