The United Way Effect: Transforming Lives in Central Ohio

Affordable housing in Delaware County has reached a crisis point, with average home prices exceeding $400,000 and rental rates skyrocketing beyond what working families can afford. In this eye-opening conversation with Brandon Feller, President of the United Way of Delaware County, we explore how this critical issue impacts community sustainability and what is being done to address it.

Brandon reveals the harsh reality many families face—spending 60-70% of their income on housing leaves them vulnerable to financial disaster when unexpected expenses arise. "We're at a tipping point," he explains. "We're negatively impacting the community by not having a diverse housing stock."

The discussion covers the partnerships driving affordable housing development, the persistent challenge of NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) attitudes, and United Way's advocacy at township, state, and federal levels to create policy change. From advocating for zoning reforms that enable accessory dwelling units to fighting for the release of $70,000 in federal funding for food and shelter, United Way tackles systemic barriers while providing direct support.

We also explore United Way's broader impact through programs like their after-school initiative, which provides safe spaces for children from challenging home environments. And their Backpacks for Scholars program, which provides school supplies for more than 2,400 students of all ages. 

Curious how you can help? Visit liveuniteddelawarecounty.org to learn about volunteer opportunities, sponsorship options, or to donate directly to programs making a tangible difference in Delaware County residents' lives.

Transcript

Introduction to Central Ohio Matters

Speaker 1 0:01

Welcome to Central Ohio Matters, the podcast where we delve into the issues that shape Central Ohio's future. Each episode features in-depth conversations with local leaders, visionaries and changemakers driving progress in our region. These conversations offer insights into the challenges our communities face and the solutions being crafted to move them forward. Here are your hosts, michelle Gatchel and Ryan Rivers.

Speaker 2 0:24

Welcome everybody to Central Ohio Matters. We have a great guest with us today. We are talking to Brandon Feller. He is the president of United Way of Delaware, ohio. Brandon, thanks so much for joining us.

Speaker 3 0:38

Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 0:41

You know, I think a lot of people hear about United Way and until they actually need something or someone they know needs something, they don't really know what United Way is about.

Speaker 3 0:55

Right. I always think back. I was getting my haircut one time and they said, well, what do you do for work? And I said, well, I work for United Way. And they said is that the airline and I you know, fortunately for them until they have hit a snag in life or they know someone who has been in that position. But when that happens, then we hope that there's a program or a service that is relevant and there for them in that time of need. And so that's really what we're there for is looking for continually for those gaps in services and making sure that there's not a hole that is missing in the community where there's not something in place when someone really needs it. And so we do the best that we can with the resources that are provided and make sure that we have excellent partners and can stretch the funds as far as possible to make sure that everyone has the resources that they need to be successful and get back on their feet.

Speaker 2 2:22

So one of the areas that you guys, um, have been working on is is the housing, and I think there is not a week that goes by that I don't see uh, there's no affordable housing kind of a news story somewhere, and it's. It's really, um, especially in Delaware, we're growing so fast, but when you look for a house, you're not going to find anything much lower than $400,000.

Speaker 3 2:53

Absolutely. That's on the low end of the average right now in Delaware County for home prices. And you know rental rates. You know just a few years. You know around COVID or pre-COVID. You know rental rates. You know you could get a single bedroom apartment for you know $800. You're not finding that anymore. If you spot one, very rarely, it's gone almost immediately and so that's becoming a challenge for working families that are trying to get by.

Speaker 3 3:28

We know that that is a piece that's so critical for families and that's why we've taken it on as an issue, because it's a foundation. It's one of those things that if we don't have, it's one of those things that if we don't have safe, affordable housing that's a backbone of economic progress we're going to continue to push families further and further away from Delaware County. We want the services, we want the amenities, we want the things, we want the restaurants, we want the things here in our community, but if people can't afford to live in Delaware County and to work in those jobs, then we're not going to be able to enjoy those things and so we need to make this an affordable place to live. The inventory of that type of housing available and that's becoming more and more of a challenge. It's hard to keep up, even as there are some excellent projects that are more affordable and that are coming online. Just the continued growth and increase in population puts more demand on the inventory than what there is in new supply. So it's always a game of catch up, and then that drives upward pressure on pricing, and so it's basic economics 101.

