One Million Searches

Housing Cleveland.org Goes Over One Million Searches

NEOCH is co-administrator of the website, Housingcleveland.org along with 211/First Call for Help.  This affordable housing website contains around 2,000 available units.  Last week we reached a milestone with over 1 million searches having been conducted over the last year.  There were over 140,000 unique users who conducted these searches.

For more information go here.
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Homeless Congress Next Week

Transformational Art at Cosgrove Center

State Officials to Meet with Homeless Individuals Focus on Shelter and Jobs

Cleveland, OH-The Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless along with the Homeless Congress will host elected officials from the state legislature to hear concerns that include shelter standards, funding for shelters, transportation, and more access to housing in general.  The meeting is Thursday March 15, 2012 at 1 p.m. at the Cosgrove Center gymnasium. 
      The Homeless Congress, a group of members of the homeless community and their advocates, meets monthly to address the needs of homeless individuals and to bring those issues in front of County, State elected officials, and the media. It consists of two representatives from each Cleveland shelter and six from the 2100 Lakeside Men’s Shelter and three from the Norma Herr Shelters.  It is organized by members of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless.
      While the State does fund a small amount of the budget for the local shelters, this funding has not changed in over a decade while the amount of people requiring shelter and assistance continues to increase. Though the problem of homelessness is overwhelming and funding is difficult to come by, the Homeless Congress has narrowed down some specific and immediate problems that with some attention could provide a small step in the right direction.
      The topic at the forefront will be that of our shelters, and making certain that they are abiding (and have the means to abide) by uniform health and safety standards. Additionally, transportation needs to be made more available, so that people needing to travel to job interviews and landlord interviews can do so safely. A special concern deals with housing, specifically for families due to the sharp increase in family homelessness during the downturn.  Due to overcrowding, the entry women’s shelters has been forced to close during daytime hours.  The Congress will also be asking for assistance in putting job-training programs in place that specifically serve homeless people, helping individuals to assess and improve work skills so that they may find gainful employment.
      This month’s Homeless Congress meeting will be held on March 15, at 1:00 PM  at the Bishop Cosgrove Center, 1736 Superior Ave.  (enter in the back and go to the second floor.)
      The State Elected Officials scheduled to attend the meeting include:

• Ohio Representative Sandra Williams,
• State Senator Shirley Smith,
• State Senator Mike Skindell,
• State Senator Nina Turner.

     The Homeless Congress looks forward to giving the local homeless community a voice at a state level. The meeting is open to the public and those wishing to support the Northeast Ohio Homeless Coalition as well other local elected officials are encouraged to attend.

Brian and Lauren the volunteer
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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
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In Praise of Government Employees

HUD Staff Worry About a Rise in Homelessness

In the past, when government cut housing or infrastructure, there has always been an increase in funding for hunger and emergency shelter services to offset.  The thinking was that if there is a cut to human services or mainstream programs more people will need emergency services.  In 2011 and 2012, this is not happening and funding for emergency services are at level funding or facing dramatic cuts.  While poverty is rising in the suburbs, hunger in the suburbs is on the rise, the foreclosure crisis has not abated, and we still have a high unemployment rate in Northeast Ohio, the government is cutting back.  The proposed budget has some significant cuts to public housing, vouchers, FEMA emergency food and shelter, development block grant (which can be used for housing services), HOME dollars and on and on and on.  These two trends in rising need and decreasing budgets are dangerous for Cleveland.  The 2009 stimulus dollars are going to expire in the middle of 2012, and we already saw a giant increase in shelter for families this last summer. Will we begin turning away children from shelter in the summer of 2012?  Will we be able to serve the overflow populations over the next two winters?

With all this as the backdrop, I was able to visit senor staff at HUD Washington to talk about issues that have an impact on homeless people.  The big concern is the implementation of the funding and rules changes with regard to federal allocation of HUD homeless dollars known as HEARTH (formerly McKinney Vento).  In listening to the Tea Party and even some in the Occupy Movement there is a distorted picture of government and government employees.  There is a hostility and a sector of our society who believe that government workers are living high on the hog and milking our tax dollars while doing nothing.  From Cleveland it can look as though HUD employees in Washington just don't understand.  All these new rules are going to destabilize the shelters in a time of extreme need.  We see that there does not seem to be much coordination between the homeless veterans initiatives and the homeless priorities funded by HUD.  The planning activities seem to propose lofty goals in creating permanent supportive housing for disabled individuals while we are being overwhelmed with families demanding help.  But when meeting with these "government workers" face to face, it is a very different story.

