Help is Available for CPS Families
Do you and your family need extra food, or help finding housing or paying electric bills? Do you have questions about what you can do if you are facing eviction from your home?
There are community resources around Cincinnati to help with all this and more, including assistance with health care, job hunting and transportation. Cincinnati Public Schools wants to help, too, by making it easier for families to find these needed resources.
We've collected a list of local resources, which we will update as needed.
Food Resources
- The Caring Place of Cincinnati
- Freestore Food Bank
- Healthy Harvest Mobile Market
- La Soupe
- Jobs and Family Service: apply for food, medical and cash assistance. Call (513) 946-1000
- Monday Meal Boxes at Public Library Branches
- The Madisonville Education and Assistance Center (MEAC)
- CPS' Free Summer Meals
Housing
Do you need help with finding housing or shelter?
- Central Access Point (CAP) is a referral service for placement in emergency or transitional shelter. Call (513) 381-SAFE (7233); email.
- Community Action Agency — Hamilton County Eviction Prevention Program: (513) 569-1840, Option 4
- Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority
- Cincinnati Department of Community Development — Rental and home-buying resources. Call (513) 352-6264
- Caring Place Of Cincinnati — Get rent assistance, housing counseling and more. Call (513) 841-1499, residents of Golf Manor, Kennedy Heights, Pleasant Ridge and Silverton Ohio
- Apply for CARES Act Rent and Utility Assistance Program — The Hamilton County CARES Rent and Utility Relief Program draws on CARES Act funds to provide short term assistance to renters who live in Hamilton County and can document income loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The County will pay up to $5,000 for rent and utilities for households at or below 80 percent of the Area Median Income.
Strategies to End Homelessness — Strategies to End Homelessness now has an app that can be used throughout the community to report persons living on the street who are experiencing homelessness.
Are you at risk of being or have you been evicted? Do you want to know your legal rights when experiencing homelessness?
- Project Connect — provides support to families who have been displaced from their housing by eliminating educational barriers and providing services for children and youth, such as transportation, enrollment, backpacks, school supplies and uniforms. Project Connect also informs families about and advocate for the federal McKinney-Vento laws enacted to protect the education of students experiencing homelessness. Refer a family to Project Connect.
- Legal Aid Society Of Greater Cincinnati assists tenants with housing issues. This can include advice on eviction and homeless prevention services, disputes over deposits and unsafe housing or apartments. Lawyers from the pro-bono firm help qualified low income residents of Hamilton County. (513) 241-9400
- Mercy Franciscan at St. John — By appointment only. Call (513) 981-5800. Support is offered only if applicant has an eviction notice from house or apartment, and the applicant must also have a family.
- St. Vincent de Paul Eviction Prevention — (513) 562-8842, ext. 771
- Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless — Provides advocacy and education about affordable housing. Can serve as a mailing address for those without one. Helps with tenant organizing.
- Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME) — Fights housing discrimination and provides education on housing rights for families and individuals.
Utilities
- If you or someone you know is having trouble paying for housing or utility expenses, there are more options to receive help than ever before. New and existing assistance programs are currently available, all purposely designed to help those affected by the economic impacts of COVID-19 or other hardships encountered over the course of 2020 and 2021.
- Duke Energy Bill Assistance — Customers can move their due dates, pay over many months, and/or qualify for assistance from various government agencies and nonprofit programs.
- The Salvation Army has funding for Duke Assistance with a Heat Share Hotline for assistance, call (513) 762-5636. (Must be on disconnect or final past due.)
- Greater Cincinnati Water Works — Greater Cincinnati Water Works, has a new payment plan service, Promise Pay, to help customers with their water/sewer utility bills to setup more realistic payment plans that they can manage. Learn more about Promise Pay here.
- JFS Project Lift — Project Lift Application (513) 946-1000. Can help with deposit, first month rent and the like.
- Christ's Community in College Hill provides rent assistance once per month. Call (513) 541-0303
- Freestore Foodbank Rent & Utilities Assistance — (513) 241-1064; 112 E Liberty St, Cincinnati, OH 45202.
- The Madisonville Education and Assistance Center (MEAC) serves the following zip code areas only: 45208, 45209, 45226 and 45227. MEAC provides emergency financial assistance payments for rental/mortgage, gas and electric services, or water when funds are available. Eligibility requirements need to be met for rent and other help. MEAC also provides assistance with obtaining birth certificates and has food pick-up sites. For more information, call (513) 271-5501
- Interparish Ministries is located at 3509 Debolt Road. There may be limited financial aid for paying rent or utility or security deposits to families facing homelessness. Other support is provided too, such as furniture or referrals. Call (513) 561-3932
- Guardian Angels SVDP — 6531 Beechmont Avenue — offers financial assistance for paying both rent and even utility bills. Call (513) 624-3147
- Churches Active In Northside (CAIN) — supports the immediate region. There may be rental or energy assistance, referrals to non-profits that may have security deposit programs and help in applying for section 8 HUD rental vouchers. Call (513) 591-2246
- Hamilton County Job and Family Services Prevention/Retention/Contingency (PRC) — PRC-Emergency assistance — (513) 946-0000 or (513) 946-7200.
- FCC Emergency Broadband Internet Benefit — The Emergency Broadband Benefit will provide a discount of up to $50 per month toward broadband service for eligible households and up to $75 per month for households on qualifying Tribal lands.
- RemotEDx Connectivity Champions — RemotEDx is working to remove barriers to connect K-12 students to remote learning by ensuring all Ohio-K12 students have home internet access for remote learning.
Transportation
Health
- CPS' School-based Community Health Centers
- AWL Clinic Hours
- School-Based Vision and Dental Locations
- Free Dental Care in Cincinnati
Mental Health
- MindPeace — MindPeace and CPS have a long standing partnership. MindPeace mental health agencies provide school-based mental health supports to CPS schools. Click here to learn more about MindPeace, including its programs and general resources. Click here to find your school's mental health agency. General Inquiries can also be made by calling (513) 803-0844.
- Black Mental Health Providers
Jobs, Childcare or Unemployment
- Job search support — Ohio Means Jobs
- Level Up: Launch Your Career
- Unemployment applications, unemployment.ohio.gov, and benefits.ohio.gov
- 4C for Children — Find childcare and pandemic approved centers. Call 1-800-256-1296, ext. 1330
COVID-19 Resources
Miscellaneous Expenses
- United Way: Covid-19 Community Economic Relief Fund — Bills, rent and food. Call 1-866-211-9966
- Jobs and Family Service — apply for food, medical and cash assistance. Call (513) 946-1000
- St. Vincent de Paul — Call (513) 562-8841 (Donation centers are closed) food Pantry, medical and id/birth certificate services are open. Call (513) 421-CARE (2273). General support, furniture.
- Salvation Army — Covid Support Hotline: 1-844-458-HOPE (4673) If you're looking for spiritual guidance, local services or if you just need someone to talk with, Salvation Army officers who are pastors and emotional-care personnel are there to listen.
