“We’re getting about 58 calls a month for those experiencing the housing crisis,” said Jessie Kane, Program Director for the Medina Metropolitan Housing Authority. In this charming county of about 180,000 residents—rooted in industry and agriculture—Ohio’s housing crisis is beginning to take hold. Families were sleeping in parks, at truck stops, and in their cars, hidden from view but very much present.
The community chose not to ignore the issue but to address it head-on. “Next Step Up” became Medina County’s first emergency housing shelter, a $2 million project that shows how a community can come together to help their neighbors.
Building Something Different
Skip Sipos, Executive Director of the Medina Metropolitan Housing Authority, brought together an unlikely coalition: churches, social service agencies, and elected officials. State Representative Sharon Ray and State Senator Mark Romanchuk secured $600,000 from the Ohio Housing Trust Fund. Local organizations donated. Volunteers stepped forward.
The result sits on Walter Road: 27 beds in a renovated building that treats people facing homelessness with dignity. Private areas for men, women, and families. A playground for children. Dog kennels and “kitty condos” for pets.
“Pets are a big barrier to people who are seeking shelter,” Sipos explained. “If we have the opportunity to get someone in shelter and they can bring their pet, they’re more likely to accept the shelter and then the services that come with it.”
Each guest receives a case manager. Employment counseling. Wellness programming. A path to permanent housing. The location matters too—Veterans Services, Medina County Job and Family Services, and employment opportunities are all within walking distance.
“If they can go outside and go down the slide or get out on monkey bars if you will, you can still pet your dog, still have the cat on the lap… That’s meaningful,” Sipos said.
Why This Is Necessary
An estimated 80,000 Ohioans experienced homelessness in 2024—an increase from 2020 driven by rising housing costs. This impacts children and schools directly: more than 26,000 Ohio students under 18 lacked stable housing.
Amy Riegel, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, explains the root cause: “The main cause of homelessness is the lack of affordable housing.”
Ohio is short 270,000 affordable housing units which means 75% of extremely low-income households, can’t get adequate housing. In Medina County, median home prices sit at $281,000 and with rents ranging from $881 to $1,667, many are left without a home.
When COVID-era protections ended—eviction moratoriums, emergency rental assistance—families who were barely holding on fell into crisis. Eviction filings in Ohio returned to pre-pandemic levels.
The pattern repeats: families secure housing, then lose it within a year. Not from eviction. From rent increases they can’t afford. “The housing market is reacting and behaving in these new ways,” said Matthew Wilkos of the Community Shelter Board. “That is why it was important for us to take time and understand the current market conditions.”
Jamie Charlton, a Medina County native, knows the pattern personally. “I was a registered nurse, had two kids, house, car, the whole shebang. Got a terrible kidney stone, and I was literally addicted to pain meds in about five days,” she said.
She lost everything. Became homeless. Lived on the streets.
“I can’t believe it’s the first ever because we’ve had this problem for a long time,” Charlton said about Next Step Up. “If these services had existed back then, countless lives could have been potentially changed for the better.”
Solutions That Would Help
Next Step Up addresses the immediate crisis. But emergency shelters, while important, don’t solve the underlying shortage of affordable housing.
During his time in the Senate, Sherrod Brown introduced legislation designed to give communities like Medina County tools to create permanent solutions. His Housing Supply Fund Act proposed federal funding for community institutions and nonprofit housing organizations to invest in affordable homes. The bill included provisions to convert vacant commercial properties into housing and help finance resident-owned manufactured housing communities before out-of-town investors could purchase them. The Republican-led Senate declined to bring the legislation to a vote.
The $600,000 that State Representative Sharon Ray and State Senator Mark Romanchuk secured from the Ohio Housing Trust Fund made Next Step Up possible. Brown’s Housing Supply Fund would have provided similar federal resources to communities across Ohio facing the same crisis.
Other proposals that stalled in Congress included loans for renovating distressed HUD-assisted housing, restrictions on tax breaks for corporate investors purchasing residential properties, and support for faith-based organizations and colleges wanting to build affordable housing on their land.
Without these federal tools, communities like Medina are left to piece together local solutions. Next Step Up proves what dedicated people can accomplish—and also highlights how much further those efforts could go with federal support.
A Disconnect in Washington
While many are unable to afford housing, the priorities of those in Washington has been to ensure the wealthy become more wealthy. Cuts to food assistance, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act to fund tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations ensure communities don’t have the funding to address the underlying issues in their community.
Senator Jon Husted’s first year in the Senate focused on tax cuts and supporting big business. His US Senate website boasts that he made “Ohio the least costly state in the Midwest for businesses to get started and keep their doors open.” This is political speak for reducing worker’s wages and their leverage to negotiate for better benefits.
Despite Ohio’s housing crises, he did have time to write legislation about golf cart tires, Great Lakes marketing programs and Preventing deepfake scams.
Husted has co-sponsored one housing-related bill: the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act. The legislation expands tax credits for developers and investors to build housing. While tax credit programs can spur construction, they don’t necessarly address affordability for families in crisis. Cleveland’s Battery Park development near Edgewater Park illustrates the concern: tax credits helped finance high-end condos and upscale restaurants, but property taxes in surrounding neighborhoods increased significantly. Some longtime residents found themselves priced out. For Medina County’s 58 families calling for help each month, the question remains: will these approaches create housing they can actually afford?
What does that mean for the 58 families calling the Housing Authority each month in crisis? What does it mean for families sleeping in their cars at Medina County truck stops?
Next Steps
Next Step Up opened because Skip Sipos, Jessie Kane, Representative Sharon Ray, Senator Mark Romanchuk, local churches, and countless volunteers refused to accept families sleeping in parks. They built something that will change lives.
What’s needed now:
- Federal investment in affordable housing creation and preservation
- Protection from corporate investors treating homes like commodities
- Support for nonprofits and faith organizations building affordable housing
- Leadership that addresses root causes, not just symptoms
The difference between strong leadership and weak leadership isn’t intentions. It’s action. Medina County acted. Federal representatives should do the same.
“The number one solution is the availability of housing that is affordable to individuals, so that they can exit homelessness,” said Amy Riegel of COHHIO. “The more housing that we can bring to bear within our communities, the more units that can be available and that can be open.”
Next Step Up is making history in Medina County. Now we need senators who will make history in Washington—senators who will ensure communities like ours have resources to build not just emergency shelters, but permanent solutions.
Next Step Up shows what’s possible when a community refuses to look away. Now we need federal policy that matches local action—policy that ensures emergency measures today won’t be necessary tomorrow.Retry
