The United Way of Delaware County held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday for its new TreeHouse Young Adult Transitional Living Program facility located at 104 Oak Hill Ave. in Delaware.

The program has been in the works since 2017 when the organization opened the Strengthening Families Hub at Willis Education Center. United Way of Delaware County Vice President Gina Grote said Wednesday that when the hub opened, the organization began to recognize a need in the community with regard to housing stability for young adults.

“We have young adults who are facing housing insecurity,” Grote said. “(We have) a number of wonderful young adults who don’t have a place to stay. We kept seeing these situations, and we looked to solving the problem.”

United Way of Delaware County President Brandon Feller spoke before the ribbon cutting Wednesday afternoon and thanked the United Way Board of Directors, United Way staff, the community, local businesses that contributed to the program, and his family.

“This is a big deal for us,” Feller said. “We quickly became aware of significant and unaddressed housing issues facing young adults in our community. This need continued to grow. It’s hard enough to find affordable housing with an income and decent credit but imagine being 18 or 19 with no credit and no family support. We see this over and over in our community.”

Feller said the United Way along with Delaware City Schools Superintendent Heidi Kegley would work to find a housing solution for students facing housing insecurity, but they frequently couldn’t find the solution locally.

“We had to change that,” Feller said.

Grote said the United Way toured transitional housing programs and took courses to make sure the local program incorporated best practices.

“It’s not a shelter, it’s a program,” said Grote, who explained the home will house up to five young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 for between three months and two years depending on their needs. Grote said the home will operate like a dorm, and the location on Oak Hill Avenue was ideal because of the proximity to Ohio Wesleyan University, several walking-distance jobs and the United Way hub at Willis.

Grote said the young adults will take finance and budgeting courses and will pay money each month into a savings account they will receive when they complete the program.

“When they transition (out of the program), they leave here with a bank account with their savings in it and all the furnishings in their bedroom, all the things they need to start,” Grote said.

She added the house will be staffed 24 hours a day, and the United Way will train staff next month and begin serving young adults in July.

“This is a huge day, seeing this come to fruition,” Grote said Wednesday. “But the bigger days are the days where someone transitions and moves on.”

Grote said she’s seen how much of an impact a program like TreeHouse can have.

“Personally, it’s important to me because I have seen first-hand when we get to know these incredible young adults that there’s just some sort of barrier, and they need help getting over that barrier. … if they didn’t have that little bit of help, we don’t know what would have happened,” Grote said. “Every person who comes through this door … hopefully we’re going to change the path their on and help them have a brighter future. We’re looking forward to helping many, many more.”

Glenn Battishill can be reached at 740-413-0903 or on Twitter @BattishillDG.