Give Detroit

Coalition on Temporary Shelter

COTS is committed to serving the most vulnerable Detroiters by providing emergency shelter, affordable housing, and more. COTS creates opportunities for families overcoming poverty to collaborate, thrive, and succeed in building strong and stable households, neighborhoods, and communities.

Hour Detroit

November 1, 2023

1449

Give Detroit – A Charitable Registry

// MISSION

COTS exists to alleviate homelessness by providing services that enable people to achieve self-sufficiency and obtain quality, affordable housing. COTS also exists to advocate for long-term solutions to the problem of homelessness.

// KEY SERVICES PROVIDED

In 2022, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) documented 582,000 Americans experiencing homelessness. How many people experience homelessness in Michigan? Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness recorded 22,775 adults and 7,242 children in their latest report. COTS stands as a beacon of hope by providing emergency housing and vital support services to families seeking assistance.

Programs offered by COTS include a familyonly emergency shelter, affordable housing and long-term supportive housing with assistance for addiction, disability, or illness, child development services for families with infants and toddlers, and mobility coaching and mentoring support. Last year, COTS assisted 427 families, totaling 1,171 adults and children. With the understanding that poverty is a driving factor behind homelessness and the need to address it, COTS has developed a theory of change for disrupting generational poverty. The organization’s focus is now exclusively on encouraging families to develop economic selfsuffiffifficiency and stable environments, creating a multi-generational impact and ultimately breaking the cycle of poverty.

This innovative strategy is the Passport to Self- Sufficiency™ (PTS). PTS, the COTS povertyreduction framework, is utilized across all programs within the organization. Using a twogeneration, whole-family approach, it partners with families who are currently experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness to provide long-term services that are person-centered, strength-based, and trauma-informed. PTS focuses on housing, economic advancement, health, education, and career development. COTS is proudly the first organization certified in Mobility Mentoring®, a research-backed economic mobility coaching approach developed by Economic Mobility Pathways (EMPath). Through partnerships, COTS aims to break the cycle of poverty and homelessness for families today and future generations.