HARRIET’S HOPE

Harriet’s Hope in Columbus, Ohio won a 2024 Charles L. Edson Tax Credit Excellence Award in the Housing for Special Populations category.

Harriet’s Hope is a 52-home, multifamily supportive housing community that empowers survivors of human trafficking. Named in honor of abolitionist Harriet Tubman who helped many escape slavery, Harriet’s Hope is a first-of-its-kind development for Columbus, Ohio, and among the nation’s first service-enriched housing communities exclusive to human trafficking survivors. Residents live in a community, a place where each fixture and detail were selected for them by fellow survivors, with access to robust onsite case management and social services that encourage rehabilitation and self-sufficiency. Harriet’s Hope provides homes for households with incomes up to 30 percent of the area median income (AMI).

Services are tailored to the unique needs of trafficking survivors and support each resident’s immediate and long-term goals, including comprehensive, trauma-informed case management services provided by The Salvation Army, recovery-specific services provided by Alvis, Inc., workforce development and employment opportunities provided by Columbus Works, and peer support provided by Freedom a la Cart.

The $15.6 million development was born out of a vision of Celia Kendall, CEO of Beacon 360 Management, a nonprofit real estate developer and management firm based in Columbus. Kendall became unsettled by her experiences with street outreach and encounters with women being trafficked. The project involved several agencies coming together for design, funding, and services, and is part of a larger initiative in the state to end human trafficking led by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.

Harriet’s Hope was made possible through expansive public-private partnerships at the state and local level, including CVS Health and the Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing, the Affordable Housing Trust of Columbus and Franklin County, the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, the City of Columbus, Park National Bank, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati, the Ohio Legislature, and Ohio Capital Impact Corporation.