A program aimed at helping families secure housing that started seven years ago with 10 families now includes 100 families.
But there are concerns about obtaining more housing because of escalating rents and a smaller supply of affordable units.
When Tehani Mesa-Morales arrives home after work, her pit bulldog Blitz greets her.
Her 9-year-old daughter Nathalia takes Blitz outside for a walk. They live in a quiet Dublin community with townhouses.
Mesa-Morales, 38, has lived here since she became part of the Move to Prosper pilot program in 2018. It started with 10 low-income working families. The aim is to transform their lives over three years with life coaching and rent support, while requiring family members to engage in monthly programs that focus on housing and economic stability, career advancement and the well being of children.
“You get to choose,” said Mesa-Morales. “Where do you want to live? Why do you want to live there? There’s the benefits, there’s the pros, the cons, where’s your family? Where’s your commute to work, etc. I chose Dublin because when I was married this is where my kids began. Not too far from here actually and so it was just kind of coming home.”
Mesa-Morales also has a 19-year-old daughter who lives near Capital University where she’s a student, as well as a 17-year-old son who will be a senior at Dublin Scioto High School.
Mesa-Morales says she struggled after her divorce to find a clean rental she could afford on an $11 an hour job. The family moved in with her twin sisters in a two-bedroom apartment in Reynoldsburg.
“While they were very, very gracious and willing to try to do what they could, it was difficult,” said Mesa-Morales. “I know the transition was difficult for them, so we were trying to figure out how to get our own place at the time. But it was difficult, down payment, first month's rent, furniture, moving, all of those things, they had a huge cost. And I just wasn't in the position to be able to pay for all of these things.”
Mesa-Morales’ mother lives in Grove City, but didn’t have room to house more family members.
Mesa-Morales graduated from Franklin University with a Bachelor’s degree in human resources management in 2017. Then she entered the Move to Prosper program.
Now she earns an annual salary of $75,000.
“It's provided a coach. It did provide financial assistance in rental assistance, not financial assistance, but rental assistance for those couple of years, but more importantly, it provided coaching, accountability, a toolbox that you can pull from when times get rough,” said Mesa-Morales.
Jason Reece is the lead researcher of the program, now called Families Flourish, and an associate professor of city and regional planning at Ohio State’s Knowlton School of Architecture.
Overall results to date show families raised their incomes by 58%, or $17,000 on average, and improved their mental and physical health.
“These improvements that we see are not just in terms of their experience with their housing or experience in their neighborhood, but also translate to improve economic conditions, mental and physical health and stronger relationship support and social support, as well as improvements and conditions for their children,” said Reece.
Reece said the challenge for the program now is that available housing is dwindling because of higher rents and not enough supply.
“There's a much greater degree of housing instability than our families were dealing with in the pilot,” said Reece. “Again, the rates of being unhoused are much higher for families today coming into the program than our pilot families.”
Reece said partnerships with private landlords make the affordable housing possible for the families. Some of them might not be able to pass initial tenant screening criteria.
But federal funding cuts could limit how much the program can expand. Families Flourish also wants suburbs to change zoning so developers can build more affordable housing.
Mesa-Morales now volunteers as an ambassador for the program.
“We’re comfortable, like I said, financially, but also emotionally, we are, we’re comfortable. We don’t...I’m not worried,” she said.
Her advice for others is simple.
“When you sit down and you really think the problem through, and you come up with an actual solution rather than a momentary band aid, you’ll get through it,” said Mesa-Morales.
