DAYTON, Ohio — Greater Old North Dayton is seeing some new development as Dayton Children's Hospital broke ground on a new kindship housing program. 

The program received more than $500,000 in Dayton Recovery Plan funds earlier this year to go toward safe, affordable housing for kinship families. The development will include 26 ADA-accessible housing units with these families needs in mind.

What You Need To Know

  • Kinship care is when a child lives with a relative, or adult known to the family and has a strong relationship with them

  • It's a focus for meeting the needs of children involved with the child welfare system

  • The project contains 26 ADA-accessible housing units in Greater Old North Dayton

  • It was created three years ago through conversations with community health workers

Kinship care is when a child lives with a relative, or adult known to the family, and has a long-standing relationship with them. It can involve a variety of relatives including aunts, uncles, grandparents, siblings or extended families. According to the Child Welfare Information Gateway, it has become a focus for meeting the needs of children involved in the child welfare system. These placements are preferred as they can help maintain family connections, cultural traditions and minimize the trauma of separation when a home environment is unsafe.

“Dayton Children’s vision is to reinvent the path to children’s health in our region,” said Debbie Feldman, president and CEO of Dayton Children’s in a news release. “To do that, we recognize that only so much can be done inside the walls of the hospital or the doctor’s office with 80% of health determined by where that child lives, learns and plays."

An obstacle many families face with providing care is housing, such as living in a retirement community where children are not allowed. 

Through this program, the 26 homes, located on Alaska and Rita Streets, will have three bedrooms and be close to urban amenities such as parks, schools and Dayton Children's Hospital. A community room, play areas and a community garden will also aim to foster connections and support child development.

“This initiative is a first-of-its-kind for a children’s hospital,” said Feldman in a news release. “By building a neighborhood dedicated to kinship care and maintaining ownership of these homes, we are ensuring that this support will endure for generations.” 

The project was created three years ago through conversations with the hospital system's community health workers who identified a need for stable housing among kinship families.

Dayton Children's said community partnerships helped make it possible including:

  • Dayton Children’s Hospital 
  • 4% low-income housing tax credits by the Ohio Housing Finance Agency (syndicated by Marble Cliff Capital) 
  • City of Dayton HOME and American Rescue Plan funds 
  • Montgomery County HOME funds 
  • Permanent debt from HOPE of the Midwest 
  • Construction loan from First Financial Bank 
  • U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 
  • The Housing Development Loan (HDL) program  
  • Wallick Communities, property management 
  • ATA Beilharz Architects 
  • CityWide Community Development
  • PNC Bank 

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