Update from CAHA

CMHA Public Housing Presented

The Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority periodically presents at the Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance to update the group on the state of the agency.  It was Scott Pollock's time on Monday November 7, and he had a great deal of information on all the development taking place around the city.  From the introduction of their new headquarters in the forgotten triangle to the Woodhill Community Center ribbon cutting (pictured above) that same morning. They have ground breakings at the Lee Harvard Senior Housing, in East Cleveland and Fairfax Inter generational townhouses.  Most of these new units were made available because of the 2009 Stimulus funding or the Neighborhood Stabilization fund which was put in place after the foreclosure crisis.  CMHA was fortunate to receive millions in stimulus and other capital funding, and seem to have upgraded hundreds of homes to be more energy efficient.  They have built hundreds of new units to replace worn out housing that was taken down.  They have worked to de-concentrate poverty and make public housing more attractive to neighbors.  All the groundbreakings and ribbon cuttings seem to indicate that they got busy when the stimulus dollars came to Cleveland.

Let's roll the numbers:
CMHA Public Housing has 9,412 available units with 8,992 occupied.  There are 420 total vacant units which is the lowest since 1974.  They are modernizing 257 of those vacant units and 163 units are being turned over to others on the waiting list.  CMHA's adjusted occupancy rate is at 98.3% when taking out those units under modernization or renovation. 

The waiting list is overwhelming and huge with 11,424 people waiting for a public housing unit and 69% of those individuals are looking for a 1 bedroom apartment, and 24.6% for a 2 bedroom apartment.  They serve 16,753 individuals and 34.4% are families with children and 19.5% are seniors (which mirrors the local census demographics).  My beef with CMHA is that they have segregated 27% of their properties only available to those over 50 years old (which makes it harder for the large number of younger people to get into a subsidized unit locally).

The largest segment of public housing residents have no income at all (20.1% or 1,742) with residents relying on social security second at 19.4%, and 18.2% are employed.  17.4% of the residents have SSI as their sole source of income.  The average annual income for the population is only $7,072.  With only $7,000 annual income, it is unlikely that the average tenant has the ability to pay the market price for rent.

The massive waiting list is a symptom of the housing crisis in America.  It points to the massive number of units we need to renovate or build in order to restore stability to America's cities.   Every single person currently housed would have to leave public housing before the guy who applies today will get offered a housing unit.  At this stage, turnover in the units is anemic, because there are so few places to go.  Local rents have not come down, but wages are stagnate or falling.  People are staying put and not risking the loss of their housing.  The federal government is again talking about cutting the public housing budget.  Our local housing authority has climbed out of the days of decay and crime ridden neighborhoods.  We have a housing crisis in the United States with 11,400 people waiting for public housing and 65,000 having applied for a voucher about two months ago.  It make no sense to cut any federal dollars going to house people.  What is Congress thinking?

Brian
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Waiting List Info Delayed

CMHA Housing Voucher List Will Not Be Released until November

For those who have been waiting to see if they won the housing choice voucher lottery, you are going to have to wait another few weeks.  There were 65,000 people applied, which is a 20,000 person increase from 2005-2006 lottery.  The company running the lottery and CMHA are cleaning up from the applications, and announced that they will delay the drawing until mid November.  The lottery was supposed to be announced last week.  There will be 10,000 names drawn, and so the applicant has a 1 in 6 chance of winning the lottery.  Then they just have to wait a couple of years for their number to come up, and their homelessness will come to an end.  This huge demand for a voucher shows the need for housing locally, and the self declared housing emergency we are experiencing.  With this huge demand for help, what is happening in Washington DC?  Right now all the talk is cuts to housing, static funding of homelessness, and severe cuts to community development block grant funding.  It is going to be a rough couple of years.

Brian
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

Update on the CMHA Voucher Lottery

Waiting List Lottery Deadline Extended to Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 5 PM EDT

From a Press Release by CMHA: The Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) announced today that it is extending the entry deadline for its Housing Choice Voucher Program Waiting List Lottery until Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 5 p.m. EDT. The deadline has been extended in order to ensure that everyone who wants to enter the Waiting List Lottery has an opportunity to do so, after technical difficulties may have prevented many interested households from submitting entries when the lottery first opened on Monday.

“While we have experienced some technical difficulty yesterday, as of today, over 20,000 entries have been submitted. Nevertheless, in an effort to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to complete the entry process, we felt an extension of the timeline was the fair and prudent thing to do,” said Jeffery K. Patterson, CMHA Acting CEO.