Speaker 3 4:56

And we see, for those that are able to move to Delaware County and maybe their leasing, it often doesn't last too long before there's an astronomical increase in their lease and they're no longer able to afford where they move to. So they may have achieved that dream location that they wanted to be at for a short period of time, but maintaining that becomes really rough, and we're seeing situations where rent increases in a way that's not sustainable, and so that's a challenge. And so what we're involved in is trying to make sure, first, that there's a community awareness of what that means and an openness to the types of housing inventory that we need to be a sustainable community and have diversity of housing, and that may mean having more than just 4,000 square foot houses on two acre lots, which was, you know, I think, a really popular building design. You know a couple of decades ago that we saw a lot of that, and that's not sustainable for the type of demand and population growth that we continue to see in Delaware County.

Speaker 3 6:14

It's certainly not sustainable for a family income of $50,000, $60,000, $70,000. So what do we need to do to make this affordable for families in that income range so that they're not spending more than 30% of their adjusted gross income on housing? And that's really the threshold. So, unfortunately, sometimes we see families that are spending 60, 70 or more percent of their income just to maintain housing and that becomes problematic and unsustainable. And so that's really when you're doing things like turning to the food pantries and things like that, just to supplement and to stay afloat, because all of your income is going into the housing in one little glitch, whether it's a car repair or something else, it doesn't take much. A sickness, an unexpected expense can really, you know, put you into a situation where you fall behind very quickly.

Speaker 4 7:21

Brandon, what are some of the partnerships or projects that the United Way is right now involved with in regards to housing?

Speaker 3 7:30

Well, one of the very first things we got involved in was supporting the Homeport project, which is here in Delaware on the east side of town, and that was an exciting project that was looking at taking an existing property that was owned by the county and making it available for affordable housing. Unfortunately, the idea was to take an existing building and rehab it. The idea was to take an existing building and rehab it, and it turned out that, because of the situation with that building, it wasn't able to be preserved for that purpose, so it ended up being a demolition, but they're going to still build on that site and it's still going to be an affordable housing project here in the city of Delaware. And so the Housing Alliance was involved in that from the beginning, in offering letters of support and advocacy to the state to obtain state tax credits to help support that project because it qualified as an affordable housing project.

Speaker 3 8:32

And so what we see often in order to get these types of housing developments done is it's a mix of private and public partnership, that it can't just be all a government solution and it's not all a private developer solution, it's not all a non-profit solution.

Speaker 3 8:53

It's really a mix of all of those players bringing private development to the table, bringing public tax credit to the table and often nonprofit social services to the table, to bring in that perfect mix to make sure that all of that's at play. And when you have all of that and when you have the community open to that type of solution, you can really start to make a dent in the problem. And that's what's been so great with the Housing Alliance is seeing a number of partners that are it's not just one type of organization, it's not just nonprofits, it's not just developers, it's not just one type of organization, it's not just nonprofits, it's not just developers, it's not just government, it's really a mix of everyone that has a stake in the issue and they've really made progress at looking at opportunities where they can bring more housing to the community and really just build awareness and advocacy at the state level too and really just build awareness and advocacy at the state level too.

Speaker 4 10:09

What's some of the pushback?

NIMBY Challenges and Community Impact

Speaker 3 10:09

or general challenges in trying to get affordable housing and make these changes from kind of the mindset and the ways of old. Yeah, I think the number one thing that you typically will face is just a concern that I mean it's the term that's been coined for a while, but it's the NIMBY term of you know well, you generally can get agreement on gosh. How does anybody survive paying $2,000 a month rent? That's ridiculous. And then you say, yeah, you're right, we need to build some units. That you know would be $900 a month and the place we can do that is right over here. And they say, oh, wait a minute, that's a quarter mile from my house. I didn't have that in mind and but really it's getting past that idea that this is negatively going to impact the community. It's negatively going to impact home values. We're at a tipping point.

Speaker 3 11:06

I think that we're negatively impacting the community by not having a diverse housing stock, by not making it affordable for people to live in our community.

Speaker 3 11:18

You know when you have to and I've seen it over and over again working with clients that needed support for housing or that we were working with for you know, with food pantries and things like that that are having to move out of the county than you know, typically going to Marion, morrow County or further out, just to find affordable housing.

