Welcome to the Samaritan house!
The Samaritan House is a non-profit organization in the city of Ashtabula. It began as an idea with a group of area ministers in 1987. They met to discuss the issue of homelessness in the Ashtabula area. The ministers had noticed people coming to their churches asking for help with a place to stay because they were homeless. In response, the Messiah Lutheran Church made their former church parsonage available to be used as the homeless shelter. Supporting the shelter, the City of Ashtabula provided a block grant to bring the house up to code. In November of 1989, we served our first homeless clients.
Twenty-Seven years later, we have served about 5,300 different residents including single adults and families with children. The shelter can house up to fourteen people at a time and last year served 124 different people. While we have served people from all over, most of our residents are from Ashtabula County.
The Samaritan House is the only homeless shelter in Ashtabula County. Our county residents can stay with us up to 30 days. During that time, the staff connects residents to area agencies that can help them with employment, housing, food, medicine or whatever they need to get back on their feet again. Transients or non-county residents are limited to a two day stay.
Our shelter serves clients daily with intakes beginning at 8:00 a.m. on a first come, first served basis. Residents leave during the day to work on goals, obtain services and seek housing. We recently opened the shelter 24/7 with help from grants. Residents can come back through out the day to get ready for interviews, have appointments, and on most days can come back for lunch. As part of their stay, we provide food, laundry facilities, sleeping areas, bathrooms and television rooms for our residents.
Currently, the shelter has a dedicated staff. The full-time Director and House Manager work together with the part-time Bookkeeper, 5 Intake Specialists, and a custodian.
We are funded by several sources including the Ohio Department of Development, United Way of Ashtabula County and FEMA. Local contributions from area churches, companies and private citizens also serve a vital role in the support of the shelter.
Your help and contribution in running the shelter is very important to us. All donations are welcome and deeply appreciated.
