NE Ohio Coalition For Homeless — Local services in Cleveland

I am a disabled senior citizen (woman) who recently lost my husband and depleted our life savings on his medical expenses. I eventually lost our home and became homeless. I reached out to this organization and after about 2 months a gentleman from the coalition called and asked me to send him several documents basically confirming my identity and income, which I promptly provided. He told me that someone would contact me within the week to set up an in person appointment to find ways they could assist. I waited several weeks with no calls so assumed there was no assistance they could provide.

My main issue was that I have a dog, who has been my saving grace, which prevented me from living at a shelter. I have called every shelter, rescue and multiple other animal advocate places and all of them told me that they are not accepting any new dogs unless they were an injured stray. A few of them offered appointments for consideration but the waiting list was at least 2 months long. I even asked if I could just drop her off and was told I would be denied.

After receiving no assistance from the multiple agencies in Cuyahoga county I contacted him again and he advised that I attend AA meetings even though I have never had a problem with alcohol and had no way to get to meetings besides paying for Uber. I totally understand that AA is full of helpful and loving people and I would have benefited greatly from meetings but I don't have a car or anyone to take me nor can I afford to pay for Uber.

I eventually got to the point where I had absolutely no money or other resources who could assist. The only thing I could do was live on the streets of Cleveland so I contacted him again. He told me there was an organization that would board my dog until I found a permanent living place and to say the least, I was thrilled to hear this. My main concern throughout all of this ordeal has been my beloved pet. This was on a Tuesday and he told me to call him back on Thursday which I did. His voicemail was full so I texted him a few times. It's now the following Tuesday and still no response. He knew that I would be living on the streets with no car or winter clothing.

Unfortunately, Cleveland has a huge problem with homelessness and I am only 1 of probably thousands so I made sure not to ask for anything above what other homeless people are offered. I expressed that I was more than willing to go to a shelter as long as I was assured my dog would be taken care of. My only other option was to just let her loose on the streets to fend for herself and that wasn't even a consideration for me.

I honestly don't understand why he would ignore me after telling me that. This is the 3rd time he has offered assistance and ultimately ignored me after I followed all of his instructions. For someone who is trying to take care of their beloved pet and finally have some hope that she will be safe and taken care of until I am able to secure a place for us to live permanently, I am extremely disheartened that my needs were...

Recently was staying at project hope while another organization was looking into placing me into sober living after 5.5.years clean I was asked to house sit while on vacation when my friend came back him and his mom asked if I would like to stay until I get on my feet.the environment was not what I was looking for but thought I would wing it and I relapsed that's what homeless people face only finding housing where drugs and alcohol are present.i then got into detox and a great job then the doctor who was supposed to write my script failed to do so and needless to say that job ended until after a month of staying and paying 1400$ at an extended stay hotel I was forced to call project hope and got a job quickly until project hope failed to get me up twice for work and the other organization doesn't know how to refer people to the north coast house .having a job is great but your supposed to know how to perform your job too and if people truly want to help the homeless donate directly to someone and personally help the person obtain their goals mainly housing and a job that's all it takes for someone such as myself to thrive.this is not Hell and our world...

I dropped off 3 bags of donations a couple of weeks ago for my job, but there was no one in the office when I arrived. I called ahead of time and arranged it, but the receptionist was down the hall in a separate room. The place was a little hard to find in the building it's in, and no one buzzed us in. We got in because someone else was leaving and we just walked in. Still a good cause to donate...