News

Community Properties of Ohio (CPO) serves as the property management affiliate of Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing and manages a variety of affordable housing communities. CPO leverages affordable housing as a platform from which individuals and families can build stability and thrive. Through CPO Impact (CPOI), a 501(c)(3) affiliate, CPO goes beyond traditional property management to provide innovative programs that promote goal achievement and self-sufficiency for residents. Below are highlights of CPO’s recent programs and initiatives.

CPO Stable Families Initiative
The objective of the Stable Families Initiative is to reduce families’ stress and re-traumatization by using proactive, trauma responsive strategies to stabilize housing and prevent evictions. In 2021:

• $62,060 in Resident Emergency Funds were dispensed to stabilize housing for residents at risk of eviction.
• 72 residents stabilized their housing with the support of the Resident Emergency Fund.
• 60% of the households served by the Resident Emergency Fund were families.
• Resident Services staff supported nearly 150 residents at risk for eviction, linking them with the needed resources to stabilize their housing.

Staff Allyship Trainings
At the end of 2020, CPO was excited to launch their first Allyship training program. CPO understands that allyship is an important aspect of diversity, equity, and inclusion training. Recognizing our country’s past and continuing inequities and taking tangible, measurable, and most importantly, effective, steps to repair those inequities is completely aligned with CPO’s mission and vision. Trainings led by fellow peers will help other CPO staff define allyship, understand identities, bias, and power dynamics, identify their personal reasons for being an ally, and understand how to practice allyship beyond their training.

Staff Trauma-Responsive Care Trainings
The goal of this initiative is to help families remain stably housed by first internally focusing on our communications, interactions, policies and procedures to create a positive and safe environment for both residents and staff. The trainings teach staff tangible skills to help better address issues with residents and remain calm in stressful situations, allowing them to deescalate tense situations and reduce the chances of retraumatizing residents. The goal is that by creating more positive interactions, we can foster a better connection with residents to help maintain good, stable conversation. This will allow us to provide more services and support to families in time of need, allowing them to remain stably housed and hopefully even take more steps towards self-sufficiency. CPO held its first round of trainings in November and will provide the second round in February.