Speaker 3 11:41

That makes it harder for them to find, you know, the jobs that they want to work in. It disrupts, you know where their kids are going to school, disrupts relationships. It disrupts doctors' relationships and just the entire dynamic of what they're used to. But they're having to relocate just because of that housing expense. And again, like I mentioned earlier, we want those amenities, we want to be able to go, you know, to the restaurants and to entertainment and to the movie theaters and things like that. But you know, people have to, they have to live somewhere and it's not realistic to say, go live in Morro County but drive to Delaware to work in this job so that I can have this amenity At some point. It's not economically feasible for people to do that. They need places to live in our community.

Speaker 2 12:36

Along with the housing and the community in general. You guys recently started a great program, treehouse, which tell people what kind of housing that provides.

Treehouse Program for Homeless Youth

Speaker 3 12:48

It's a very unique model. It's a transitional living program and so it's not a shelter, it's more of a longer term housing model and it's really geared towards young homeless after the age of 18, and actually, frankly, some before the age of 18, but that didn't have a good resource locally for housing at that age. And the challenge was you know, you're, say, you're 18 or 19,. You don't have a credit score, you don't have a family network that's that's helping you out. You find yourself homeless. Nobody's going to sign a lease with you. Even if you had twelve, fourteen hundred dollars a month, you know to pay for the rent, to pay for the rent, and so it was really a challenge. And a shelter is not the solution, because the shelter is designed to provide a temporary solution for up to 45 days. 45 days is a good rest, but if you're living on the land, it's going to keep you safe in cold weather, but 45 days is not enough time to provide a turnaround and stability for an 18 or 19 year old who doesn't have those types of family supports or opportunities. So we were looking for something that would be a longer term solution up to two years to allow somebody time to build skills to save money and to have resources and build toward independence. And so we worked toward acquiring a property and did that. We opened a couple of years ago and quickly got to work filling that property.

Speaker 3 14:51

And it is a different model. There's five bedrooms. They each get a private bedroom and that was important because we didn't want them to feel like they were being stacked up and warehoused in bunk beds. We wanted them to have a private space that they could take care of and feel like a home. A lot of them commented about the closets. This was the first time they've had a closet and that was one of the meaningful experiences for them to be able to wash clothes and hang clothes up in their own closet and really build a community for them in that home. And while they're doing that, take them through financial literacy programming. Take them through driver's ed. Most of them have never been through driver's ed because they never had family. Even though they're 19, 20 years old, never had family. Take them out on a country road and teach them how to drive. And so we've taken them through formal driver's ed programming and actually get their license.

Speaker 3 15:51

We have one that just graduated from high school from Olentangy School District and that was a great success to you know, watch every time I go to the house and to see him at the kitchen table working on his homework and working toward graduating, and just to see that milestone was a huge, huge success. And then you know, to see recently to just move out after saving up, after completing the program, going through the financial literacy programming and making sure that they had enough for their deposits and first month's rent and emergency funds and all that goes, helping them through through the application process for their apartments, get accepted and move out on their own. So that's what we want to see. That's exactly what the program was designed for. That was a huge, huge success.

Speaker 3 16:47

And just because they moved out, they're still a part of what we're doing. We still have client services with them, they're still eligible for counseling with our staff and if they hit a bump in the road they can still get help. But those rooms are now opened and we're in the process of bringing in new residents for those spots. So it's been, I think you know, getting into it for the first time. I think I was probably a little bit more concerned about what are we getting into, what are we going to experience, and it actually has gone far smoother than I ever expected, and so I'm so glad we did it and we have an excellent staff running that program and they've just ensured that it's been a huge success.

After-School Programs and Support

Speaker 4 17:41

Well, and not just on the housing side. I know there's other programs. You have to help young people as well.

Speaker 3 17:48

Absolutely so. One of the things that we do is we operate after school programming here at Willis Education Center. So we've got opportunities for kids to do STEM education, to do teen room activities after school. We have a running club, we've got a book club. It's really about providing a safe place to be with enrichment activities, mentorship opportunities. And in talking to kids over the years that have participated in the programming, we've had some that have signed up for every single thing that we've offered and you start to think, oh man, we must really got this nailed down. They really like what we're offering, and you know they do, and we're doing a good job at that.

