Central Ohio’s Housing Crisis at a Glance

As both service provider and advocate, YWCA Columbus fights for a community where all women and families have access to safe, stable housing. Yet in rapidly growing Central Ohio, housing affordability is a major challenge, particularly for communities of color historically marginalized or redlined. In 2025, overall homelessness in Franklin County rose by more than 7%, outpacing population growth six times over. Without a change, unsheltered homelessness is predicted to surge by 68% by 2028, per the Community Shelter Board’s 2025 Point-in-Time Count Report. Pressures on the housing system amplify affordability issues for most Central Ohioans, but for those whose incomes are lowest, these pressures result in being priced out entirely. As more people need homelessness services, funding for the emergency shelter system they rely on has struggled to keep up. Today, local emergency shelter providers are confronting a $25 million funding gap. Without a permanent solution to stabilize our emergency shelter system, many organizations will not be able to operate. Our community will experience more people, including children, visibly unsheltered. More people will get trapped in homelessness, and more victims of intimate partner violence will lose their lives.