Ozone House - History

History

The organization began in 1969 in Ann Arbor in response to the growing number of runaway youth migrating to "hip" towns following the Summer of Love of 1967. During this time, Ann Arbor was among the top 20 cities in the U.S. with a high influx of runaways. Many came to experience the counter culture of the '70s but would later find themselves stranded. Graduates and students of the University of Michigan, local businesses, organizations, and community residents united in support of Ozone House in order to handle the increasing number of street-dwelling and panhandling runaways. Most traditional agencies and police departments did not believe the stories of runaways: tales of harrowing physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. As a "counter culture" organization, Ozone House adopted a collectivist system to make its organizational decisions.

Ozone House was part of four main agencies in the Community Center Coordinating Council (referred to as C4) that provided services to youth who did not qualify for human resources services at the time or who did not feel comfortable engaging those established human resource organizations. Originally housed together with these other services, Ozone House relocated several times since its founding. However, unlike the other C4 agencies, Ozone House is the only one that remains autonomous and active to this day.