Yesterday, January 29, Community Shelter Board (CSB) upper management has ignited outrage after contacting volunteers announcing immediate eviction for hundreds of vulnerable individuals and families out of emergency hotel shelters. Residents received even less information, with notices posted on doors and no contact information provided for follow-up questions.
When volunteers and residents asked social workers if they had more information, they were unaware of the “eviction by email.” The poorly communicated directive, delivered without clarity or empathy, has left volunteers and social workers scrambling to address panicked questions from displaced residents. This latest failure underscores a pattern of cruel mismanagement and highlights how city leadership prioritizes austerity over human dignity.
Leadership Failure: “Fundraise Tents” Instead of Solutions
The eviction by email that CSB sent from onsite management abruptly declared that "174 individuals housed in hotels during the Polar Vortex," along with "59 displaced by camp closures" and "24 couples/pet owners," would be herded into underfunded and overcrowded shelters and Winter Warming Centers starting January 29. When volunteers requested clarification, onsite management callously suggested they “fundraise tents” to meet basic needs—a shocking admission that the city refuses to provide necessities it knows are required in winter.
This tone-deaf response exposes the City Council, Mayor Ginther’s Office, and CSB upper management are disconnect from the realities of homelessness. Their MBA-driven, bureaucratic approach prioritizes cost-cutting over compassion, treating human lives as line items. As one social worker who fears possible retaliation against themselves and risks their employer’s funding by the City stated: “Suggesting tents in subzero weather isn’t leadership—it’s negligence.”
Systemic Cruelty: Relocation, Not Liberation
CSB’s own Point-in-Time Count data reveals a grim truth: homelessness in Columbus is not being solved but displaced. Vulnerable individuals are cycled through temporary shelters, criminalized by Columbus Police for existing in public spaces, and funneled into a prison industrial complex that profits from their suffering. Meanwhile, the city invests in surveillance technology to monitor taxpayers rather than housing solutions.
As reported by Matter News in “The Eviction Experts,” this “relocation-first” strategy enriches contractors and developers while trapping communities in cycles of poverty. CSB’s actions align with a government agenda that treats homelessness as a nuisance to manage, not a crisis to resolve.
Taxpayers are demanding permanent housing solutions for the unhoused and to create a city wide strategy to make homelessness rare and unconscionable. This strategy to lead with compassion and empathy would upend the prison industrial complex that scheme to capture vulnerable communities into plantation prisons.
Community Resilience Exposes Government Neglect in Columbus Homelessness Crisis
As Columbus endures a brutal winter, grassroots Mutual Aid groups—led by students, working-class volunteers, and concerned residents—are mobilizing to provide tents, winter gear, and transportation for homeless individuals, filling glaring voids left by the city’s inaction. Donate and get involved to Heer To Serve, a 501c3 is questing community support as they prepare for an uncertain evictions. Their efforts starkly contrast with the City Council’s performative gestures and systemic failures. Despite Housing Director Michael Stevens’ December pledge to secure transportation for 59 displaced camp residents after sweeps, neither the Mayor Ginther’s Administration nor the nonprofit followed through, abandoning vulnerable people to the cold.
City Council President Shannon Hardin’s hollow inquiry to housing leaders during a January 21st hearing—“When it gets critically cold outside and the choice is literally life and death is the City using our assets and partnering with CSB…?”—epitomizes the Council’s detached rhetoric. A polite respond was giving by a housing leader, “I’m not going to answer whether with a yes or no”. This covers the false generosity by the City Council and the Mayor Ginther’s Office between service organizations and tax payers. This is another example of how City Council and Mayor Ginther’s Administration's demand working class professionals must prioritize political appeasement over accountability in fear of losing their already under funded programs. Meanwhile, the city continues funneling **$5.5–6.6 million annually** to CSB with zero transparency, enabling abrupt program cancellations and broken promises without consequence. Critics argue this reflects a broader agenda: defunding housing and social services (slashed by millions) to bolster police budgets, perpetuating cycles of crisis.
A stay-at-home mother involved in the community response captured the community’s frustration: “There are good social workers that want to help our community but I see how they are being defeated and paralyzed when their organization are being used to become an extension of a government that profits from keeping communities in crisis.” Her words underscore the city’s preference for “managing” homelessness through punitive sweeps and under-resourced bandaids rather than pursuing lasting solutions. While volunteers scramble to save lives, Columbus officials evade oversight, dodge responsibility, and cling to policies that criminalize poverty—a damning indictment of leadership more invested in optics than justice.
Growing Dissent: Whispers Within CSB
Internal dissent is mounting at CSB, with employees and partner organizations condemning the eviction by email and door notices as unethical and unsustainable. “The city’s neglect is intentional,” said a resident in Bexley anonymously. “They want us to fail so they can justify more policing and surveillance.” The threat of job loss for the working class in social services creates uneasiness as city officials continue to cut safety net services. The Board of Trustees who help guide CSB decisions, and CSB upper management, are largely removed from the threats of job loss that the working class and social workers face. This removal seems to be contributing to the growing dissent and disconnect between CSB’s mission and their impact.
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Join the Protest: Demand Dignity, Not Displacement
Date: Friday, January 31st
Time: 8am
Location: Lincoln Theatre : 769 E. Long St., Columbus, OH 43203
Parking: Please use public parking or street parking to avoid getting towed.
This is a movement to reclaim our community from leaders who value contracts over compassion. Together, we will expose the truth, demand accountability, and fight for a future where no one is treated as collateral damage or remains unhoused. Columbus must question our political leaders' (both Democrats and Republicans) real intentions to end homelessness, a rare crisis in developed countries like China and Japan. Where livable wages with disposable income are used as a public health strategy and common sense.
Additional Resources:
- [CSB Point-in-Time Count Data](https://www.csb.org/how-we-do-it/point-in-time-count)
- [The Eviction Experts: Matter News Investigation](https://matternews.org/community/development/the-eviction-experts/)
