Big ideas to solve homelessness aim to trump administration’s pivot
As the number of unsheltered people ticks up, state and local agencies are scrambling to find enough beds. They’re also having to navigate changing federal policies which threaten funding. Creativity is key and, in some places, it helps to solve homelessness. This includes the use of data analytics to keep people in their homes and state laws requiring developers to build affordable housing.
Data Analytics
During a January 23 roundtable at CET studios, President and CEO of Strategies to End Homelessness Kevin Finn detailed the success of data analytics to keep people housed. Brick by Brick focused on this idea in Season One, in which certain key metrics flag a family’s risk of eviction and money is offered up to keep them housed. “I feel like we’ve caught lightning in a bottle. We know how to reduce homelessness. This is not rocket science.”
He says it is 97 percent effective in preventing eviction, at a cost of $3,800 per family. If that same family were to become homeless, it would cost $22,500. The City of Cincinnati is funding the $2 million effort through the end of this year which hopes to help 160 families. Finn wants to extend it through the end of 2027.
The problem is, “Government sources, primarily federal, do not fund prevention.” Finn says, “If we could do more of it, we could significantly reduce homelessness if there were resources to support that sort of thing.” Continuum of Care, the largest funding stream to help homeless people from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, provides money to local agencies, but not for prevention.
Assistant Director of Human Services, Planning and Development for Montgomery County Patrick Bailey, was also part of the panel. Montgomery County is in the early stages of using data analytics to keep people housed and Finn is offering up his data system to get Dayton off the ground.
Tiny Homes
Tiny homes are also proving effective to house those who need it nationwide. Fundraising is underway for one such effort in Dayton called Beacon Place. Brick by Brick’s Emiko Moore highlighted the development last season. Patrick Bailey says, it would be a 40-unit permanent housing spot. “And the one thing that’s kind of cool about that is it’s designed specifically for folks that are experiencing homelessness.” He says the plan is to have case management and wraparound services.
Other tiny home developments are in the planning and construction stages in Cincinnati and Clermont County, specifically for unhoused veterans. The Clermont County Housing Authority is hoping to close on a property in Monroe Township this quarter.
Humanizing Homelessness
Dr. Kathy Rowell, Ph.D., is a sociologist, teacher and the Del Mar Encore Fellow for the Dayton Foundation at the Fitz Center for Leadership in the Community at the University of Dayton. She has written books on the unhoused and recently produced a documentary on children who are homeless called Evicting the American Dream.
She told Brick by Brick during the roundtable, “They shared stories of leaving pets behind, toys behind. And one little boy, when I asked him what his dream home was, told me, he said, ‘I don’t even have a dream home. I would just like a dream bed.’ He was 12 years old and had never slept on a bed. He had slept on a sleeping bag his entire life.”
Rowell says one of the fastest growing numbers facing homelessness is seniors. “Increasingly social security is not covering the cost of housing. And we ran into a gentleman who’s featured in the book. He had been on social security most of his life and then they raised the rent and he didn’t have much family and ended up in a shelter. He was crying during his interview because this was not how he thought he was going to end his life.”
Reality Check
Thousands are at risk of being back out on the streets after the Trump Administration said it would end the Housing First model, or the idea to provide housing first and then help the unhoused with other needs. This new policy is being held up in court. Author and Founder of the National Homelessness Law Center Maria Foscarinis said we must find other solutions, in this Brick by Brick podcast which aired in December, 2025.
This is top of mind for Kevin Finn and Patrick Bailey. According to Bailey, “If you’re going to take [local] permanent housing from 87 to 90 percent and drop it down to 30-percent [funding level], that means we have to transition all of these folks into transitional housing or other types of housing projects…and if this lawsuit does go through, how are we going to organize our community resources to best help folks that are in need?”
Statewide trends and initiatives
Director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO) Amy Riegel, says so many kids are unhoused there are now homeless liaisons in schools. “What we’re hearing from more and more of those school-based liaisons is that they are seeing the families who are moving between very high overcrowded situations who are doubled up, maybe spending a few weeks, a few nights in an extended stay hotel, but if the kids are coming to school say, ‘Well, we had to sleep in our car last night,’ or that perhaps they slept in a location that was not fit for human habitation.”
Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) says the number of homeless students is up 77 percent from ten years ago, totaling 4,326. CPS became so concerned it plans to open a “sleep lot,” at William Howard Taft Elementary school for those living out of their car. The district says, “The Cincinnati Public Schools Safe Sleep Lot is now expected to open in mid-April 2026, rather than March, as the vision has grown and the District adds additional supports for families, including a kitchenette stocked with meals. We’re preparing to open with a safe place to sleep, showers, laundry and warm meals.”
Criminalizing homelessness by saying you can’t sleep in public places is increasing. Kathy Rowell noticed it. “I know in Dayton, I’ve had some concerns about it because it involves law enforcement. I understand people’s concerns about encampments but there’s a way to do it humanely.”
Licking County criminalized homelessness. But COHHIO’s Amy Riegel says it did one thing right. It established a housing court, called HOME court.“in order to help them to become stable and to reduce interactions with the criminal justice system.”
Riegel thinks a big way to move the needle is to require housing developers to provide a percentage of low-income housing in new apartment buildings, like what is being done in Minnesota and Connecticut.
Minnesota:
- The state mandates inclusionary zoning which requires each development project to have a certain number of affordable units.
- A series of bills passed in 2023 provides among other things, $200 million in one-time resources for a housing infrastructure program and $90 million to buy or rehabilitate older housing stock. The housing package also allocates $45 million to the state’s Family Homeless Prevention and Assistance program.
Connecticut:
- Passed H.B. 8002 in 2025, requiring each town to develop an affordable housing plan which may include any of the following
- Agreements with developers for developments that include affordable housing units.
- Expedited housing development approval.
- Zoning regulation amendments.
- Fee waivers.
- Tax abatements.
Michigan:
- The state’s fiscal year 2025 budget included an estimated $100 million to maintain the state’s existing housing programs as well as $50 million for the Michigan Housing Community Development Fund.
- More than 60 bills related to housing were introduced in Michigan’s legislature that session, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Riegel says Ohio is behind other states which require developers to build affordable housing. She says other states do it this way: “Whether you’re a high-end luxury complex or an affordable complex, that a certain number of the units have to be for individuals at 30-percent or less or the area median income, which is helping also to create income diversity in some areas and offering different types of opportunities for people.”
Resources for the unhoused
Area counties have a variety of resources:
Strategies to End Homelessness also encourages the community to participate in “Street Reach.” It’s a free mobile app used to dispatch trained Street Outreach workers to check on and help an unhoused person.
What gives Finn, Rowell and Bailey hope
To make a meaningful impact Kevin Finn says, “Prevention, prevention, prevention. To me, that’s the future because it saves people so much trauma. He’s optimistic he’ll be able to access federal funding for prevention. Finn points to a Notre Dame University study which is looking at the positive effects of the Cincinnati data analytics program.
Kathy Rowell says, “I would have to agree that it’s prevention and I’m really excited about the right to counsel and eviction court. So, the work is happening around the country. It’s a national movement, but whatever we can do to reduce eviction.”
“Prevention is key,” says Patrick Bailey. “It is much cheaper than the alternative. I also think that it’s important, and I think partnerships are very important. There are real opportunities for us to make a big dent in the future.”
How do we combat homelessness? Will creative programs like data analytics gain traction around the state? And will the government embrace preventative solutions in the wake of Housing First cutbacks? We want to build community around context and solutions in our cities. Your feedback is very important to the effort, as we continue to dig deeper into the responses to some of our most pressing social issues, including the housing crisis. Click on the green button to take a short survey to help reinforce and refine our work. Thank you.
Ann Thompson – Host, Producer
Over the last thirty years in Cincinnati, Ann Thompson has brought a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her reporting. She has reported and anchored for WVXU, WKRC, WCKY, WHIO-TV and Metro Networks and freelanced for NPR, CBS and ABC Radio. Her work has been recognized by the Associated Press and she has won awards from the Association of Women in Communications and the Alliance for Women in Media. She is a former News Director and Operations Manager. Ann has reported from India, Japan, South Korea, Germany and Belgium as part of fellowships. Ann thinks of the Brick by Brick project as “journalism for good.” She serves as host and producer. Ann lives in Anderson Township with her husband Scott. They have two boys. Jake graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2022 and Kurt attends West Point.
