Central Access Point (CAP) Helpline (513-381-SAFE) assists Hamilton County residents experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness. They can access information about services, check for space in emergency shelters, and placed into housing programs.
Anyone experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness can call to get information about services. Trained Intake Specialists determine if the caller needs shelter immediately. Additionally they can make referrals to a homelessness prevention programs.
Centralized emergency shelter access system
Before the CAP Helpline launched in 2008, families had to call each shelter to find available space. Now, people can call one number and access shelter beds or services across multiple agencies and facilities. Furthermore, the CAP Helpline expanded to address the needs of families and single individuals.
CAP Helpline Intake Specialists place callers directly into 12 different programs. Also, they refer callers to other programs in the community if these programs do not address their needs. The Intake Specialists work to identify the program that can best meet a household’s needs.
Homelessness is a major local issue
In 2024, 6,489 people experienced homelessness in Hamilton County. Furthermore, 22% of them were children under the age of 18. And tragically, from May 1, 2024 through May 1, 2025 Street Outreach Workers found 312 families with children sleeping unsheltered on the streets of Cincinnati. Children sleeping in cars, in parks, and other places not meant for human habitation.
It is no understatement that experiencing homelessness is detrimental to one’s physical and mental health. Unquestionably housing status is a major social determinant of health. In a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine in 2023, “the sudden mortality rate was 16-fold higher in unhoused vs housed individuals.”
Also, the negative effects of experiencing homelessness continues after children are stably housed. From a Health Affairs study on the Urban Institute’s website, “children who experienced homelessness as infants were more likely to have health problems, hospitalizations, and emergency department visits than children in poverty who did not experience infant homelessness.” Correspondingly, the study shows that “having a history of homelessness is associated with adverse health outcomes for children in renter households with low incomes.”
While we continue to address the lack of affordable housing in our community. And work to sustain services like the CAP Helpline which connect homeless and at-risk households to the programs best suited to their needs.
Partners
The program’s collaborative partners include: Bethany House Services, Found House IHN, The City Gospel Mission, St. Francis-St. Joseph Catholic Worker House, Lighthouse Youth & Family Services, Talbert House, the Freestore Foodbank, Volunteers of America, Joseph House, Ohio Valley Goodwill, Shelterhouse, Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services, and YWCA Greater Cincinnati.
In addition, the CAP Helpline supports the community’s unique street outreach efforts. In 2024, the CAP Helpline helped develop a Street Outreach pilot program for families. This program allows us to identify families who are living unsheltered. Then the CAP Helpline prioritizes them to receive available space in a family shelter. As mentioned above, Street Outreach Workers found 312 families with children between May 1, 2024 and May 1, 2025 sleeping unsheltered. Street Outreach for Families does a tremendous job identifying the most vulnerable families so that they can enter shelter first. The CAP Helpline is currently working with our partners at Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services to make this a permanent program.
And the CAP Helpline helps with Street Outreach via the Street Reach app. The app allows anyone in Cincinnati to assist the homeless services system by reporting places where people are sleeping unsheltered. That report comes directly to the CAP Helpline and Street Outreach workers go to help.
Who does the CAP Helpline serve?
In 2024, 4,731 heads of households called the Central Access Point Helpline, and 2,229 (47%) were placed into a safe shelter or a housing program, including Shelter Diversion. Additionally, 2,212 of those callers represented families, most with children under the age of 18.
In 2024 the call volume (35,241 calls) was 99% higher than in 2020. Therefore the need is high and continues to stay high.
Further, the goals of the CAP Helpline are the same as our organization’s goals:
- reduce the number of people who experiencing homelessness,
- provide a high level of assistance to people experiencing homelessness,
- and to offer solutions to homelessness through housing.
Who pays for the CAP service?
Finally, government funding only partially supports the CAP Helpline. Therefore we turn to local partners to help fully fund the CAP Helpline. It is funded by the City of Cincinnati Human Services Fund, local foundations, and our generous donors. The local foundations that generously support CAP are the Charles H. Dater Foundation, the Thomas J. Emery Memorial, and the William P. Anderson Foundation.
