The head of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless is stepping down after 22 years with the organization. He says it faces a challenging future in securing state and federal funding.
Brian Davis began volunteering with the homeless group in the 1990s, and decided late last year that he would step down. The announcement to the public came during the coalition’s annual meeting yesterday. Davis says that, going forward, new leadership may be a good thing, since it might help the coalition to repair relationships that may have become strained in the past.
“We’re the Coalition for the Homeless. Not the coalition for the homeless service providers, or the coalition for the mayor’s office or county council. I know who my constituents are and I try to represent them as effectively as I can.”
“I’m good at advocating for a constituency. I’m good at community organizing. That’s not going to be the skill that’s going to be necessary to lead the homeless coalition; it’s going to be setting up emergency services, trying to get religious communities back involved in homelessness. That’s a different skill and I think there’s probably other people that can step in and do that.”
Davis worries that the money coming to Cleveland to help with homelessness is going to be drastically reduced in the future, and he wants President Trump to realize that housing needs to be a part of his infrastructure programs.
Davis will remain at the helm until June 1.
