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With a shortage of shelters, community leaders step up to support the homeless during a record-setting winter
By: Amanda Pirani
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB/Report for America) — Ohio saw one of the harshest winters in decades this year, with eight consecutive days below 20 degrees and several bouts of heavy snowfall.
And for those without housing, those conditions aren’t just unpleasant. They can be deadly.
“It was definitely during those times when it would have been very dangerous to be outside, single digits, under 15 (degrees),” said Ginger Schmalenberg, director of Athens nonprofit The Gathering Place.
In 2025, the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio counted over 800 homeless individuals in the region.
That’s based on a point-in-time count, an estimate of how many people are without housing in a community based on a one-night count. However, tracking homelessness can be difficult, and community leaders say the actual number of homeless individuals is likely higher than what the data shows.
Many organizations say they’ve seen the need in their communities grow, citing factors like a lack of affordable housing and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When I first was here, if I had 10 or 15 clients per day, at that time, we thought we were busy,” said Susan Arnold, director of The Washington County Homeless Project. “And now, on Monday we had 40 clients.”
But most counties in southeast Ohio don’t have a shelter for the homeless or transitional housing. Efforts to meet that need in the region continue to face challenges.
The Sunset Motel emergency shelter project in Athens, for example, faced multiple delays in the bidding process. After receiving another over-budget bid in February, Hocking-Perry-Athens Community Action is reviewing its proposal and assessing next steps.
In Jefferson County, Urban Mission Ministries closed its shelter in October, citing financial difficulties.
To fill in the gaps, community leaders moved quickly to ensure that people without housing stayed safe during severe weather this winter.
“The recent snowstorm and subzero temperatures really brought homelessness to the forefront, at least here in Guernsey County,” said Stephanie Laube, director of the Samaritan Center, a nonprofit providing transitional housing in Guernsey County.
Without shelter, counties took emergency measures to protect homeless residents
Advocates say providing emergency shelter is often more complicated than people might realize.
Most counties in southeast Ohio don’t have what’s known as a low-barrier shelter. That’s a place people can go without a significant application process or program requirements.
Those that do operate in Chillicothe and Parkersburg are typically full, though some increased their capacity because of the extreme conditions.
Getting people to these facilities requires transportation, which not every organization can provide. In Marietta, Washington County Homeless Project staff drove their clients back and forth to Parkersburg.
In Athens, a warming center run by The Gathering Place and United Campus Ministry required full-time staff members and community donations to operate.
Schmalenberg said that not everyone without housing will stay at a warming center overnight, even if one is available. That can be for a lot of reasons, like traumatic past experiences or fear of leaving pets behind.
In many areas, the best option to protect people from hypothermia was distributing supplies like propane, sleeping bags and handwarmers.
“These are things we can afford to give out,” Schemalenberg said. “We can’t solve the problem of people not being housed, but when it’s the most bitter and the most dangerous, we can help with that.”
Other organizations, like the Perry Housing Coalition, opted to put people up in a local hotel, though the high price point comes with its own challenges.
“All we can afford is to give people two nights,” said director Luann Cooperrider. “It was cold much more than two nights. But that’s really all we have.”
New Lexington, the county seat, effectively zoned out homeless shelters in 2021, though Cooperrider said the organization has never been able to receive enough funding for a shelter in the area.
Efforts to support the homeless face political barriers
City or county regulations are an ongoing challenge for organizations supporting homeless people in the region.
In Athens County, zoning for three temporary shelters uptown saw years of pushback and delays. In Hocking, short-term housing for former foster youth also saw resistance when a zoning exemption was requested. Both projects were ultimately granted approval.
In Marietta, the city’s Planning Commission did not approve a proposal from the Washington County Homeless Project to turn its downtown property into an overnight shelter this winter.
Cooperrider believes part of the problem is helping local leaders understand the extent of homelessness in the area.
“I’m not sure that they think we have a homeless problem because they don’t see it,” Cooperrider said. “For us to get anywhere, we really need them to be on board.”
Advocates say couch surfing, sleeping in cars, or camping in the woods are common ways for people to survive without housing. But that’s not as visible as the urban encampments one might see in a city, making it harder to convince communities there is an issue.
“It’s a lot different in rural regions,” said Vinton County social worker Tiffany Harvey-Piatt. “So it looks like there are none … or you can’t actually say they’re homeless … living in homes that don’t have electricity or running water or anything like that.”
Gathering reliable information on the scope of homelessness in a community can also be challenging. Annual counts only track the number of homeless individuals on a particular night. Sometimes that only addresses a particular location or public area.
Many people are also nervous about speaking with case workers or law enforcement and may choose to remain out of sight.
Those complexities make it difficult for advocates to show the actual scope of homelessness in their communities.
But Vinton social workers Emily Janey and Harvey-Piatt said not every story is one of local opposition.
The two have led grassroots efforts to provide hot meals and warming centers the last two winters in Vinton County relying solely on volunteers and donations. This year, they encountered a family living in their car, after the house they were renting was suddenly placed on the market.
Janey said that within a few hours of seeking donations for a security deposit on Facebook, she and Harvey were able to secure them housing.
“It’s been phenomenal, the support from the community,” Janey said. “Nobody wants anyone to pass away because of the cold … just as soon as we ask for help, somebody shows up.”
Amanda Pirani is WOUB’s Report for America Journalist covering Economic Livelihood. For more information about Report for America, you can click here.