The Welcome House, Inc., which serves eight counties in Northern Kentucky, has a 40-year track record of meeting the needs of the homeless and those living in poverty who are on the verge of homelessness.
In 2020, the Welcome House served 2,777 persons, which is a 140% increase since 2017. Despite the overwhelming need for services, the Sponsor’s current facilities are inadequate and causes operational challenges regarding service delivery. For example, staff and resources are scattered among multiple locations, and clients must often go to three different sites to receive services.
The Welcome House’s current shelter is a historic building that was not designed to be a shelter; the facility has inadequate bathroom, dining, and laundry capacities. Also, the current shelter only two offices that are shared by staff; meetings with clients must be done offsite due to space constraints and privacy concerns. Finally, the Welcome House’s current facility can only serve women and single mothers with children, and there is a continual waitlist of those needing access to temporary housing. Even though it is the only organization in Northern Kentucky that can serve two-parent families and single fathers with children, the Welcome House cannot currently shelter these families.
The Welcome Center embarked on a capital campaign to create a new single-site delivery model that would consolidate its three separate locations under a single roof, which would significantly expand its scale and capacity.
The Welcome House’s new Homeless Services Center will consolidate operations, improve the efficiency of service delivery to clients, and significantly expand shelter capacity for homeless individuals and families. The 3-story, 20k sq. ft. facility has been strategically designed to be flexible to meet the evolving needs of the homeless in the decades to come. In addition to providing space for women and children, it will also serve two-parent families and single fathers with children. The project will include the following capabilities:
- Significant expansion of Welcome House’s shelter capacity:
- Shelter for single women and single mothers with children increase to 38
- Shelter for two-parent families and single fathers with children will be 22
- Fully ADA-compliant design, enabling disabled and elderly persons to live in the shelter
- Increased restroom, shower, and laundry capacities, state-of-the-art kitchen, and upgraded security systems
- Spacious dining room that can accommodate shelter residents and be used as a large meeting space
- Common area and lounge space for residents
- Upgraded utilities and energy efficient technologies
COVID-19 increased the demand for the Sponsor’s services by over 30% since 2019, and heightened the urgency for The project to meet the needs of those facing homelessness in the Northern Kentucky region. The region suffers from a severe shortage of affordable housing, and with the COVID-19 eviction moratorium ending and fallout from the pandemic putting additional strain on resources, the demand for Welcome House’s services is expected to increase even more in the coming years.