Dublin fundraiser puts faces to city's affordable-housing shortage

Jimmy Belcher took the microphone at The Exchange at Bridge Park and told a room full of Dublin neighbors what it took for him to get a permanent key. After homelessness, he said, a safe apartment gave him the stability to move forward — his YMCA of Central Ohio case manager, Ben Martin, standing beside him as he spoke.

The occasion was Community Housing Network's "Celebrate the Resilient" fundraiser, held Thursday night, October 8, in the showpiece of Dublin's toniest live-work district. For one evening, the room where the city shows off its prosperity became the room where neighbors heard about homelessness from people who had lived it in their own community.

Ann Bischoff, CHN's chief executive — who led Star House, the nonprofit serving young people experiencing homelessness, for more than a decade before joining CHN — told the crowd, "I believe in the transformational power of home and community." ABC6/FOX28 anchor Kurt Ludlow emceed the evening.

Where the money went

Rockford Construction presented the fundraiser and matched every gift dollar for dollar, up to $50,000 — doubling what donors gave that night.

The proceeds fund permanent supportive housing for people and families who have experienced chronic homelessness and live with mental health challenges or other disabling conditions, plus the services that keep people housed: job coaching, health care, therapy, and case management.

How the housing works

For a resident like Belcher, the arrangement is a simple one: rent rises and falls with what you actually make, and no one tells you to leave after a set number of months. CHN builds and manages the housing itself, and does not time-limit it or tie it to completing treatment.

The organization manages more than 1,500 permanent supportive housing units. Residents stay an average of five years, and about 90% successfully maintain their housing. In 2025, CHN served 2,031 residents across 1,574 households.

The evening also highlighted the expansion of Touchstone Field Place by 44 apartments — new permanent supportive-housing units. The YMCA of Central Ohio took the Service Partner of the Year award for its work there: goal-setting, resource connections, and access to medical and behavioral-health care. Chad Stonebrook was named Volunteer of the Year; since 2021 he has organized volunteers and resources — welcome-home kits, holiday meals, and household supplies — for CHN residents.

Dublin's own numbers

Dublin's 2023 Housing Study put the gap in plain terms. About 92.6% of the people who work in Dublin live somewhere else — the person who rings you up, the one who fixes the furnace, the one who teaches your kids. Only about 7.4% both live and work in the city, and 85.5% of employed Dublin residents work outside it. The same study found a shortage of attainable housing for local workers, young adults, and families, with the median Dublin home selling for roughly $500,000 — the number a Dublin teacher or paramedic would have to clear to buy where they work. The city projects it needs about 4,850 additional housing units by 2040.

Franklin County's January 2025 Point-in-Time Count recorded 2,556 people experiencing homelessness, up 7.4% from 2,380 the year before.

Belcher has his key. What Thursday's room actually bought is the next one: rent tied to what a resident makes, no deadline on staying, and 44 new apartments at Touchstone Field Place for the people and families coming out of chronic homelessness.