To submit an entry online, interested entrants should visit the Waiting List Lottery Web site at www.applycuyahogacounty.tenmast.com. Seniors and persons with disabilities can contact the HCVP Waiting List Lottery Call Center at 800-223-4969 from 8 a.m. EDT – 8 p.m. EDT to obtain assistance with submitting an entry.

More information about the Lottery and the HCVP is available on the HCVP Waiting List Lottery web site at www.applycuyahogacounty.tenmast.com or by calling the HCVP Waiting List Lottery Call Center at 800-223-4969 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. daily and on weekends.

Editor's Note: That is pretty amazing that with the site only open for 10 to 11 hours so far already 20,000 people applied. Now, some will be duplicates and will be kicked out of the final total, but there are a lot of people in need. Is the market for housing so unstable that kids graduating from high school put their name on the list figuring that they may need help in the next five years? Once you get to the website, click on "application" then the link with English or Spanish depending on which language you are comfortable and finally click "begin". Make sure that anyone struggling with housing applies because the site will not be open again until 2016 or 2017 most likely.

Brian
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry.

CMHA Publishes Annual Plan for 2009

If You Have Concerns About Public Housing Comment on Their Plan

Every year during the summer, the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority publishes their plan for the next year. This plan goes to the federal government for approval, and in it they layout changes in admission criteria, buildings, leasing policy, support services, etc. We are concerned by a number of pieces within the plan, and feel that constant budget constraints have led to poor decisions made about the future of the organization. With the passage of the National Housing Trust Fund, CMHA will be a critical partner to finally beginning to build and repair affordable housing in Cleveland. We need to resolve all of these issues so that everyone has confidence in the housing authority acting as a partner for change.

First, the good news...most of the plan involves changes to better serve disabled residents and disabled applicants. Most of the plan needs to be commended for doing a great job in providing a hand up to the disabled population. This came about as a result of an audit, which found that the agency needed to do more to meet fair housing requirements. No matter how it came about it is good for the community, and for that we thank CMHA.

I am especially disturbed by the expansion of the number of senior housing buildings in our community contained in the plan. We all know those over 50 years of age are easier to serve, but we do not need a housing authority to serve our easiest to help. We need CMHA to lead in providing housing to the hardest to serve. Currently, 26% of your total public housing inventory is off limits to the major portion of our community in need. To expand the number of units off limits to single adults struggling to find stability is against the City’s Consolidated Plan. We do not need anymore senior housing in this community. We need CMHA to step up to put forward our plan to empty the shelters and not empty the nursing homes.

Other specific concerns include:

1. Set the Minimum Rent at $0 for both programs. We would ask that both the Housing Voucher program and Public Housing return to a rent structure based on what a person can afford. With the minimum rent, many of our clients are still eligible for $0 rent, but, in order to receive it, they must be informed of and then go through the hurdles of applying for a minimum rent exemption. CMHA’s implementation of the exemption rule has been uneven. Those between jobs or waiting for their disability should not be expected to find a way to pay rent of $50 or $25 (the current minimum rents). We believe that if you are going to put this burden on the tenant to file for a hardship exemption then we would prefer a $100 minimum rent so that it is high enough that everyone eligible will in fact take that option. At this time, the agency benefits from those not going to the trouble of asking for an exemption that they deserve, because it is not worth the effort.

2. We renew our opposition to any expansion of the senior only buildings contained in the plan. CMHA already limits 2,510 units to a select population. There are very few seniors or near-seniors on the waiting list. There is a short wait in the community for senior housing with most of the vacancies in Cuyahoga County in senior or near senior properties. This is a betrayal of one of the poorest communities in America to replace units and then allow only seniors back into these properties. CMHA is not acting as a good partner for the shelters, homeless people, and the anti poverty groups in this community by serving a population that is not in need. We ask that CMHA get back into the business of serving homeless people who happen to be under 50 years of age. At this point, the younger population wait 4 to 5 years to find a place to live. We do not believe that this further designation of senior housing is consistent with the City of Cleveland’s Consolidated Plan. If this goes through and is approved by the CMHA Board, we will ask that the Congress look into the Public Housing Senior Only designations and their impact on the community.
   