Speaker 3 18:37

But when we ask them why do you come? And you know we expect them to say cause we really love what you're doing. Um, they do, but actually what they say is this is a safe space. Um, this is a place where I can get a meal. I don't have to go home, because sometimes going home is chaotic or not safe. So I can come here after school, I can get a meal, I can talk to people I trust, and I'd rather be here than go home.

Speaker 3 19:08

That's hard, that's hard to hear. I'd rather hear you know, we really love what you're doing. Your activities are top-notch. Um, that's hard to hear, um, I'd rather hear you know we really love what you're doing. Um, your activities are top-notch and, and you know, like I said, they are um, but they just they want a place to belong, they want a place to be safe and um, and to feel like like they matter, um and uh, and the adults are there, they have trusted adults that they can talk to, and so that's a different kind of success and you know I'll take that win.

Speaker 3 19:38

And so we do offer that program and we have we have a food pantry where they can get food. Like I said, we do offer meals. We have we have a shop where they can get clothes. If it's a dead of winter and they came in without a coat, they can leave with a coat. It's all about making sure that we're filling those gaps and that those services are here in one place and we're providing what they need. And that's really what everything that United Way has been about over the last 15 years has been about looking for the needs in the community.

Speaker 3 20:19

And another one of those has been supplies for scholars, which has been a big success over the last. I think we're in our. I think we're going yeah, I think we're in our going into 13 years and that'll be coming up at the end of July, and we do six or seven different big events and serve about 23, 2400 kids across Delaware County in every school district. And it just continues to grow and get, you know, bigger and bigger. But, you know, through providing $60,000 worth of school supplies, making sure that kids can get a backpack, get the school supplies that they need, they get to go shopping for it. You know, in a shopping experience, they get to pick it out.

Supplies for Scholars Initiative

Speaker 3 20:55

We don't just, you know, hand it to them and say here's, you know, here's your black backpack, the same as everybody else. They're different, they have designs. They get to pick it out. They get to have a shopping experience and some dignity with that and make sure that they start the year out with excitement. They come in excited to go back to school and to get their markers and the crayons and their, their notebooks. And it's a great way to end summer and begin the school year, making sure that all kids kind of start out on an on an even foot with what they need to be successful, and so we're so glad to still be doing that and to have the sponsor support that we do to provide that.

Speaker 2 21:38

And what I think is fun I don't know if you still do it, hopefully is online. You have a really cool thing that people can go and say I want to get a backpack and pencils and pens, and then it tells them an amount of money and they just donate the money. I think it's fun that you click through that stuff and you pick stuff and you donate money, but that's a big part of it right is the donations that you get from people on a regular basis for this.

Speaker 3 22:05

Build a virtual backpack or donate a virtual backpack, absolutely. And what we found early on the first couple of years that we did it we did a lot of school supply drives and we got a lot of random things. And that became a little difficult. Because what we found is, you know, you'd get a pack of 64 crayons and then you get a pack of 12 crayons and things like that, and you'd say, well, how do we, how do we do this? How do you give one kid 12 crayons and another kid 64 crayons?

Speaker 3 22:37

And what we found was it's really just better to get the sponsors for the event and to get donations for the event. And then we have some excellent staff that go out and shop for the best deals, and they do it year-round, and so we'll start shopping for next year when they start doing the closeouts after this year, and they, you know, and they still have all of all of this leftover and we'll buy in bulk and we'll go out and look online and find you know how to how to get the best deal on all of these things, but then we can buy it and store it and make sure that everybody, at least you know, is starting off on an equal footing and we don't have to say, okay, you get the 64 and you get the 12. That's not very fair, but donating is the best way.

Speaker 2 23:24

And so what's the website people can go to to do that?

Speaker 3 23:29

Yeah, everything can be found at liveuniteddelawarecountyorg.

Speaker 2 23:49

Yeah, everything can be found at liveuniteddelawarecountyorg, from anything about Supplies for Scholars or the Hunger Alliance, information about the food pantries you can link over to the Housing Alliance or Human Trafficking. Anything that we're involved in is on liveuniteddelawarecountyorg and with your food pantries do you guys work with? What is it the Central?