They have a genuine concern for the rise in homelessness, and they care about the stress being placed on emergency shelters in all communities.  They seem to feel powerless as HUD employees to do much because of the demands of Congress and the current political environment.  Congress passed these changes four years ago in the way HUD funds the shelters and housing programs directed at homeless people, but never passed the appropriations level to implement the goals contained in the legislation.  This puts HUD staff between a rock and a hard place.  They have these new regulations, but not enough money for the planning or the increase in administrative support to implement these changes.  They are going forward in the next two weeks with new regulations on emergency solutions funding and the definition of homelessness.  These rules will go into place while still receiving public comment.  But the rules for distributing the bulk of the homeless dollars are stuck in the pipeline.

The HUD staff are troubled that there will only be $60 million for new projects to be spread out across the United States.  All the other HUD homeless dollars will go to renew existing programs.  HUD staff want to improve the outcomes so that the limited dollars go to provide the best possible service to the millions of homeless households.  When you look these people in the eyes, the bottom line is that they do not want harm to befall the population.  They understand that the decisions made in Washington can have an impact on the shelter beds in Kalamazoo, Kansas City, and Culver City.  They care that people still do freeze to death while sleeping outside in the United States in places like Milwaukee, Memphis and Manhattan.  These people have risen through the ranks of bureaucracy because they have a skill and can balance the needs of the executive and legislative branches of government.  They see the big picture and struggle with state governments that ignore the problem and local communities which try to use their homeless dollars for other politically popular programs.  They care and realize that sometimes HUD rules make it difficult to provide assistance, such as the Cleveland policy of forcing outreach workers to get a notarized statement verifying homelessness for those living outside.  They understand that we are all working on ending homelessness, and that government is not always the best partner.

Despite what you hear from protestors, most government employees care and do their job with a great deal of skill and compassion.  There are some that have to go, but the level of corruption and ineptitude is minimal.  Despite having to work in one of the ugliest buildings in Washington and having to undergo extreme security measures making it difficult to hear from the public, the HUD staff want to help and are concerned about the rise in poverty and homelessness.  If we could figure out a way to get politics out of the way, I have faith that these guys could figure out a way for America to significantly reduce homelessness.

Brian
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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
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Fair Housing and Tenant Rights Forum

October 5 Forum for Those Looking For Housing

Every year we partner with the Housing Research & Advocacy Center to educate homeless people about their rights when searching for housing.  This year, we are doing the presentation at the Bishop Cosgrove Center gymnasium on October 5, 2011 at 10 a.m.  The title of this forum is "What should you know when searching for housing?"  This year, staff from the Cleveland Tenants Organization are also presenting.   Some of the items that will be covered include:

• Where do I go if your rights were violated?
• How do I resolve problems with a landlord or a potential landlord?
• Where can I get my housing related questions answered?
• What are my rights when I apply for housing?

Shelter staff and social service providers are invited to attend. Actually, anyone is welcome to attend.   We will also have time for questions and answers about housing in Cleveland.  The Bishop Cosgrove Center is at 1736 Superior Ave. (only street parking is available).  This is event is sponsored by CTO, NEOCH, Housing Research & Advocacy Center, and HousingCleveland.org.

Brian Davis
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East Side Suburban Housing

September Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance

The September Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance Meeting is the second Monday this month because of the federal holiday this Monday. We meet every month to discuss affordable housing locally to protect, preserve and hopefully in the future expand housing opportunities.

Since being off in August, we are back with a strong presentation for the September forum for Affordable Housing in Cuyahoga County with the other two entitlement communities in Cuyahoga County.  We will have presentations from the staff of East Cleveland and Euclid to discuss affordable housing in the suburbs.  In June, CAHA hosted three entitlement communities and the City of South Euclid to discuss housing/homelessness in the suburbs.  We now have the last two entitlement communities who had scheduling conflicts in June.   Marty Castelletti of the City of Euclid Community Development and Joe Mazzola of the City of East Cleveland Community Development will talk about the state of affordable housing including a look at foreclosures in the suburbs. They will talk about their efforts to assist residents who maybe struggling with their housing and build neighborhoods in their two eastern communities.  We will also hear any other updates from any partners regarding state, federal, CMHA or local developments with regard to affordable housing.  The meeting is at 1:30 p.m. at HUD lower level at 1350 Euclid Ave. (US Bank Building).  All are welcome to attend.

The next meeting is October 3, 2011 will feature Mark McDermott of Enterprise Community Partners

Brian Davis

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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
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Recent Affordable Housing Updates

Mayor Frank Jackson and State Rep. Mike Foley at the 2007 Candlelight Vigil

July CAHA Meeting

There was no Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance Meeting in August. The last meeting was in July, and we invited State Representative Michael Foley and City of Cleveland Community Development staff member Bill Resseger. The CAHA meeting is a monthly meeting to work together to try to prevent any further decline in the amount of affordable housing in northeast Ohio. Rep. Foley previously was the director of the Cleveland Tenants Organization and previously led the urban initiative when the Democrats controlled the House in 2009 and 2010. Rep. Foley is a strong partisan for urban communities and a strong Democrat, but he is perhaps the foremost expert on housing issues down in Columbus. This is why we bring Rep. Foley to the CAHA meetings, and besides everything now is a partisan in this deeply divided society.

