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During the COVID-19 pandemic, Deacon Ed Irelan was getting a flood of phone calls from people who had been released early from prison. Irelan runs the prison ministry for Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Toledo, so people were turning to him to ask for help when they had no place to go.
“I was getting calls saying, ‘I’ve got 30-50 dollars in my pockets, no where to go and no where to stay,’” Ireland recalled, adding that many of them were ending up sleeping under bridges, in cemeteries or in the woods.
He was up late one night trying to figure out a solution when he came across the national Off the Streets organization, which was founded in 2009 by another deacon – Deacon Michael Oles – in Danbury, Connecticut. He thought their model could work in Toledo.
Just a week later, Irelan had arranged for Oles to come to Toledo to meet with a group of people he thought might be able to help start a local chapter. At the end of that meeting, someone had donated $5,000, which was enough to get started. In October 2021, Off The Streets Toledo officially launched.
According to Irelan, Off The Streets has helped about 14,400 people get into housing by providing money for security deposits and donated furniture. They have won several awards for their work, including the 2026 Hometown Hero Award from the City of Maumee Chamber of Commerce and the 2025 Knights of Columbus International Community Program of the Year Award.
December 13, 2022, with the help of other Off The Streets Toledo volunteers.
Thanks to both the generosity of community members and the growing need in Toledo, the organization has grown rapidly. When they first started, they were getting furniture from Epworth Furniture Ministry, but now they have their own warehouse on the campus of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Maumee. They have also expanded into Oregon and Findlay, with plans to expand to Lima and Mansfield as well.
Irelan’s ultimate dream is to utilize Off The Streets Toledo to help out those who have completed the journaling program he began in local prisons. Through this program, people who are incarcerated reflect upon their past mistakes as a way of examining their life and trying to avoid returning to prison. He is working with a few employers who could employ graduates of this program, and with the help of Off the Streets Toledo, Ireland said they could “give them a hand up and get them started.”
Off the Streets typically gets clients referred to them from local agencies, such as the Zepf Center or Toledo Public Schools (TPS). They currently have about a three week waiting list for furniture, although Irelan said they sometimes move up families who are in emergency situations, such as a TPS student who was pregnant and already had several kids without a place to live.
“I didn’t think the needs would be as great as they are. It is like it never stops,” said Irelan, who said many of the people who are referred to them are women and children fleeing abusive partners.
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“I guess we should expect, until things get better in society, our numbers are going to continue to expand,” he said.
But Irelan has seen people in the community rise to the occasion to help.
“People are good,” he said. “You just have to give them a cause and they will rally and support a good cause.”
People who would like to get involved can donate gently used furniture during Off The Street’s collection days. These take place at the St. Joseph Parish Garage in Maumee every Saturday from 8:30-9:00 a.m. (and 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. on the third Saturday), or at St. Ignatius Church in Oregon on the last Saturday of the month from 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. They could also donate money or purchase something off of the organization’s gift registry at offthestreetstoledo.com.
