Program Spotlight: A Home For Every Neighbor

Kyle Greig, former PATH outreach worker, visiting unhoused individuals in Cleveland encampment. Photography: Blake Cook

During our recent cold snap, Shawna Gurley, Director of Emergency Housing Services, and Nicole Eggert, Program Manager of Coordinated Intake, shared information about the City of Cleveland’s “A Home for Every Neighbor” initiative – a new (as of 2024) city program designed to bring a more concentrated combination of resources and interagency services to our unsheltered community members.

In the summer of last year, FrontLine began participation in the launch of this project intended to address the needs of the growing numbers of tent communities popping up around the greater Cleveland area, in alleyways, near freeway exits, and down embankments, and even right near our agency’s main office on Payne Ave in downtown Cleveland. Mayor Bibb’s plan brought together different social service agencies, each bringing their own specialty to the fore, to give a concerted effort in outreaching to the individuals inhabiting these encampments, and finding out what their needs and barriers were when it came to re-entering and maintaining stable housing.

Shawna says that while it initially seemed to be a complicated system, bringing so many agencies together in collaboration, she feels it actually helped the effort be more successful, efficient, and even sped up the process. Shawna says that this multi-partnered approach to engaging individuals was stronger than one agency doing it alone. Partnering together with experienced agencies such as NEOCH, Cleveland Mediation Center, and Safe Spaces, helped expedite the process of engaging individuals and helping them find suitable paths back into being housed “Because everyone was bringing their own expertise – FrontLine’s bringing the outreach,” she states.

And we all know that’s one of FrontLine’s biggest strengths – reaching out to individuals, meeting them where they are, rather than expecting them to come to us. Shawna and Nicki wanted to give special acknowledgment to their amazing team of outreach workers – staff such as Macayla Dowling, Coordinated Intake Outreach Navigator – without whom this work would have been far more difficult, if not impossible. Our special staff bring such a spirit of compassion to the work they do – it is nothing short of remarkable to be able to say that within a 6-month span, the Home for Every Neighbor programming has helped at least 112 individuals find their way back into permanent housing with Shawna feeling confident that “several more” will be ready soon.

Shawna noted that most of the people who’ve engaged with this programming have had a common thread of struggling to find sufficient employment, consistent employment, or employment that offered adequate wages. As we all know, the strain of grappling with poverty alone can cause a host of related issues from short-term to chronic homelessness to chronic physical and mental health conditions, the impacts of which can permeate every facet of an individual’s or family’s life.

We are thankful that FrontLine has had the opportunity to participate in this partnership and are proud to note its success thus far. We hope this initiative lays the groundwork for a sustained partnership with the City of Cleveland and these specialist agencies within its limits to bring continued, concerted outreach and services to those in need when they are ready.