Coalition on Temporary Shelter

Mission: To create opportunities for families overcoming poverty to collaborate, thrive and succeed in building strong and stable households, neighborhoods and communities.

In 1982 Coalition On Temporary Shelter (COTS) was founded to address Detroit’s growing homelessness crisis. Since then, COTS has been committed to serving the most vulnerable members of the Detroit community by providing emergency shelter, affordable housing and more. COTS exists to create and facilitate opportunities for families in poverty to collaborate, thrive, and succeed in building strong households, neighborhoods, and communities.

COTS provides housing and support to nearly 1,000 people daily —and more than 60 percent of those served are children. Programs include family-only emergency shelter for families; supportive housing with assistance for addiction, disability or illness; affordable housing; and children’s services such as learning labs to support academic success, drop-in child care to help working parents, and child development services for families experiencing homelessness.

COTS Passport to Self-Sufficiency™ (PTS) assists families in reaching their housing, economic, health, education and career goals through coaching, mentorship and support, as they overcome homelessness and break the poverty cycle for the next generation — and beyond. This trauma-informed, research-based, transformative, whole family approach is designed to create poverty-resistant families, and is the overarching framework for all of our work and all of our programs and services are provided within the framework of this theory of change. “It takes a village to raise a child.” – African Proverb Everyone plays a part in the success of children in our communities. Join the village and partner with COTS as we partner with families on their journey to stability and self-sufficiency. Together, we can help to break the cycle of poverty for families and “Create Opportunities To Succeed!”