Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless

What it reported doing in 2024

ADVOCACY, COMMUNITY ORGANIZING & POLICY (GREATER CINCINNATI UNITED HOMELESS CONGRESS): 2025 was the year of the Homeless Congress! The Greater Cincinnati United Homeless Congress was birthed following the historic lawsuit that was settled between us and the City of Cincinnati. The Homeless Congress was established to represent those experiencing homelessness in all forms: whether outdoors, bouncing from couch to couch, in a car, or shelter living, we desired every voice, because, while systemic, the experience of homelessness is not monolithic. In 2025, we were able to establish consistent meeting times with our folks at both Shelterhouse's men's and women's shelters, Our Daily Bread (ODB), Bethany House family shelter, outdoor camps, and at the library. The formation of this group excited many of our folks and dozens of people were interested in joining. This led to the group deciding to formalize membership. The group decided elected representation from each form of homelessness would establish the authenticity of the group. Thus, elections were held at each shelter, ODB, and libraries. People nominated themselves or someone else. After a month of elections at the shelters, the Greater Cincinnati United Homeless Congress had its first official meeting of elected representatives in February 2025 and hasn't looked back! The Homeless Congress had several victories this year. The group drove to Washington D.C. to participate in the National Homeless Coalition's rally on Capitol Hill. More than 20 people made the trip, and also met with several other individuals who were leading their own Homeless Unions in their respective cities. The momentum from the D.C. trip led to us being featured in several articles from WLWT, WCPO and Enquirer, which included front page coverage! In an open luncheon at Christ Cathedral, the Congress invited individuals with lived experience of homelessness to discuss what they would like to see happen in Cincinnati. More truly affordable housing was highlighted as the top priority for all of those in attendance and the group decided to form a petition to call on Cincinnati's City Council to create more truly affordable housing so we all have a healthy place to live. That petition will be released early in 2026! Over the summer, the Congress played a key role in planning the Fall 2025 National Coalition's National Lived Experience Training Conference to be hosted in Cincinnati. This conference will bring hundreds of people who have experienced homelessness from across the country to Cincinnati to learn from each other and discuss plans for how we can strengthen our national movement. The Congress also nominated one of its elected members to an open position on the local Continuum of Care board, known as the Homeless Clearinghouse. This person was then elected by majority vote of our Homeless Coalition Member Organizations, and appointed to the Clearinghouse, which decides how to strategically manage federal homeless response funds. ADVOCACY, COMMUNITY ORGANIZING & POLICY (TENANT ORGANIZING): We will never have enough affordable housing to end homelessness if we don't save the affordable housing we do have and build power to secure more. We both build power and save homes, through organizing with Tenants. When Tenants come together as one collective body, the group can overcome slumlords and greedy developers, reverse years of neglect and save their homes not only for themselves, but generations to come. Tenant organizing is our most powerful work to build power to fight against poor housing conditions, fight gentrification, and keep existing affordable housing affordable. Tenant organizing builds grassroots power necessary to achieve an equitable Cincinnati, accessible to us all. We have been organizing with Tenants at Williamsburg Apartments, which sits in Cincinnati, Springfield Township and Wyoming, for three years. When we got involved, Tenants were staring down the barrel of abhorrent living conditio

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 74.3%; rating input score 74
• Program expense ratio: 77.3%; rating input score 77
• Fundraising efficiency: $7.22 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 26th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: Limited
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 6 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 75
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Missing
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 5%; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.08; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.06; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 16.6%; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 4.1% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 3.7% per year; rating input score 100; 45th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 10.4% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings