Leah Werner, Corporation for Supportive Housing: Housing is the Best Medicine

Program Description: Supportive housing, a combination of quality affordable housing and voluntary but robust services, has been demonstrated through rigorous evidence to save lives and money and is responsible for a roughly 50% decrease in chronic homelessness in Ohio. CSH, a national non-profit focused on elevating evidence-based housing strategies, has spent the past decade learning how supportive housing can also solve complex multi-system challenges in foster care, health, criminal justice, behavioral health, aging, and developmental disabilities populations. Join Leah Werner in a discussion of the opportunities in Summit County to leverage housing resources to improve the trajectory of vulnerable residents and families. Speaker Biography: Leah Werner is a seasoned affordable housing professional with over twenty years of experience in the housing and community development field. As a Senior Program Manager Leah has trained nationally on supportive housing best practices including Housing First, Property Management and Supportive Service Coordination and Eviction Prevention. She has been lead facilitator for 6 Supportive Housing Institutes. She also works with PSH stakeholders on advancing the creation of quality supportive housing throughout the state of Ohio through technical assistance, partnership development, and advocacy. Leah graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a degree in Urban Geography. She began her career as a community organizer working in several communities throughout Ohio. Leah spent 9 years at East End Community Services, initially as a community organizer and was then promoted to Director of Housing and Community Development. Leah was responsible for the production of 80 units of affordable housing developed with Tax Credits; a $9M investment. She managed the demolition of over 100 dilapidated houses and secured and managed over $2M in local, state and federal resources. After leaving East End, Leah worked as a Project Manager for the Oberer Companies, a for-profit real estate company, focusing her work on affordable housing development. After leaving the Oberer Companies, Leah joined the Ohio Department of Medicaid charged with identifying and removing housing barriers for individuals on Medicaid who were living in Institutions. While at Medicaid was recruited to work for CSH and has been in the Ohio office for over 4 years.