County Does a Good Job on Funding Request

County Scores in the Top of the United States on Federal Homeless Application

In a time when the County is kicked around for the corruption and the inability to police itself, we have some good news. Cuyahoga County and especially Ruth Gillett director of the Office of Homeless Services scored in the highest percentile in the United States for applications for federal dollars. In the past, cities received a bonus for high scores, but this year they just got a pat on the back. Anyway, Gillett and the Cuyahoga County application scored a 90.25 out of 100. The high score in the United States was 91.25. Those cities that scored below 71.25 did not get their full funding. None of the cities in Ohio fell below the 71.25 funding thresh hold. Cuyahoga County had the high score in Ohio. Cincinnati had an 88.5; Dayton received a 86.25 with the State of Ohio which is completed by COHHIO received a 85.25. Akron and Canton both received an 80 with Youngstown at 80.75 and Toledo finishing with 81.25. Columbus drew up the rear for the state with a 79.25. Columbus previously had a score below the minimum funding level, which meant that only existing programs were funded for one year and the rest of their allocation went to other cities. So, congratulations to Ruth Gillett and Cuyahoga County.

No one in this community can deny that Ruth does a great job on the applications for resources especially from other governments. I have never understood why the Office of Homeless Services did not concentrate only on raising funds and applying for dollars, and leave all the rest to some other entity (planning, research, coordination, training, oversight, and enforcement). If we could figure out a way for homeless people, advocates and the service providers to have some say in how decisions are made locally for the allocation of resources and who has access to assistance, we could move things forward in actually reducing the number of people experiencing homelessness.

Brian
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