More Than a Roof: Wraparound Services for People Experiencing Homelessness

Housing is where recovery begins, but it is rarely where it ends. RunningStart's Bridge Back Home program serves not only individuals returning home from incarceration, but also people experiencing homelessness more broadly — including those facing long-term housing instability, chronic homelessness, and co-occurring mental health or substance use conditions. For this population, a stable address solves one problem, but lasting change requires support that reaches every part of a person's life. That's why every unit we provide comes paired with a full circle of wraparound services designed to address the whole person, not just their housing status.

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Mental health support is woven into our model from day one. Many people who have experienced homelessness are also managing depression, anxiety, trauma, or serious mental illness that has gone untreated for years, sometimes worsened by the instability itself. We connect participants with licensed behavioral health partners for counseling, psychiatric care, and medication management, and our case managers check in regularly to make sure care stays consistent even when life gets complicated.

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Substance abuse treatment follows the same harm-reduction philosophy that shapes our entire program.  We link participants to outpatient treatment, medication-assisted treatment, detox and residential referrals when needed, and ongoing recovery support, meeting each person at whatever stage of change they're in.

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Individual and group counseling gives participants a confidential space to work through the trauma, grief, and stress that so often accompany homelessness and reentry alike. Beyond one-on-one sessions, our structured group counseling creates a setting where people can be honest about their struggles without judgment, and where progress is reinforced by seeing it happen in others facing the same road.

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Work readiness programming helps participants rebuild the skills, confidence, and documentation needed to reenter the workforce. This includes resume building, interview preparation, digital literacy, help navigating job applications online, and direct connections to employers in the Toledo area who are willing to hire people with employment gaps or a criminal record. For many participants, this is the first structured job search support they've had in years.

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Peer mentoring rounds out the model by pairing participants with others who have lived similar experiences and moved further along in their own recovery and housing stability. Peer mentors offer something case managers and clinicians can't fully replicate: proof, from someone who has been there, that stability is possible. These relationships often become one of the most trusted and motivating parts of a participant's support network.

Together, these services form a genuine safety net rather than a single point of assistance

. A person doesn't graduate from housing into isolation — they move through an integrated system where mental health, recovery, counseling, employment, and peer support all reinforce one another, so that the stability they build in month one becomes the foundation for real independence months and years down the road.

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In addition, coming home is a beginning, not an ending. At RunningStart, we believe that the day someone walks out of a correctional facility should mark the start of a real, supported path forward — not the start of another struggle. Too many people leaving incarceration face the same closed doors: landlords who won't rent to them, employers who won't call back, family relationships strained by time and distance, and a maze of paperwork standing between them and the benefits, identification, and services they need just to get back on their feet. RunningStart exists to open those doors.

 

We are a nonprofit organization based in Toledo, Ohio, dedicated to helping people rebuild stable, independent lives after incarceration and after homelessness. RunningStart provides, transitional and low-barrier housing program built specifically for adults — and adult-headed families — who are coming home from prison or jail and facing the kinds of obstacles that make traditional housing feel out of reach: poor credit, prior evictions, limited income, a criminal record, or a co-occurring mental health or substance use condition. If this describes your situation, you are exactly who this program was built for.