Give Detroit

Coalition on Temporary Shelter (COTS)

COTS creates opportunities for families to collaborate, thrive, and succeed in building strong and stable households, neighborhoods, and communities.

Hour Detroit Staff

November 1, 2025

1862

Give Detroit – A Charitable Registry

Of all the heartbeats COTS touches in any given year, nearly 60% are children’s.

// MISSION

COTS creates opportunities for families to collaborate, thrive, and succeed in building strong and stable households, neighborhoods, and communities. We assist families in reaching their goals as they overcome homelessness and break the cycle of poverty.

// KEY SERVICES PROVIDED

COTS is dedicated to serving Detroit’s most vulnerable residents by offering emergency shelter, supportive housing, child care, and other critical supportive wraparound services. COTS creates opportunities for families overcoming homelessness and poverty to thrive, succeed, and build strong, stable households and communities.

Its services include a family-only emergency shelter, supportive housing, child development services for infants and toddlers, and mobility coaching and mentoring. In the past year, COTS assisted 419 families, impacting 1,144 adults and children. Of all the heartbeats COTS touches in any given year, nearly 60% are children’s. Recognizing that poverty is a primary factor behind homelessness, COTS has developed a comprehensive framework to disrupt generational poverty, focusing on long-term solutions that promote economic self-sufficiency.

The Passport to Self-Sufficiency (PTS) is COTS’s innovative poverty-reduction framework. PTS uses a two-generation, whole-family approach, offering trauma-informed, person-centered services that focus on family stability, finances, health and well-being, education and training, and employment and income. COTS is proud to be the first organization certified in Mobility Mentoring®, a proven economic mobility coaching model developed by Economic Mobility Pathways. Through these efforts and partnerships, COTS is breaking the cycle of poverty and homelessness for current and future generations.

// UPCOMING EVENTS

Join COTS for Soup City: Detroit Edition on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026, at the Roostertail. Enjoy delicious dishes from top metro Detroit restaurants while supporting families overcoming poverty and homelessness. Show your hometown pride by wearing your favorite Detroit sports apparel! Your participation helps Create Opportunities to Succeed!