At the July Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance (CAHA) meeting, members had a grim picture painted about all the changes that have taken place in the Ohio Congress in its first half-year. Rep. Foley talked about some of the deep threats to urban communities with the passage of the new budget. In Foley's opinion these cuts are a threat to Cleveland and will destabilize affordable housing in the community. State Representative Michael Foley began the meeting by outlining the opposing parties agenda, which he characterized harms Cleveland and those living in the big cities.

First up on the chopping block is the Ohio Consumers' Counsel, which had its funding cut by 40%, including a $3 million cut in funding previously supplied by utility companies and not by tax payers. There's no good reason for this, according to Foley; it's simply an ideological attack. There was a dramatic cut to local city and county governments, including the elimination of Ohio's estate tax, 90% of which went to local governments. In addition, income tax rates are being lowered on Ohio's wealthiest citizens, along with a new Invest Ohio tax credit, which, according to Foley, contains no requirement for any proof of job creation.

A source of much public outcry has been the recently passed election reform, which drastically reduces the ability of many voters, especially those who are most disadvantaged, such as homeless people, to be able to cast a ballot. In a party line vote, the Republican party reduced early voting and mail-in voting periods, as well as discounting many earnest but "mistakenly filled-out" ballots and requiring more information to fill out a provisional ballot. The tightening of voter ID laws are most likely to pass in the near future according to Foley. [The bill might have died with the sponsors resignation from the Ohio House over a drunk driving arrest.]

Foley concluded his long list of problematic legislation that has passed recently including allowing companies to drill for oil and gas on state land and siphon water from Lake Erie for commercial use. Foley was concerned over the redistricting that could eliminate representation from Cuyahoga County. Foley stressed how frustrating a process these first six months have been, and he felt that much of the legislation will hurt the average Ohioan, not to mention those most reliant on public assistance.

Bill Resseger from the Cleveland Department of Development then took the helm to explain how budget cuts have and will impact affordable housing in Cleveland. He mentioned that since 2002, both CDBG and HOME have seen at least a 30% decline in funding, but that legislators are still looking at these two programs for more cuts. Some of these cuts will be reduced because of the r the Neighborhood Stabilization funded programs, beginning next year. Another troubling fact is that much of the stimulus money that Cleveland to address the foreclosure crisis got went to tearing down buildings.

On the plus side, the city will see an additional $450,000 in Emergency Shelter Grant money coming. These funds will probably soften the blow of the ending of the 2009 stimulus used to prevent homelessness which will probably end in March or April of 2012. The City is putting money into renovating Neal and Boulevard to go along with the private funding. In addition, things appear to be moving right along for further expansion of Permanent Supportive Housing projects in the community. However, with all the budgetary cuts coming out of Columbus and Washington affecting local governments all over Ohio, it will be harder and harder to maintain an adequate availability of affordable housing moving forward. At a time when the housing market is still in peril and many homeless and low-income people are struggling to put a roof over their head, it is going to be more difficult for cities to preserve affordable housing and it looks like developing new housing is off the table.

by Brian with Sam the Interns help
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Information on the Opening the Waiting List

Housing Choice Voucher List Opening

This August, the Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP) will be opening its waiting list with a lottery for the first time since 2006, and this time, the entire HCVP Waiting List Lottery will be conducted online.

Entries for the lottery will only be accepted online on the HCVP Waiting List Lottery website at

www.applycuyahogacounty.tenmast.com

There also will be a link to the lottery website from the CMHA website.

Seniors and persons with disabilities can contact:

There will be a call center open for assistance with submitting a lottery entry, but the application must be submitted online

Interested persons cannot access the lottery at any CMHA office or facility. Instead they should go to the library or to a social service provider. NEOCH will be offering help to homeless people at our offices at 3631 Perkins Ave.

The website and Call Center will go live on Monday August 1, 2011, providing helpful information about the HCVP and the lottery itself.

The actual lottery and waiting list will open mid-month for only five days.

After they close, a random computer draw will take place to create the waiting list with 10,000 names. Entry in the lottery and placement on the waiting list will not guarantee a household a voucher. All households will need to be qualified as eligible when they reach the top of the waiting list.

Brian
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PBS NewsHour Highlights Cleveland

Photo by Cheryl Jones of the Grapevine Photo Project

Foreclosures and Clearing Land Focus of NewsHour Report

Last night was an excellent piece on the effort by the Land Bank and the City of Cleveland to clear some of the degrading housing stock as a result of the foreclosure tsunami. The usual suspects were featured including Gus Frangos of the Land Bank, Frank Ford of NPI, Councilman Tony Brancatelli, and Housing Court Judge Raymond Pianka. It was a nice touch to talk to Manfield Frazier about his vineyard in Hough. The piece was centered at Ground Zero of the foreclosure crisis in Slavic Village. They showed houses coming down as part of the thousands that we have destroyed over the last five years. Frank Ford did a good job describing the economics of this crisis with the reality that it costs$7,500 to take down a property while it can cost $100,000 to renovate that property with new electrical, new plumbing and new furnace.

