Dublin fundraiser spotlights residents' paths from homelessness to permanent housing

Jimmy Belcher walked to the microphone inside The Exchange at Bridge Park on Thursday night with his YMCA case manager, Ben Martin, at his side, and told a room full of Dublin neighbors how he made it from homelessness into a home of his own.

The occasion, two hours on Oct. 8 at 6520 Riverside Drive, was Community Housing Network's "Celebrate the Resilient" fundraiser, and the room carried the trimmings of a well-fed gala — heavy hors d'oeuvres, raffle prizes, and dueling pianos from Cleveland Keys — with ABC6/FOX28 anchor Kurt Ludlow emceeing and Rockford Construction presenting.

The giving was for Community Housing Network's permanent supportive housing and the services wrapped around it, for people who have lived through chronic homelessness along with mental-health challenges or other disabling conditions.

Belcher didn't hand the room a number; he handed it the road itself, with Martin standing beside him at the microphone as the case manager who had walked every step with him. More residents' journeys reached the crowd in a video, and Ann Bischoff, Community Housing Network's new chief executive officer, told the room, "I believe in the transformational power of home and community."

The evening also handed out its second annual Impact Awards: Chad Stonebrook, Volunteer of the Year; the YMCA of Central Ohio, Service Partner of the Year; and Rockford Construction, Corporate Partner of the Year. The volunteer honor reached past the podium — Kate Stonebrook's Girl Scout troop assembled 100 meal kits for Community Housing Network residents, and the YMCA was recognized for the on-site supportive services it runs at Touchstone Field Place: goal-setting, resource connections, and access to medical and behavioral-health care.

The night's dollars fund the full wrap-around picture — job coaching, education, health care, therapy, and case management delivered alongside a home, not apart from it — and Rockford Construction put a dollar-for-dollar match on the table, up to $50,000, doubling what the room gave.

Community Housing Network served 2,031 people in 2025, including 320 children, and reports that 90% of its residents keep their housing. It operates more than 1,500 units, has served 10,000 or more households since 1987, and this year expanded Touchstone Field Place by 44 apartments.

The housing is in Columbus

Touchstone Field Place — the community that grew by 44 apartments this year — sits at 2565 Lockbourne Road in Columbus, along with its adjacent second phase.

Dublin's own pipeline is thinner and years away. The median Dublin home sells for $548,958; the median rent is $2,600 a month. At the standard rule that rent should take no more than 30% of income, a household needs $104,000 a year just to afford that apartment. Dublin counted only 227 income-restricted apartments in its 2023 housing study — roughly 3% of the rental market.

Those are the neighbors All In Dublin is being built for: 19 of its 75 apartments — 25% — are reserved for adults with disabilities at or below 30% of area median income, and about 30 of the units prioritize residents 62 and older, spread across 38 one-bedroom, 29 two-bedroom, and 8 three-bedroom homes.

Dublin's thin pipeline

All In Dublin, planned for Dublin Center Drive and West Dublin-Granville Road in the Bridge Street District, is now expected to build only in late 2026, with first move-ins in early 2028 — pushed back from the earlier anticipated summer 2026 start and fall 2027 occupancy.

The people the Bridge Park crowd applauded Thursday are the same neighbors Dublin's tight, expensive market shuts out: workers, seniors, and people with disabilities who need a place on our own streets rather than across the county line in Columbus.

None of the money raised at The Exchange flows to All In Dublin. Rockford's up-to-$50,000 match doubles giving toward Community Housing Network's own permanent supportive housing and services in Columbus; All In Dublin is a separate effort led by the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority, TFG Housing Resources, and All Inclusive Living.

After the applause

The real measure of Thursday's applause is what gets built here after the dinner plates are cleared. The first sign to watch for is a fence and foundations rising at Dublin Center Drive; All In Dublin's financing is targeted to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, with construction late in the year and first move-ins expected in early 2028. City hall, led since January by Mayor Chris Amorose Groomes, is where a neighbor's question about units in the Bridge Street District lands.