A housing complex with 44 units for people experiencing homelessness is now open in Over-the-Rhine.
Developer Over-the-Rhine Community Housing (OTRCH) celebrated the ribbon cutting Thursday, alongside local and statewide officials.
Gloria's Place offers permanent supportive housing, which means 24/7, on-site services like case management, food support, and medical care.
"Permanent supportive housing has given me more than just a place to live. It has given me a sense of belonging in a community that values me," said Jacqueline Hull, a resident at another OTRCH property. "Fighting something many people don't understand doesn't make you less of a person. Sometimes people just don't understand your struggle or what it means to fight addiction, but that doesn't mean you struggle isn't real, and it certainly doesn't mean you are not worthy."
The building at 2000 Dunlap Street is a block away from a streetcar stop and a couple blocks from Findlay Market. It offers studio and one-bedroom apartments with private bathrooms and kitchens. Click through the gallery below to see more:
"This is a huge win for Findlay Market, for Over-the-Rhine, and it's a win for those among us who need and deserve to access the chances that Gloria's Place will provide," said Mayor Aftab Pureval. "This is exactly the kind of project that is the most complicated and the most difficult to build. It takes buy-in from organizations around our community."
The site was formerly a surface parking lot. It's within a local Historic District, and the Historic Conservation Board approved all elements of the project except one: an exception to zoning rules to allow 44 units instead of the limit of 14 units.
Then-Council member Reggie Harris introduced the density variance to the Planning Commission himself, an uncommon approach. The project survived a lawsuit challenging that process.
About two years after Council approved the variance for Gloria's Place, it passed the sweeping zoning reform known as Connected Communities. The changes mean if this project were proposed today, it wouldn't need a density variance.
The financial stack for the $14.9 million project included public sources like Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and direct funding from Hamilton County and the city of Cincinnati.
Gloria's Place is named for a former resident of permanent supportive housing through OTRCH, who died in 2022.
Director of Resident Services Andy Hutzel thanked a long list of partners for making the "grueling" project possible.
"For our OTRCH board of directors for being not only supportive, but unwavering in that support when both the predictable and unexpected obstacles arose," he said. "For Gloria, our current residents, Jackie and others, and our future residents of Gloria's Place — for continually showing us what strength, hard work, and persistence really looks like."
Future residents are currently working with Strategies to End Homelessness on the coordinated entry process to be matched with a unit. Gloria's Place will operate on a housing-first model, meaning residents won't be required to prove sobriety or participate in treatment as a condition of living there.
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