Speaker 3 24:04

Ohio Food Collective Mid-Ohio.

Speaker 2 24:05

Mid-Ohio Food Collective yeah.

Speaker 3 24:07

Absolutely. They're a huge provider of food in the network. Most of our food pantries, especially the larger ones, are a part of that network. The challenge is not everything that is needed for a food pantry is available from mid-Ohio. Either get other items donated or go out and buy either from you know places you know, like Aldi or or a Costco or things like that, if those items are not available that week or that month through Mid-Ohio. So, for example, if you know a big, you know hot commodity is peanut butter and that may not be available that week through Mid-Ohio, they may have to go out and acquire that somewhere else. And so either through donations or through shopping, and so it's always important to support the food pantries through shelf-stable food donations and then always the easiest thing to do is to make a donation of cash.

Speaker 4 25:15

And Brandon, what are some of the things on the advocacy side right now that United Way is supporting, or any issues out there that are making progress or are involved with at the moment.

Advocacy and Policy Efforts

Speaker 3 25:28

Yeah, so that's one of the things that we've been busy at At the local, state and federal level is telling the story, not just with United Way programs but all kind of social service programming. But it really does even start at a township level through the Housing Alliance, townships and through cities, and so some examples at that level are things like a zoning policy and some things that can be changed to make housing more affordable, make building more affordable. Sometimes zoning policies and permitting policies make it more expensive to build affordable housing, and so there are some things that can be changed at that level, even at a township level, that make affordable housing more attainable. And so the Housing Alliance is some some things with um some uh accessory dwelling units, which would be maybe a unit attached to your property, that, um, maybe a a small apartment above a garage, um that that you could, um rent out, uh kind of like what would be considered a mother-in-law suite type of a thing, um, that that would be a new change, but that would be a policy change. So, looking at some of those things that advocating on a local level, at the state level, you know we're looking at things like with the housing trust fund and making funding available to support projects for affordable housing, looking at things like funding for resources that support after-school programming and mentorship programming and the food pantries in the state budget. We're in a budget cycle right now where the state's putting together their biennial budget and making sure that there's funding available for those types of programs At the federal level.

Speaker 3 27:27

No surprise, there's been a lot of changes going on with federal funding. There's been a lot of changes going on with federal funding. One of the things that has changed is just access to funding. That's already been allocated and promised to Delaware County is about $70,000 for food and shelter programming. That was allocated to Delaware County. That's been frozen and kind of held up. In this assessment of all federal funding and federal grants, typically that should have been released in February. We're here, you know, entering, you know, almost in June. That funding is still held up and not been made available, and so we're talking to our federal legislators in the House and the Senate about how can we move that money along and get that money released back into our community to be available to our food pantry and our shelter providers.

Speaker 2 28:22

Well, tell everybody where they can find you if they want to volunteer or donate.

How to Get Involved

Speaker 3 28:28

Absolutely so. We're located in the Willis Education Center at 74 West William Street in Delaware, and so that's where our operations are located and that's where the bulk of our programming is. For our after-school programming, we have our food shelter here I'm sorry, our food pantry is here and then again, liveuniteddelawarecountyorg is the website you can do that. You can give us a call at 614-436-8929. But absolutely always looking for volunteers. If somebody wants to get involved in the Supplies for Scholars program as a volunteer, if there's a company that would like to sponsor any of the programs that I mentioned or bring out a team to volunteer at one of these programs, we'd love to have you. There's plenty of opportunities to do that.

Speaker 2 29:27

Well, Brandon, thank you so much for sharing your time with us and all the great things that United Way is doing for the community.

Speaker 3 29:35

Thanks for having me. We love doing it and we always enjoy looking for more opportunities to serve the community. Thank you, brandon. Thanks Ryan.

Speaker 1 29:46

Thank you for listening to this episode of Central Ohio Matters. Be sure to like, share and download. Central Ohio Matters. Be sure to like, share and download. We cover government policies, health care challenges, housing and business developments, transportation solutions, education and innovation. If you know of a good story we should be talking about, go to the radio station website and fill out a contact form Directed to Michelle Gatchel, host of Central Ohio Matters. Thank you.