3. We believe that the Plan is missing information about the Replacement of units slated for Demolition: In addition to the pending demolition plan for 221 Garden Valley units and 61 Outhwaite units, the Plan calls for the additional demolition of 59 Cedar Extension units, 128 Garden Valley units, and 3-4 buildings at Lakeview Terrace. Meanwhile, CMHA is proposing new construction of only 81 units at Garden Valley and a possible, unspecified project at Outhwaite and/or Collinwood, Lee-Harvard, or East Cleveland. The Plan Summary makes the vague promise that CMHA “will continue to seek other development opportunities for creating replacement housing.” NEOCH firmly believes that there should be one-to-one replacement of all demolished public housing units. With homelessness on the rise, CMHA should not demolish any unit of affordable subsidized housing without replacing those units or making a concrete plans to do so.

4. We do not understand Why an Unborn Child is not classified as a person. First, in a conservative political environment this is a bad idea. this provision forces a mom to request a one bedroom and then have to move after the baby is born to a larger apartment. If a fundamentalist lawmaker received this plan they would be very angry that this seems to encourage abortion. Second, why would you want a new Mom to have to move? This policy seems to contradict with the moving policy, and should allow the staff to place the woman in an apartment that “best meets their needs.”

5. Maintenance and Housekeeping Classes should remain an option for CMHA residents not a requirement. We do not believe that these classes should be required for all tenants. We are not sure that they are universally convenient or accessible to all tenants including those with a disability or those who live in scattered sites. We do not want another milestone that a person must meet to maintain their tenancy. It seemed that allowing staff to assign the classes is a good compromise. Some of the tenants could teach these classes and should not be forced to go to a class that they do not need.

6. All of the Recommendations of the Re-Entry Task Force Should be Adopted. Over the last year two years, advocates have worked to reduce some of the barriers to housing for those coming out of incarceration. We did not see much attention to these recommendations in the plan. We ask that CMHA fully adopt those recommendations to allow those who have paid their debt to get on with their life with the fewest barriers as possible, and assure that all staff are aware of these changes.

7. Income Re-determination Should Occur Once Per Year. We would like to see both public housing and the voucher program have similar rules so that tenants can keep additional resources until their annual re-determination if that increase is less than 25% of their total income in order to save funds for non-subsidized market rate housing.

8. Assign a staff from Public Housing/Housing Choice Voucher to be the liaison to the homeless service providers. It is critical that we free up space within the shelters quickly. Therefore, when a person’s name or number is drawn for a public housing unit, the person should move quickly into housing. We need one staff person that we can talk to in order to cut through the bureaucracy and free up the space in the shelters for other homeless people.

If you agree with these recommendations, you can drop a note to CMHA by next Wednesday September 17 at 10 a.m. or attend their public meeting at their headquarters on West 25th near Detroit Ave (board room). Send concerns to 1441 West 25th St. Cleveland, Ohio 44113. All the documents are available on their website at www.cmha.net.

Brian

Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.

Another Good CAHA Meeting

Good Information About the State of Cleveland

The Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance Meeting from last week was one of the better meetings. We had David Cooper from the Cleveland Department of Building and Housing, who went through the gruesome details facing the city. Cooper talked about the City's efforts to manage this crisis by taking down 950 buildings last year compared to 220 in 2006. The City is estimating 8,000 to 10,000 structures abandoned. They are working on search warrants in order to enter houses with questionable ownership to determine who is responsible for maintaining these properties. The City has put up another $6 million for this year. Last year, with the assistance of Cuyahoga County, the City of Cleveland spent $9 million to take down houses. The Department has created an Operation Efficiency Task force to make sure that they are boarding and taking down properties in an efficient manner with coordination of all other City Departments. The City has boarded up 1,860 properties in the first four months of this year.

The City Department of Building and Housing averages $8,500 to demolish a building. The one benefit of the crisis is that Cleveland is getting a pretty good deal to demolish a house. Simple economic theory says that with volume comes economies of scale, and cheaper prices to take down these homes. Wards 5, 12, 10, and 14 are the hardest hit.

CMHA also gave a presentation on the state of affairs when they are being funded at 83% of what everyone agrees is the cost of running the agency. They have 8,700 units occupied, which is the highest number since 1989. CMHA has about 1,500 move outs every year and 6,700 people on the waiting list. 60% of those waiting are waiting for a one bed room apartment, because the housing authority has designated 29% of their units for those 50 and over. With welfare reform, now only 4% of the total CMHA households receive cash assistance as their main source of income. 20% are employed and 21% receive a disability check as their primary income. 23% have no income at all. There are 17,000 total people living in a CMHA properties throughout the community. The Housing Authority was represented by Scott Pollack who went through all the current modernization development projects to keep their units in good working order. The Housing Authority gets knocked, but they actually perform a vital function as a key agency in preserving our critical infrastructure. I wish that they would get rid of their senior only (50 and over) housing, but otherwise they do a good job with shrinking resources. We should all make this a high priority to restore CMHA funding for next year.

