This new shelter will double the amount of beds for the homeless in Columbus
SafeHouse Ministries will increase the number of beds it has to shelter those experiencing homelessness from 84 to 192 over the next two months with the opening of a new men’s shelter in Columbus.
SafeHouse and the Hospital Authority of Columbus are partnering to reduce homelessness in Columbus by opening Freedom House, at 7200 Manor Road in the building that was formerly Cobis Personal Care Home.
It will hold 104 beds, and the men who are currently sheltered in Grace House, a transitional living facility for men, will move to Freedom House on Saturday, said Neil Richardson, executive director of SafeHouse.
Many of the ministry’s clients are dealing with substance abuse or a recovery need, he said, which was why the name Freedom House was chosen.
“Who wouldn’t want to be free?” he asked.
The women’s shelter will be moved to Grace House, Richardson said, which will increase the number of beds for women and children from 25 to 56. The current women’s shelter will be renovated into a six-unit apartment building for families experiencing homelessness.
Keeping families together is a priority, Richardson said, especially when children are involved because separating them from a parent can cause trauma to the child. Oftentimes, fathers are sent to the men’s shelter, while the mother and child are sent to the women’s shelter. Family housing can help these individuals save enough money to find stability, he said.
“They’re coming home to their apartment putting their key into that door,” Richardson said. “They’ve already started that process of returning to sanity.”
There are separated families that SafeHouse is currently assisting who will be able to reunite in the family housing, he said.
Re-purposing the Cobis Personal Care Home
The Housing Authority took good care of the building, Richardson said, so other than shampooing the carpet and moving some furniture, there isn’t much that needs to be done to re-purpose the facility.
Turning Cobis Personal Care Home into a shelter was a good concept because the facility already had much of the infrastructure in place to do so, said acting Hospital Authority CEO Britt Hayes.
“We had the beds,” he said. “We have the chairs. We have the cutlery. We had the plates. We have a kitchen. It just matched.”
The Cobis Personal Care Home was built in 1989, Hayes said, and it was the first of its kind in Georgia. Since then, the Hospital Authority has continued to grow, he said, buying and opening new assisted care facilities in recent years.
“Through the last few years, there have been nine other such entities that opened in the city,” Hayes said. “So, we became one of the older ones.”
The Hospital Authority began researching how they could re-purpose the building in a way that could benefit Muscogee County residents, Hayes said, and the board decided to approach SafeHouse about a partnership.
“They investigated who’s got some credibility and some acumen that can make this thing come alive,” Richardson said.
The intake process will continue at SafeHouse, he said. Case managers there will help determine if individuals can be rapidly rehoused or whether they need a transition. The decision will be made there before individuals will be brought to Freedom House or other shelters.
Freedom House will be able to take advantage of METRA Transit, Richardson said, which has service near the shelter. There are also vehicles that will go back and forth from SafeHouse, where clients can utilize services, to Freedom House.
Men will begin moving into Freedom House on Saturday, Richardson said, when a bus will take men from Grace House to Freedom House.
This story was originally published March 30, 2022 at 6:50 AM with the headline "This new shelter will double the amount of beds for the homeless in Columbus."
