Story: Bethany House Services

The Sponsor

Bethany House Services is a Cincinnati nonprofit organization providing housing and services to 3,500 people annually. It focuses both on immediate needs and on the root causes of homelessness, including affordable housing, mental and physical health, and the challenges of parenting alone while working low-wage jobs. Its holistic services range from life skills education to children's programming, and it provides after-shelter case management and financial support to ensure families can stay in stable housing.

Bethany operates five shelters and two administrative offices in the city. It also has homeless diversion programs that connects people on the verge of homelessness with immediate housing alternatives. It primarily serves people of color.

The Project

Bethany is building a new 222-bed facility that will combine its disparate shelters and its administrative offices in one 57,000-square-foot building in the Bond Hill community. The $18.6 million development has substantial support from local stakeholders and connects to LISC Cincinnati’s 2020 community-wide housing strategy. Broadstreet is dedicating $5 million of LISC’s New Markets Tax Credit allocation to the deal as part of a package that also includes NMTC commitments from the Cincinnati Development Fund and PNC. PNC is the investor as well.

Impact Statistics

  • $5m Broadstreet NMTC Allocation
  • 6 Projected Permanent Jobs Created
  • 4,550 Projected People Served Annually

The Impact

The project will expand the number of residents served by 30 percent while also supporting a broader range of services, including trauma-informed care as part of expanded medical/mental health support. The new facility will serve a surrounding community where the poverty rate approaches 31 percent, unemployment is more than double the city’s overall rate, and residents earn 43 percent of the area median income. It will help keep people safely housed, which has a ripple effect on such key quality of life measures as employment, health and education for families.