{"id":17138,"date":"2011-12-01T06:40:15","date_gmt":"2011-12-01T11:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=17138"},"modified":"2011-12-02T02:46:42","modified_gmt":"2011-12-02T07:46:42","slug":"yw-given-housing-program-grant-but-more-needs-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2011\/12\/01\/yw-given-housing-program-grant-but-more-needs-done\/","title":{"rendered":"YWCA receives housing program grant"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
The former Van Wert Woman's Club building on South Washington Street would make a great homeless shelter if funds can be found to make renovations. (YWCA photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While local YWCA officials are pleased with a nearly $180,000 grant for its transitional housing program, more money is needed to fulfill all the goals of the much-used — and needed — program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited, that\u2019s for sure, because it\u2019s a large increase from before,\u201d said YWCA of Van Wert County Executive Director Stacy Looser of the two-year grant recently awarded to the program by the Ohio Department of Development, through its Ohio Housing Trust Homeless Assistance Grant program. \u201cWe\u2019re glad that the state sees the value in what we\u2019re offering here, and sees the potential and the positive changes that have happened over the past couple of years in particular.\u201d<\/p>\n

The YWCA, which has applied for — and received — the grant every two years since the late 1990s, had originally sought more than $200,000 this year, but Looser said the $179,700 received was still substantially more than the $143,000 awarded two years ago.<\/p>\n

The grant money will help pay for operating costs of the program, Looser and Program Director Danni Chiles said, including utilities, upkeep and a portion of program salaries. Two other grants, of $92,700 and $14,300, were also awarded through the ODOD to make previous improvements to Transitional Housing facilities.<\/p>\n

Looser said it was nice to see an increase in funding from the grant this time around, even though the grant amount was less than originally sought.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we all agree that if they hadn\u2019t felt we weren\u2019t doing positive things for the community, there\u2019s no way they would have given us that big an increase,\u201d Looser noted.<\/p>\n

However, YWCA officials continue to pursue their ultimate goal of offering housing to entire homeless families, including men, but that will take additional state funding or community donations before it can happen.<\/p>\n

The fulfill that goal, the YWCA would need to open the South Washington Street house donated by the former Van Wert Woman\u2019s Club when that organization disbanded a couple of years ago. However, to do so would cost a least $10,000 — and probably more — since the house has several infrastructure problems that need to be addressed.<\/p>\n

Looser said the upstairs bathroom in the house needs some plumbing repairs, and a leak caused by the plumbing problems has caused damage to some interior walls on the first floor of the dwelling. Two showers also need to be installed in the building if it is to be used by homeless families.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Woman\u2019s Club really didn\u2019t use the building very much, so there are some other things that would need to be done before it could be opened,\u201d Chiles noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping some generous individuals or organizations — maybe even a local plumber — would donate funds or their time to help us make the necessary repairs and add showers to the house,\u201d Looser said.<\/p>\n

Currently, the YWCA\u2019s Transitional Housing Program includes a house located next to the YW\u2019s main building, as well as residential housing on the upper floor of the main facility. The program serves homeless women over the age of 18 and their children who live not only in Van Wert County, but in Mercer and Paulding counties as well.<\/p>\n

Eligibility requirements include being near the poverty line, as well as the ability to live independently after leaving the program following the 18-month assistance period. That would eliminate older women, for example, who aren\u2019t able to care for themselves, as well as others who can\u2019t live on their own for one reason or another.<\/p>\n

Being able to open up the former Woman\u2019s Club building, Looser said, would substantially increase the YWCA\u2019s ability to assist entire homeless families — something that can\u2019t be done now with the existing facilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a real need out there that we would like to fill,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor While local YWCA officials are pleased with a nearly $180,000 grant for its transitional housing program, more money is needed to fulfill all the goals of the much-used — and needed — program. \u201cWe\u2019re excited, that\u2019s for sure, because it\u2019s a large increase from before,\u201d said YWCA of Van Wert County Executive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-11 13:51:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17138\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}