DELAWARE — Tucked away near Ohio Wesleyan University, TreeHouse is a house that has given hope to dozens of unhoused and transient young adults in Delaware County.
The building once served as Ohio Wesleyan University housing and now offers long-term, rent-free living space to up to five young adults at a time through United Way of Delaware County’s Young Adult Transitional Living Program.
The program provides up to two years of housing to qualifying individuals in need who were referred to the program by agencies like local school districts, the Juvenile Courts, Jobs and Family Services and mental health board.
The goal is to help participants build life skills, a savings account, a credit score, a career path and confidence to thrive successfully once they graduate from the program.
It’s the only program of its kind in Ohio to provide 24/7-staffed, dorm-style living specifically tailored for 18 to 24-year-olds facing housing insecurity.
In its Youth Risk Behavior Survey, conducted in 2019 and 2020, UWDC found there were more than 400 youth in Delaware County in that age group at risk of homelessness.
And with Delaware County experiencing exceptional growth, that number could be increasing.
So, if there is an open spot for a referral, that person will move in if they meet intake criteria.
If there is not an open space, USDC staff work to find other solutions through their network of organizations.
The impact
“This program is specifically created to focus on that case management, to be person-centered and to really dive deep with one individual,” said Kelsey Sommers Fox, director of Housing and Community Solutions.
“You get to know them, you get to understand what their hopes and dreams are, you help remove barriers to who they would be if they didn’t have the barriers in their way.”
For Forrest, a resident who recently graduated from both high school and the program, those dreams include a career in art.
(Delaware Source is not publishing Forrest’s last name for safety reasons).
Forrest participated in the program for two years while finishing their high school career.
“I feel a lot more confident. I think I know myself a lot more, because beforehand, I really was kind of just in an RV most of my life,” Forrest said.
“ I didn’t really know a lot of people. I moved around a lot. I feel like it’s hard to know yourself if you don’t know other people.”
After completing the program, Forrest said the biggest change in their life is a new level of independence. But the financial literacy training helped prepare them. Now Forrest knows how to find an apartment and properly save money for a deposit.
Forrest’s advice to someone else coming into the program? Take full advantage of it.
Setting SMART goals
When a participant first enters the program, they must set goals for themselves that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound (SMART). The biggest goal is a savings goal, Sommers Fox said.
After a participant graduates from the program, Sommers Fox said she measures the success of the program based on if that graduate met their SMART goals.
“The year after is a big milestone. So our ultimate measurement is how many folks who have been with us have maintained permanent housing for a year after they’ve been with us,” she said.
The program also measures things such as participants’ FICO credit scores to determine program success. Beyond the numbers, the housing team also measures hope scores.
“Our participants that have low hope scores, we compare it against their exit answers, and without fail, we have a significant increase from intake hope scores to exit hope scores,” Sommers Fox said.
Even when the Treehouse is full or if the applicant has needs that extend beyond what the program provides, the Housing and Community Solutions team works to find an alternative for young adults in need.
“Sometimes that looks like referring a trafficking survivor to our friends at Harriet’s Home. Sometimes that looks like referring a friend who may still have some substance-use issues they’re dealing with to our friends over at Southeast and Maryhaven,” Sommers Fox said.
“We are willing no matter what someone is coming to us with, to find a way to get them to the place where they can be their best.”
Sommers Fox
In the three years the program has been open to participants, 50 people have participated in at least one of the four components of the program, which include community-based needs, transitional living, rental assistance and graduate case management.
How the TreeHouse came to be
The young adult transitional living program was a response to a need the UWDC staff saw in the community.
“The team would regularly get referrals from school, from the community, from other nonprofits of young adults that had recently become homeless or unhoused that they were looking for resources in Delaware, and us just struggling to find something for them,” UWDC President Brandon Feller said.
That’s when he and his team decided to explore ways to combat the issue. They started by trying to find other nearby organizations that might want to open a shelter in Delaware.
They quickly realized they would need to make it happen, so they toured six different sites across the state that serve the same age group and took what they saw working and built it into the plan for TreeHouse.
“We were able to build from scratch a program that was tailored for our community,” Feller said.
That planning for the house also included building the programming that would come with it, such as incorporating financial literacy courses, life skill building opportunities, and requirements for the participants.
Feller also had to hire a program manager and coaching staff to teach participants how to do things like navigate public transportation, set up bank accounts and other life skills.
Feller said was one of the hardest parts about designing this program was making the program one that felt like it achieved the goals they laid out.
It was even harder was getting past the fear of the unknown.
“Once we were able to give ourselves permission to take a risk and do something different, and go, and learn and bring that learning back to Delaware, we were past our biggest hurdle,” he said.
It took two to three years and several setbacks before the house was ready to welcome in participants in 2023.
Stalled funding from congress, last-minute fundraising and worries about if the right house would still be available all caused delays.
Even now that the program is three years old and wrapping up a fundraising campaign, funding the program is always a challenge.
“It’s exceeded my expectations because the impact that I’ve seen so far on the participants that have participated and graduated has been phenomenal,” Feller said.
“We’ve had young adults graduate from the program go on to higher education, to full time employment. We’ve had three that have completed their driver’s requirements since they’ve been here.”
The funding fears are always there, but seeing how it changes participants’ lives makes pushing for funding easy.
“In just a year or a year and-a-half with investing in someone’s future, you can have that much of an impact and change the course of the direction of their life. That, I think, is the story.” Feller said.
