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Community Shelter Board asks Columbus for $14.3 million to stabilize shelter system
Summary
The Community Shelter Board asked Columbus City Council’s housing committee for $14.3 million to preserve core shelter operations and fund outreach, winter warming centers and diversion programs; council members pressed CSB and the administration on priorities, provider impacts and how available bond and federal funds interact with operating shortfalls.
Shannon Isom, president and CEO of the Community Shelter Board, told the council’s housing, homelessness and building committee that the board is seeking $14,300,000 from the city for 2026 to both stabilize emergency shelter operations and invest in programs intended to reduce unsheltered homelessness.
Isom distinguished core system operations — emergency shelter, rapid rehousing, direct client assistance and day-to-day crisis response — from what she called transformational investments that shorten homelessness episodes and prevent shelter entry. She listed five priority enhancements in that second bucket: expanded street outreach, winter warming centers and weather emergency response, integration of shelter beds under a single system for efficiency, and increased single-adult diversion.
Shannon Isom told council that the mayor’s proposed budget includes $5,700,000 for core shelter system operations and an additional $1,500,000 targeted to the winter warming center this year, leaving a gap CSB quantified at about $7,100,000 from partners and the city to meet its full $14.3 million request. Isom said funding below that threshold would force a recalibration of the number of people the system can serve and could reduce prevention and diversion capacity.
Council members asked Isom to prioritize the request. She said winter warming centers would be the first priority because they enable earlier planning and local community response, and that stabilizing emergency shelter providers would remain central. Isom also urged additional investment in prevention and diversion to keep people out of shelters — an approach she said is smaller-scale, upstream and cost-effective compared with shelter stays.
Public testimony underscored the human stakes. Shelley Whalen of Community Mediation Services described nearly 2,000 mediated eviction cases last year, saying 72% of settlements kept tenants in their homes and that prevention work cost the city far less than emergency shelter stays. Resident Glenn Tumala called on the city to aim for zero deaths among people experiencing homelessness and said he believed more drastic locally driven measures, including tiny homes and zoning changes, were needed.
Isom said CSB would prioritize shelter providers and convene partner leadership to make transparent decisions if the full $14.3 million could not be found. Council members and staff asked for continued engagement to identify where city resources and partner dollars could be most effective during final budget decisions.