There was a interesting discussion about the flipping of these homes using the internet, and the nasty practices of some of the banks (we are talking to you Deutsche Bank). They sold a property for $500 that was an eyesore, and then the new owner tried flipping it on the internet with a profit of $1,000 to an out of state buyer (sucker) with no intention of doing anything to the property. They are just hoping that the land value will turn around and they can make a profit. These vultures are just trying to earn money off of the misery of hard hit neighborhoods. It was a good piece. Check it out.

Brian
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Affordable Housing Forum in June

Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance Meeting June 6, 2011

Four guests appeared at the June 6, 2011 Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance meeting to talk about affordable housing issues in suburban communities. NEOCH assists in hosting this meeting every first Monday of the month unless there is a federal holiday. This is a venue in which government regularly meets with advocates and housing providers to talk about the state of affordable housing in the Greater Cleveland. This is a chance to exchange information in order to prevent any further loss of affordable housing in our community. We review possible troubled property and have regular reports from key community stakeholders such as the Housing Authority, the City of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County Community Development. These meetings are a fixture in the community for the last 12 years.

In June 2011, we invited representatives from the largest suburbs around Cleveland. There are five communities (Cleveland Hts, Euclid, East Cleveland, Lakewood, and Parma) all are designated entitlement communities by the federal government. This means that they are a sufficient size and have enough people living in poverty to need additional help from the federal government. This additional help (Community Development Block Grant) is available to assist with housing emergencies, homelessness, eviction diversion or other similar programs. Those who were able to attend included:

• Mary Leigh--Chair of Economic Development in Lakewood,
• Sally Martin--Housing Manager of South Euclid and co-chair of the First Suburbs Housing Committee.
• Karen Knittel from the Cleveland Heights Planning and Development Department,
• Don Graves Assistant Building Commissioner for the City of Parma.

About 30 people attended the event, and each of the four presenters gave a short presentation before chair Phil Star of Cleveland State University opened up the forum for questions.

Cleveland Hts.
They fell below 50,000 residents as a result of the foreclosure crisis after the 2010 Census. It is estimated that Cleveland Hts. is now a community of 46,000 people. They are hoping to remain an entitlement community, but that is a decision made by HUD Washington. Cleveland Hts. does fund housing programs for low and moderate-income residents. They have staff to assist seniors & the disabled with issues. Code violations are making it difficult to meet the home buying assistance goals also the age of the housing stock and the problems with lead paint also are complicating the City's efforts.

• Down Payment Assistance fund helped 30 people last year.
• Neighborhood stabilization fund helped to renovated 12 homes.
• Now they are working to sell these newly renovated homes to those with a modest income.
• Demolished 13 homes that are severely distressed

Lakewood
Mary Leigh of the Community Development Office runs all the federally funded programs and is following their local consolidated pPlan. They are working to try to increase home ownership in Lakewood, which has been a challenge over the last three years. They also have CDBG funds, HOME funds from the federal government, Neighborhood Stabilization funds (federal help to confront the foreclosure crisis). Lakewood does a great deal of code reinforcement and supportive service by partnering with Lakewood Community Services. They also fund fair housing activities through Housing Research and Advocacy Center. They are attempting to strategically analyze impediments to housing stability in Lakewood. The City funds CTO for rental help and dispute resolution. Lakewood is trying to encourage the development of ADA accessible housing for seniors. They have a low interest loan program and a senior deferred loan program for seniors. Lakewood has a first time homebuyer program to encourage renters to become home owners. They are distributing rental assistance through Lakewood Community Services as part of the federal stimulus. There is a financial education program, and a home weatherization assistance.

South Euclid
South Euclid was the only non-entitlement community represented at the forum. Ms. Martin is the current chair of the First Suburbs Coalition which is a group of 18 Inner-ring suburbs. South Euclid has gone through some of the same problems associated with the foreclosure crisis as the others. They have 700 residents at risk and 380 homes being foreclosed on with 9,600 homes hard hit by the downturn. NPI helping map out the city to show where there are problems. Non-entitlement communities rely on the County government to assist with housing issues. South Euclid was part of the $1.5 million grant from the county from Neighborhood Stabilization to assist the first suburbs governments. South Euclid has created a program called "Make the Bungalow Hip Again" to try to encourage families to move back into the aging South Euclid bungalow housing. They also have a green building initiative that they are advertising. South Euclid has a public private partnership with the completion of four green homes.

