Explanation
This ordinance appropriates $250,000 within the General Permanent Improvement Fund, and appropriates and transfers $50,000 within the General Permanent Improvement Fund, and authorizes and directs the Direct of Development to enter into a grant agreement with the STAR House in order to provide a renovation and improvement grant for infrastructure improvements.
The STAR House is a welcoming drop-in center for youth experiencing homelessness between the ages of 14 and 24 and serves as a safe and accepting place where they can connect with a concerned community. STAR House enables the youth to do their laundry, eat, rest, bathe and receive clothing. It also acts as a place to connect to the services available through other agencies that provide educational, health, financial and food subsidies along with job-seeking skills.
There is a void of services available for homeless street-living youth between the ages of 14-24 years in Columbus, Ohio. It is estimated that over 1,500 youth in Columbus are homeless on the streets in any given night. STAR House offers a gateway from the streets to the mainstream.
Founded in 2006, STAR House began as an outgrowth of a federally-funded research program. During the course of the research, it was determined that a drop-in center is necessary in order to engage youth into more intensive services including housing, education, employment and mental/physical health treatment. STAR House uniquely integrates research and community service. Effective engagement, linkage, and treatment strategies are tested and put into practice without the myriad barriers in many other research-to-practice efforts. In this way, STAR House is always testing and implementing state of the art, evidence-based practices.
Due to extreme space constraints in its current location it is critical that STAR House move locations in order to serve the growing population of homeless youth. To that end the STAR House has secured private funding in order t...
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