Support an un-housed community in Columbus, Ohio

The FIRST Collective is a group of organizers and activists in Columbus, Ohio, focused on direct grassroots action and mutual aid. On the near-east side of Columbus, FIRST Collective has an encampment set up for un-housed folks that is entirely volunteer run. Columbus has one of the largest populations of people experiencing houselessness in all of Ohio. Columbus’ community shelter board currently has a 16% success rate, leaving many folks without access to shelter. The community is now stepping in and stepping up to take care of those being continuously failed by our city government and their partner agencies.

 

During the months of January-March, FIRST was provided an overnight warming center during below freezing nights, that offered a safe and warm place for un-housed community members to stay at the Old First Presbyterian Church. Unfortunately, the warming center closed following a series of unwarranted conflicts with the building manager. This person acted violently towards volunteers and guests and, on March 29th, kicked everyone out using armed guards. During this conflict, the Pastor of the church quit in solidarity with the volunteers of the warming center. Please note that the Columbus Presbyterian Session (church leadership) was in support of this work and had provided continued permission to utilize the space as a warming center. With no place to go, volunteers set up an encampment in order to continue serving the community.

 

This camp site houses 20-25 people, provides shelter, food, medical supplies and care, transportation, harm reduction supplies, funds for individuals’ immediate needs, and a community of support, acceptance, and growth.

 

This is a huge and necessary project that is in immediate need of funds in order to continue operating. For the past 6-weeks, FIRST utilized pooled resources via donations through Cashapp, and generous donations from one of our volunteers, but these funds are running out. Current costs to operate are around $6,000 per month. All the donations received have been used to provide necessities to survive, including but not limited to shelter (tents), food, water, medical supplies, bedding, clothes, bus passes, medical services and prescriptions, and assistance with paying resident's phone bills. Donations are also used to pay individuals staying at the encampment for their labor, like cleaning up the campsite, cutting up firewood, and providing services like haircuts.

 

Funding to our goal of $25,000 would mean we can continue to operate and provide the supplies and services necessary for survival, and it would also allow us to grow. The site does not have any real structures or utilities. Additional funding would allow us to build an outhouse, handwashing station, and other structures needed to sustain this project. We also hope to use these funds to pay our hard-working skeleton crew of volunteers and continue to pay our residents for their labor and services.

 

This project directly addresses the housing crisis in Columbus. Houseless folks don’t deserve to struggle alone or die in the streets. Anyone can experience houselessness, and we need your help to continue this overlooked but necessary work. Donate if you can; if you can’t donate, please share this widely, consider donating supplies, or volunteering at the camp.

 

Thank you for your help and support as we navigate through this. We will share updates as often as we can to show you all the good work we are doing.