Ms. Martin described the pain within the suburbs with many homeowners hurting – there are lots more people on Food Stamps and struggling to pay the mortgage. She described the Housing department as becoming more of a social worker staff. They have sent letters to everyone in danger of foreclosure trying to get them help before it is too late. She and senior South Euclid housing staff have walked with representatives from ESOP through the neighborhood to offer help to those facing foreclosure. They created some community gardens where houses have been come down due to foreclosure. City officials have had to deal with 240 Foreclosures that now have been declared not fit for human habitation.

Parma
Don Graves a building commissioner filled in for Eric Tollup from Community Development who was called away. With the assistance of Neighborhood Stabilization funding they NSP purchased and tore down 26 houses. Employers have not fled as much as they have feared especially with the help of the bailout of the auto industry. Parma also has a first time home buyers program. They have senior services to help with utilities as well as property maintenance division and can help with seniors who are struggling. The City has to deal with around 300 vacant and foreclosed property. They are seeing more foreclosures because of people not being able to find jobs. ESOP and others present at Seniors Centers to offer assistance. Citizens are concerned about foreclosures and people abandoned properties. There was a great deal of discussion about properties not being taken care of by the banks or government entity which owns a vacant or foreclosed building. Most of the foreclosure assistance money given to the city was used to take down properties. Parma has developed a collaboration in which Fire/County Health Dept. and social workers all go out together when there is a crisis at a housing complex. They have a crisis intervention model to help with a need. Having all agencies present at same time reduces the runaround with ADAMS Board staff, housing inspectors, Police and Senior services all present makes it more likely that the person will be able to find the help that they need.

A number of questions came up including:

• The question came up with regard to the relationship of the suburbs with the County Land Bank? Most said that they were just beginning to work with the Land Bank. South Euclid seemed to be the furthest along in trying to work with the County Land Bank.
• Most of the communities did not see a change in the next two years in the state of housing.
• There was near universal condemnation of the new process initiated by HUD Washington with regard to cutting grass complaints in Fannie Mae or HUD owned foreclosure property. Previously, the suburbs had one contact to call and they would immediately respond. Now there are a number of contacts and the response is very slow.
  
• There is still no resolution of the shell game the banks are playing with filing a title on a house that has been retaken by a bank.
• Parma and others have unpaid furlough days for staff, and yet they are all being asked to do more. Most of the suburban governments are suffering and just cannot keep up with the amount of work expected by taxpayers.
• It is getting impossible to keep up with growing amount of work coupled with a lack of resources. Most communities had to lay off staff while their workload grew.
• Some of the banks are trying to help, but others are acting in a disgraceful manner.
• Banks are still stalling at living up to their obligations with regard to the foreclosures.
  
• Suburbs are still seeing no end in the number of foreclosures and the tsunami has not ended.
  
• Suburbs are still seeing strategic defaults where a homeowner walks away. This makes it difficult to keep up with maintenance on these properties.
• Most of the communities are being aggressive with vacancies so that they do not get out of control and bring down property values even more. South Euclid has 600 vacant units-- Parma has 300 vacant units. South Euclid did see a couple of units burnt down in their jurisdiction.
• Communities are just starting to implement the second stage of the neighborhood stabilization funding. They are trying to acquire the worst housing inventory to take down and reuse.
• A few suburbs reported seeing squatters in their vacant properties.
• Questions came up with regard to allowing Fannie Mae property owners to become renters. Most suburbs use their law department to help with these issues. A couple of communities mentioned contact with Hoarders.
• All first time homebuyers have to use a traditional lender in the hope that they will not go through a foreclosure later. Also, most communities have a required financial literacy class to educate new homebuyers who receive suburban help.
• The suburbs rely on the County Health Department to help out with bed bug issues.
• There was a question about seeking project based housing units from the Housing Authority in the suburbs. (None have been offered in the last two years.)
• Would the suburbs seek funding from a future County Trust Fund if it were created?
• There was mention of a problem in which seniors took out the equity in their houses to help out their kids, and now they are stuck with an unaffordable mortgage. Or young people will not allow their senior parents to take out a reverse mortgage because there would be no inheritances left.
• They have seen an uptick in the number of single family homes being turned into rental units in the last three years. They have not seen the number of for-profit rent to own schemes in the suburbs like they saw in the past, but it is not a huge problem.
• There was some resistance to building departments taking over lead safety enforcement. This is a health department issue, and the building departments do not want to oversee the issue.

Next meeting is July 11 (because of the holiday), and we will hear from State Representative Mike Foley and the City of Cleveland Community Development staff Bill Resseger. All are welcome to attend.

Brian
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Erie Square Residents Need Help

Cleveland Housing Network Looks For Help from the Community

We received a note today from the staff over at the Cleveland Housing Network asking for help from the 44 households burnt out of their apartments over at Erie Square on East 79th and Euclid. There were no serious injuries, but all 60 residents of the west wing of the building need a new place to live. Erie Square was renovated in the last three or four years, and was one of the quality subsidized housing complexes in the community.

