Mission Statement

COHHIO is a coalition of organizations and individuals committed to ending homelessness and to promoting decent, safe, fair, affordable housing for all, with a focus on assisting low-income and special needs populations.

Who We Are

COHHIO is a coalition of housing organizations, homeless service providers, and individuals working together to secure the policies, resources, and services necessary to expand access to housing and end homelessness in Ohio. We promote strategies to make homelessness a brief, rare, one-time event for vulnerable individuals and families. We pursue these goals in several ways:

  • Advocacy and Research – promoting sound policy among members of the Statehouse and Ohio’s Congressional Delegation;
  • Training and Technical Assistance – ensuring that service providers are using the most effective, evidence-based practices to help people overcome housing instability and underlying issues;
  • Service Coordination – helping coordinate homeless and housing services and resources among the many nonprofits and local governments in Ohio’s rural and suburban counties, and;
  • Housing Information – providing knowledge to tenants, housing and service providers to help them resolve problems maintaining their housing.

Who We Serve

COHHIO works closely with agencies directly serving vulnerable Ohioans every day. Coalition building is key to our success in advocacy, training, and service coordination. Our network includes hundreds of organizations and individuals, including:

  • Shelter service providers;
  • Faith-based organizations
  • Advocacy groups;
  • Local government officials
  • Housing developers
  • People with lived experience, and
  • Anyone interested in striving to improve the quality of life for housing-insecure Ohioans.

Our History

COHHIO’s roots stretch back to the Ohio Housing Coalition, formed in 1974, and the Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, organized in 1984. The two groups merged in 1994 to create the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, which was led by Bill Faith until his retirement in 2022, when Amy Riegel became COHHIO’s executive director. COHHIO was instrumental in the creation and maintenance of the Ohio Housing Trust Fund, the advancement of housing first policies at the state and federal levels, protecting consumers from predatory lending practices, and highlighting the power of housing to improve healthcare, education, justice and other public policy issues facing our state.

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COHHIO receives ongoing generous support from the George Gund Foundation, the Nord Family Foundation, Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland, dozens of corporate sponsors (see our conference page), and Community Shares of Mid Ohio.

COHHIO is a proud participant in the Community Shares of Mid Ohio workplace giving program, where employees make paycheck contributions to more than 60 nonprofits working locally to strengthen and enhance our community.