Hello! My name is Caroline Corona, and I am so excited to be serving as Homeport’s summer fellow. I am heading into my third year at Ohio State with a double major in Public Affairs and City and Regional Planning.

My project for the summer is to conduct an analysis on the impact that the Columbus Foundation’s Gifts of Kindness Fund has on preventing evictions for Homeport’s residents. The purpose of the Gifts of Kindness Fund is to provide emergency assistance to families who have experienced a sudden loss of income that makes it difficult to pay rent, utilities, transportation costs, or other necessities. Assistance comes in the form of a one-time grant, and is given to individuals or families that utilize the services of one of the program’s partner non-profits. As one of these partners, Homeport has assisted residents in receiving Gifts of Kindness grants; preventing many evictions and keeping families in stable homes during times of hardship. I will be working with Homeport to evaluate how successful Gifts of Kindness is and whether recipients remain in a stable home after the experienced hardship.

In my first week here, I’ve learned so much about the housing crisis and Homeport’s work to provide affordable housing. I had the opportunity to visit two of Homeport’s communities: American Addition and Elim Manor.

Realtor Care Day brought realtors from across Columbus to many different service sites, Homeport’s American Addition community being one of them.

American Addition is a historic community that was settled as a home for migrant and minority workers in the early 1900’s, and didn’t have city water or sewer service until decades later. I spent the day at American Addition helping with a volunteer event for Columbus Realtor Care Day. I gained a new perspective by being on the non-profit’s side of the event—I’ve helped to plan similar service events for students, but had never experienced being on the other side. The volunteers were a huge help in beautifying the Tray Lee Community Center and surrounding area, and I learned more about how a non-profit coordinates and plans volunteer events.

One of the new single-family homes that Homeport built in American Addition. They plan to have nine completed this year.

At Elim Manor, I saw another one of Homeport’s many programs—Summer Feeding. During the school year, students receive a meal at school nearly every day, but that guaranteed meal disappears when school is no longer in session. Homeport fills that gap by continuing to provide lunches to kids in the summer.

I also had the opportunity to attend Community Shelter Board’s fundraising event, where the author of Evicted, Matthew Desmond, spoke about the tragic impacts that evictions have on families and neighborhoods across the United States. I am currently reading the book, and it was a powerful experience to hear about Dr. Desmond’s work first hand. Evictions have detrimental effects on families, and I hope to learn more about how to prevent them and how to assist families in finding affordable, stable housing.

Dr. Matthew Desmond delivered a powerful message on how we must look to adopt housing-first strategies and policies to alleviate poverty.

This week served mostly as an introduction to Homeport and it’s work to alleviate the growing housing crisis in Columbus. I’ve learned so much in these first few days, and am excited for everything else I will learn and experience in the upcoming weeks. I can’t wait to get started on the project and learn about the impact that Homeport has.

On to week two!

-Caroline Corona