CHN is looking for help from the community to get these families out of hotels and into housing. They are looking to connect each of the 44 households with donors who could help with gift cards to local merchants. The residents need to start over with household items, beds, furniture, cleaning supplies, personal items, clothing, and anything else to re-establish a home. They are looking for churches, religious groups, civic organizations or even corporations who want to help a family move back into a home while Erie Square is rebuilt to contact CHN.

You can reach CHN if you want to help by contacting Laura Boustani, coordinator of the family to family effort at 216/774-2364 or e-mail familytofamily (at) chnnet (dot) com. You can also click on family to family on the CHN website. Residents burnt out of an apartment do not automatically get a housing voucher that will follow them. They will get a temporary subsidy to use in an apartment somewhere in the community while the building is being rebuilt, and then they will return to Erie Square.

Brian
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Suburban Affordable Housing

Photo by Cheryl Jones graduate of the NEOCH Photo Project
June CAHA to Focus on Housing in the Suburbs of Cleveland

The June Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance Meeting will feature a forum on suburban affordable housing with community development and planning staff from some of the largest suburbs in Cuyahoga County. The forum is Monday June 6, 2011 at 1:30 p.m. in the lower level of the HUD/US Bank Building (1350 Euclid Ave.). There is plenty of surface/parking garages and street parking around Prospect and East 14^th St. The presentations will focus on the foreclosure crisis, the state of rental housing in the suburbs, and potential threats to affordable housing in the suburbs. Confirmed guests include:

• Mary Leigh--Chair of Economic Development in Lakewood,
  
• Sally Martin--Housing Manager of South Euclid and co-chair of the First Suburbs Housing Committee,
• Karen Knittel from the Cleveland Heights Planning and Development Department, and
  
• Eric Tollerup--Director of Economic and Community Development for the City of Parma.
  

CAHA is a monthly forum to bring together advocates, city, county and federal officials to preserve and protect affordable housing in Cuyahoga County.

Brian
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Advocate Explains the State Budget

Bill Faith Reports to CAHA

Executive Director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio attended the April Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance to give advocates and housing developers an update on the thinking down around housing and poverty issues in Columbus. Faith is the leading lobbyist for housing programs and maintaining state support for anti-poverty programs in Ohio.

Faith talked a great deal about the change in tone and atmosphere since November and the election of John Kasich as governor. He talked about the strange day two days after the election when the Governor elect gathered 150 lobbyists and told them that they needed to get on the bus or be run over by it. Kasich told those gathered that two presidents (Clinton and Obama) and millions of dollars could not stop him so what makes these lobbyist feel that they could stop him? It seemed as though the new Governor is unwilling to tolerate dissension or differing opinions.

Faith described in detail many of the decisions that were made down in Columbus to generate the new budget. Kasich could have closed $3.7 billion in tax loopholes to close the budget deficit, but decided against this path. Faith specifically mentioned the corporate jet tax break that could have been closed, but was left intact. There were sales tax loopholes that would have closed $4.8 billion, but that was left in place. The promises made to communities when business taxes were changed in 2005 are no longer relevant, which hurts local government. There are many structural problems within the budget that push a huge burden onto the local communities. The new Governor was opposed to any change on the revenue side of the balance sheet, and focused entirely on the expense side.

Faith mentioned the three biggest losers in the upcoming budget:

1. Local and County governments including libraries.
2. K-12 education throughout the state are big losers.
3. And Higher education takes a big hit.

Others that would be hurt by passage of the Kasich budget include the community health centers, the Consumer’s Council, and nursing homes. One of the surprising aspects of Faith’s presentation is that other health and human services programs are not harmed as badly as was anticipated in the budget. Kasich made a commitment not harm the most vulnerable, and so homeless, mentally ill, developmentally disabled are not harmed in the budget anymore than the cuts taken by every organization across the board. How young children and the huge cut to public education are not considered a vulnerable population was not explained.

There was a lot of discussion about the privatizing of the Department of Development. It looks at this point that the economic development activities will be pulled out of the department and transferred to the private JobsOhio agency. The existing agency will then be changed to the Department of Community Development and will continue to administer block grant funds, heating assistance, weatherization, the community action funding, the housing trust fund, and the shelter grant. Faith discussed the threats to the State Housing Trust fund including the unwillingness by some County recorders to send the tax dollars collected onto the state to distribute.

Faith touched briefly on the upcoming HUD budget. Since the 2011 budget had not been finalized and the House had not introduced a budget framework for 2012, there was very little information available. One positive coming out of the federal government was the new funding and attention being paid to housing within the health care community. Faith talked about waivers being sought with the Medicare program to pay for housing. It is increasingly clear that a person’s health care suffers if they do not have a stable place to live, and communities around the country are beginning to factor housing into health care plans.

Brian
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Peace Advocates Look at Budget Priorities

Forum at Trinity Cathedral April 16, 2011

Peace Action and the IRTF are holding a forum on budget priorities over the next year at Trinity Cathedral on April 16, 2011. Here is a link to sign up for the event. The group is looking at the cost of war, incarceration while the country is facing a serious crisis in housing. Here is a statement from the committee organizing the event:

“We call people from all walks of life to come together in “a process to align and strengthen our communities, weaving ourselves into a movement that transcends oppression and opposition, increasing our collective power and resilience” (from the US Social Forum held in Detroit, June 2010).We recognize that all people are leaders. Progress and peace require inclusion of all people. We want to make special effort to hear the voices of those who are often ignored. We want to create a safe space for dialogue where everyone’s voice is heard—a dialogue that continues beyond this forum. We strive to embrace our commonalities and not focus on our differences. We invite each other to transcend our group affiliations and mindsets to make connections with everyone. We want to engage in a spirit of collaboration and mutual respect to build rapport and trust with one another.”

Keynote speaker is Bill Fletcher
Bill Fletcher is currently an editorial board member and columnist for BlackCommentator.com and a Senior Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington D.C. He was the former Vice President for International Trade Union Development Programs for the AFL-CIO, and also served as Assistant to the President of that organization. In addition, Mr. Fletcher is the immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum and a founder of the Black Radical Congress.

We hope that you can make it. Please pre-register for the event using the Peace Action website or the IRTF site.

Brian
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Rally on Tuesday in Columbus

"Don't Make Homelessness Worse in Ohio" Rally!!!

NEOCH, ABLE and other advocacy organizations in the community will be attending a rally down in Columbus organized by One Ohio Now. Buses are leaving from Merrick House in Tremont at 7:30 a.m. for the rally, but anyone can carpool down to show support for a sensible budget for the State of Ohio. The budget was announced on March 15, and we still are having a difficult time figuring out how individual program are going to be impacted by the cuts. So, for example, we do not know how much money will go to the Ohio Housing Trust fund in the much larger Department of Development budget. We know that the State will close the mental health facility behind MetroHealth and move it to Summit County. We know that the planned state hospital will not be built in Cleveland, but we do not know if there will be money to serve new patients in Cuyahoga County. We know that the Cleveland and suburban schools will take a hit, and be forced to layoff personnel which could lead to future homelessness.

We know that city and county funding will decrease by 33%, but we do not know if that will mean a cut to the shelters or outreach teams. There is a $100 million proposed cut to the human services budget, but it is difficult to tell if that will prevent access to child care, child support enforcement, or medical care. It is likely that public colleges and universities will be more expensive. Higher education is often the ticket out of poverty. Many advocates will be going down to Columbus to the noon rally and to meet with their legislators. So get on the bus down to Columbus before the Kasich bus runs you over. Call Merrick House to see if there is still space available: Brian Larson at 216.771.5077 ext 135

Brian
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Next CAHA Meeting

Pictured above Phil Star (CAHA chairperson) and Bill Faith (COHHIO Director) speaks in 2009.

Bill Faith "Not Under the Bus Yet" Tour April 4, 2011

The next meeting of the Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance is Monday April 4, 2011 at 1:30 p.m. at the US Bank Building in Playhouse Square. We will have a discussion about the state budget with Bill Faith executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio. There is a great deal of concern over the state budget and especially the impact on low income residents of Cleveland, Bill Faith can separate fact from fiction in the state budget. Faith is on his "not under the bus yet" tour to get information out about the State affordable housing budget and potential cuts that we need to be aware of if we serve a mentally ill, elderly or other fragile population. Faith regularly interacts with state legislators and can give an assessment of how this will all play out over the next three months. We hope that you can attend. The meeting will be in the lower level of the building on East 14th and Euclid Ave. in the lower level (1350 Euclid Ave. ) across from the United Way in downtown Cleveland.

Faith would want us to also remind people that the COHHIO conference is in Columbus on April 11, 12 and then lobby day is April 13. CAHA is a one and a half hour presentation of the issues facing Ohio, while the conference is a two day presentation on all of the issues.

Brian Davis
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The Reagan Legacy: Homelessness

A Shining City on the Hill Overlooking Millions of Homeless People

This week marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States. It also marks 30 years since the start of the Reagan presidency and the explosion in homelessness in America. Reagan's legacy has grown significantly since he left office to the point of a mythology that has little basis in fact. In the mid 1980s, during the Reagan presidency, the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless along with many other homeless groups were founded. This was in response to the explosion in homelessness and the growing number of families experiencing housing instability.