Finally, Steve Wertheim came to report on final results from 2007. There were 148,100 calls made in Cuyahoga County to First Call for Help. The two biggest reasons for calling were requests for help with utility bills at 14,900 calls and information about the local food pantry at 14,600 calls. Homeless shelters (11,100 calls) and foreclosure assistance (7,900 calls) were the next largest number of calls. Home rental listings rounded out the top five with 5,700 calls and job finding assistance was close behind with 4,300 calls.

Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.

Update on Public Housing

CMHA Updates from CAHA

Every month advocates, government, researchers, and social service providers meet to discuss the state of affordable housing in Cleveland. The meetings are open to the public and take place the first Monday of the month (unless there is a federal holiday) at the HUD building/U.S. Bank Building at 1350 Euclid Ave. at 1:30 p.m.. The goal is to prevent any further losses in housing in our community. We hope by meeting we can find out about troubled property well in advance and then work to save those properties. We have guests from all over the community who have some expertise in housing, and can provide the group an update on local housing issues. The meetings provide us a wealth of information so that we are all on the same page with regard to the state of affordable housing. Advocates can use that information in the community to push for more housing or attempt to prevent the loss of affordable units. In March of 2008, CAHA will celebrate the tenth anniversary of meetings. We have had Mayors, State agencies and Suburban Community Development officers in the past 10 years. In October, we hope to have Lt. Governor Lee Fischer attend our meeting to talk about state efforts to expand affordable housing.

Anyway, CMHA regularly attends the meeting and provides information about their program on a quarterly basis. We don't always agree with the decisions made at CMHA--like why take in more applications when there are already 7,000 waiting for housing in a program that only has 9,500 total units in their inventory. Overall, they try to do a good job in the face of criticism and back breaking government bureaucracy. In the last six years, HUD in Washington has tried everything in their power to destroy Public Housing from messing with their budget to eliminating capital repair programs to eliminating the drug eradication programs and the PHAs have survived. It is really remarkable to see how CMHA has been able to make it despite being repeatedly strangled by the bureaucrats in Washington. Most of us realize that we need these Public Housing and voucher programs or homelessness would be so much worse. Most of the enlightened Mayors (Akron and Cleveland among others) realize this and push back against federal cuts. The year to year fight for survival for the PHAs just wears us all down. Every year, the Washington bureaucrats think of another creative way to destroy the PHAs like CMHA, and the advocates have to suit up for a new battle.

So, here are a few numbers from CMHA about what they are doing:

• There are 9,500 units available in public housing and less then 2% are vacant. This vacancy rate is better then in the housing market in general.
  
• 8,700 are occupied with 700 undergoing modification or rehabilitation.
• There are 7,122 people on the waiting list for Public Housing.
• 61% are waiting for a one bedroom and 22% are looking for a 2 bedroom.
• 83% of the waiting list are extremely low income.
• 43% of the waiting list are members of a family and 16% of the waiting list are disabled.
• The average annual income of the tenants are $7,148 per year.
• 89% of the Public Housing tenants are extremely low income (while 79% of the voucher tenants are extremely low income.)
  
• 20% of the Public Housing tenants are employed while 20 years ago only 12% were employed.
  
• 22% of the tenants have no income while 10 years ago only 10% had no incomes.
• Only 4% of the tenants in Public Housing are receiving cash assistance from TANF, while 10 years ago 30% were receiving public assistance.
  
• CMHA only received 85% of the funding that they needed from the Federal government, and have had to cut staff and excess property to keep their budget balanced.
• They are currently working on an agency Annual Plan which is available for public comment until September 21, 2007.
  
• Despite federal attempts to eliminate the funds to modernize some of their housing, Congress has thrown some spare change at this program. CMHA is working on finishing the renovations of Riverview, Lakeview and Valleyview (now called Tremont Pointe).
  
• CMHA is struggling with federal cuts, and no one in the community is very happy with the State allocation of tax credits to build affordable housing.
  

They are not perfect, but they have made huge strides to make up for the insulated and corrupt days of the 1990s. They get a bad reputation in the community, but things are a lot better then we ever get to hear about in the media.

Brian
Posts by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless staff and Board.