Overview:
Sustainable modular homes are under construction and Home for Every Neighbor initiative reaches more than 100 unsheltered Clevelanders
Despite Americans’ divisions over politics and the economy, community development partnerships are creating solutions for the survival of families and businesses. Cleveland Mayor Justin M. Bibb is optimistic for urban cities addressing the central issue of housing through innovative public-private partnerships beyond federal government support.
At a live convening by the National Housing Crisis Task Force on Monday May 5th, Bibb and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros discussed the city’s progress with the modular housing strategy for vacant lots, Home for Every Neighbor initiative and the Cleveland Housing Investment Fund.
“We have our four key sectors we are focused on and the housing piece will be that linchpin, so when we attract families, we have communities of choice they can live, work and play in,” Bibb told Cisneros at the Cleveland Foundation before an audience of local supporters and Task Force members.
The National Housing Crisis Task Force focuses on five key segments of housing interventions: construction, capital, regulation and delivery. The Co-Chairs are Mayor Bibb, Utah Governor Spencer Cox, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and Susan Thomas, president of Fifth Third Community Development Corporation. Members include public and private sector leaders working with civic leaders to address the country’s housing crisis. Cleveland’s partners and funders are The Cleveland Foundation, Fifth Third, Rocket Community Fund and The George Gund Foundation. The bipartisan group of co-chairs leads the task force in identifying and scaling promising innovations in housing production and preservation backed by federal policy recommendations to deliver faster, cost-effective local solutions.
One local solution Cleveland launched last summer, Home for Every Neighbor, moved 154 unsheltered individuals into stable homes with additional support from the city. The program started with 32 target areas across 12 different wards providing targeted intervention for individuals experiencing chronic homelessness and untreated disabilities, for instance. Bibb told Cisneros that 50 encampments were cleared, recruited landlords are guaranteed 12 months of rent and newly housed people are connected to case managers for social services.
Early in the housing initiative, Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry helped secure housing units and has a new contract to place 18-to-24-year-olds in scattered site housing, according to Chief Program Officer Michael Sering. “Our city and county work hard to have enough shelter beds for those that need it, including allocating ARPA dollars for shelter capacity and improvements,” he said in an email.
At the same time, Cleveland is addressing a long-term problem with out-of-state and foreign LLC investors owning majority of east side properties. Bibb touted Residents First legislation holding predatory investors and absent landlords accountable and he wants vacant parcels to attract new workforce housing and industrial jobs. For example, city agreements with LISC Strategic Investments, Key Bank and JPMorgan Chase generated a $50 million investment to expand affordable housing, increase homeownership and home repairs. The Cleveland Housing Investment Fund aims to raise another $50 million to turn 1,000 acres into shovel-ready job sites for building 300,000 more units of market-rate homes and place 5,000 new modular homes – a pilot is coming to the Clark-Fulton and Buckeye neighborhoods this fall.
“People are excited not just about the new homes, but about being part of the process,” said Ward 14 Councilwoman Jasmin Santana in a city Facebook post announcing the pilot. “This pilot shows what’s possible when we engage the community early and often – when neighbors feel heard, they feel ownership, and that’s how we build stronger, more connected neighborhoods.”
A report the national Task Force released in March about the state and local housing action plan highlights new innovative methods for rapidly expanding production and preservation of houses that do not rely on federal systems and programs. Further actions by the Trump Administration of eliminating fair housing protections and scaling back HUD workforce, if successful, “could increase the cost of construction, reduce federal support for public housing, vouchers, and other appropriated programs and tax incentives, as well as alter the current system of primary mortgage insurance and secondary market credit enhancements.”
For more information about housing and outreach, contact the City of Cleveland’s Community Development Department at (216) 664-2869. Landlords interested in providing housing for A Home for Every Neighbor can contact the city’s Housing and Outreach Project Manager, Liam Haggerty at LHaggerty@clevelandohio.gov or 216-857-1104.
