Council President Ginther Tours Soon-To-Be Completed Drop-In Center for Homeless Youth
Columbus City Council
President Andrew J. Ginther toured the soon-to-be completed new STAR House, a
24 hour drop-in center for homeless teens and young adults. Since 2006,
STAR House has been located in an 1800 square foot home at the corner of 12th
Avenue and 4th Street near the campus of The Ohio State
University. A significant financial commitment from the Columbus City
Council, sponsored by Council President Ginther, is helping the organization
transition into a 14,000-square-foot facility at 1220 Corrugated Way.
“The move will allow STAR
House to meet the growing demands for services within the homeless population,”
said President Ginther. “When I toured the old shelter near campus, I saw
how the teens were doing the best they could to cope with their challenges in a
cramped, dark, and uninviting space. The new facility gives STAR House
nearly six times the square footage to help these young people improve their
lives by getting the medical and mental health screenings along with job
training and education services they need.”
In the last ten months,
President Ginther has sponsored two pieces of legislation that have enabled
STAR House to make the move to a new location possible and continue providing
programming to young people. City Council provided $300,000 in General
Permanent Improvement Funds within the Capital Budget to renovate the
Corrugated Way facility and $125,000 for operating expenses following cuts in
state funding to STAR House.
"Without City funding, STAR House would have been
forced to go from being open 24 hours a day, seven days a week to a weekday, 9-5
operation,” said Terry O'Connell, President of the STAR House Foundation. “As a
result of President Ginther's leadership, STAR House will not have to turn our
homeless young people out during the evening hours and on the weekends when
they are the most vulnerable to gang violence, human trafficking and other
horrible conditions found on the streets in the evening and early morning hours
of the day. Andy Ginther is a hero to homeless teens and young adults."
STAR House serves up to 70 youth per day and provides services to 724 young
people who visited the shelter more than 17,000 times in 2014. The organization
was founded in 2006 as the product of a federally funded research program that
determined the need for a drop-in center to provide homeless and
housing-insecure youth with essential, intensive services like housing, education,
employment, and mental and physical healthcare.
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