This was not a partisan issue or a media driven issue. Homeless shelters were built in the 1980s and they were full. Going back all the way to the early 1950s and the development of public housing for returning veterans, the US government led by presidents from both parties developed affordable housing. One of the most dramatic expansions in affordable housing occurred during the Richard Nixon administration. There was a huge tax cut at the beginning of the Reagan presidency with a promise of massive cuts to government that never materialized thus destabilizing the government. Domestic spending on poverty related programs were cut, but not to equal the decline in revenue from the first tax cut. The Reagan administration had to repeatedly increase taxes to try to pay for the expansion in military spending and that tax cut the first year. There were cuts to legal services, jobs programs, massive cuts to funds for cities, and cuts to public transit that helped people get to work in America's cities. The network of family shelters in Cleveland started in the mid 1980s. Before the 1980s, family homelessness was a short interruption to housing and the charities and religious groups would pay for a hotel stay. Most of these shelters in the 1980s were temporary structures in the basement of government buildings, churches or empty retail spaces. No one thought that this problem would be around for 30 years.

The Heritage Foundation and the National Review have written many stories trying to rehabilitate the Reagan legacy including attempts to cast doubt on the explosion in homelessness. Carl Horowitz of Heritage Foundation in 2004 pointed to the acceptance of divorce, and the courts allowing people to become homeless by striking down vagrancy laws in the 1970s and the media driving this story as the big reasons for explosions in homelessness. Horowitz claims that Washington DC activist, Mitch Snyder, built a straw man in Ronald Reagan and the media ate it up. Horowitz blames the courts for providing civil rights to all people thus allowing homeless people to become visible. He just dismisses the fact that there were all these people who no longer had a place to live, and blames the courts for allowing them to be visible. If America could have just hid the population, this would not have become a story and homelessness would not be tied to President Reagan.

Reagan attacked "welfare queens" and claimed homeless people slept on grates by choice. This was the beginning of the hostility toward low income and homeless people, and it was led by the Reagan Administration. The United States has yet to recover from this class warfare on those without money. There developed a common narrative in the United States that poor people were lazy, criminals, or crazy. This was the beginning of the assault on government and the pervasive thinking that government could not do anything well. There was massive distrust in government from Viet Nam War, Watergate, and the many veterans traumatized and living on the streets of America. We gave up on solving problems as a country and lionized the individual. We championed those who picked themselves up by their boot stapes even as we made it more difficult to start businesses or survive without government help. We have consolidated wealth and income inequality has exploded making it nearly impossible to break through to turn good ideas into income.

The reality in Cleveland is that during the eight year presidency of Ronald Reagan, the number of shelters expanded dramatically. People filled those shelters, and they were not always the best places to live. There were large numbers sleeping on the street not because it was cool or fashionable, but because so many people had no where else to live. They slept on steam grates in order to survive and feel safe. If you only had a couple of bucks in your pocket and some warm clothing left, is it better to sleep on the street visible to police driving by or in a remote industrial site with no protection from thieves and gang members? We did not fulfill the promises made to people with mental illnesses over the previous two decades that we would provide community care in lieu of locking fragile individuals away in asylums. We demonized a segment of our population beginning in the 1980s and we are still paying for those decisions today.

Brian
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What is the Big Deal?

NEOCH had the First Golden Voice

I just don't understand the big fuss over Ted Williams, the freeway exit panhandler from Columbus with the golden voice. The story is everywhere from sports websites because the Cleveland Cavaliers have offered him a job, all the major newspapers, and viral video sites. It seems he has a wonderful voice, and became homeless after struggling with sobriety. He was then captured on video using his voice to panhandle. A Columbus Dispatch reporter took a video of Mr. Williams that went viral within 24 hours. Yes, the guy has an amazing voice talent, but what is the big deal? There are so many talented people sleeping over at 2100 Lakeside having their skills going to waste. We have seen amazing photographers sleeping at the shelter (half of the photos on our website are by homeless people). That opening montage of pictures are all by a guy sleeping at Lakeside. We had an art show in the late 1990s and received over 100 pieces of art from homeless people with some amazing work submitted.

This is great for Mr. Williams, and everyone working with homeless people is excited to see someone skyrocket out of homelessness, but there are so many amazing people sleeping in the shelters every night. There are artists, craftsmen, great plumbers, great cooks, photographers, carpenters, writers who are wasting their talent just trying to survive. This is the great tragedy of our society that great thinkers, accountants, computer scientists are focused on trying to find a place to live instead of working to make the world a better place. They are not trying to find a more efficient way to feed America or a new way to educate young people, they are trying to figure out how to get a meal for the night. There are young Billie Holidays, Nathaniel Ayers, Picassos, and JD Salingers sleeping in our shelters tonight in Cleveland depriving us of their amazing art.

From a personal perspective, we are offended at NEOCH, because we had the Golden Voice working for the Coalition long before Ted Williams was discovered. William Gilmore, pictured above, has answered phones for NEOCH for the past two years. He has done voice over work in the past. We are one of the few agencies that still has a human answering the phone, and William is our guy in the afternoon. He has been referred to as the Golden Voice of the homeless for years. We missed our opportunity to make him famous on You Tube.

Brian

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