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from cleveland.com: Cleveland City Council considers spending $1M to bolster renter assistance programs in the city


Posted January 15, 2025
10:09 am


By Sean McDonnell, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland City Council is considering giving $1 million of federal-stimulus dollars to the United Way of Greater Cleveland and seven other organizations to help renters with a range of housing issues.

The $1 million would be split between the United Way and a group of partners for three years to bolster the work they’re already doing, whether that be providing legal services for tenants or emergency housing assistance.

The legislation was approved by council’s development and planning committee Tuesday and is headed to the full council for approval.

Council is continuing to dole out money that originally came from the American Rescue Plan Act, the COVID-19 stimulus package passed in 2021. Council had allocated $35 million for projects but some of that money remains unspent.

Ken Surratt, the United Way’s chief development and investment officer, told council members Tuesday that the plan would help fill the gap left when the Cleveland Tenant Organization closed in 2018.

The Cleveland Tenants Organization was a nonprofit that ran a renter-information hotline as well as an eviction-diversion program. But it closed in 2018 after running out of funding.

Legal Aid Society of Cleveland took over that renter-information line, which is largely designed to help educate tenants about their legal rights. But Matt Vincel, who leads Legal Aid’s work on housing, said there are services the Cleveland Tenants Organization offered that the attorneys at Legal Aid can’t provide.

Surratt said there’s no shortage of need on housing issues. The United Way’s 211-line received 393,000 calls from Clevelanders over a five-year period. He said 92,000 calls were about housing issues, and about 45,000 of those calls were from renters that need help.

The money from council would help United Way and its partners address those calls, helping to pay for hotel vouchers or rent payments, Surratt said. But the $1 million would also help the organizations do proactive work, like helping educating tenants about their rights and helping them form tenant associations so they can better stand up to landlords.

Councilman Kris Harsh said the goal is to “put boots on the ground” that can work with tenants directly. While the city gets involved in housing issues, enforcing code violations or forcing landlords to register their homes, he said renters have other issues that can’t be solved by Cleveland’s administration alone.

Harsh said the $1 million will hopefully breathe air into the lungs of the organizations helping address these issues.

“When it comes to the social safety net, we need all hands on deck,” Harsh said.

Of the $1 million being set aside from Council, United Way will keep $187,500 to help bolster its 211 call line that will act as the intake for renters facing issues, along with another $52,500 to administer the program.

The rest will go to the other partner organizations over the next three years.

Under the plan, Fifth Christian Church, the Moreland Groups, The Cleveland Mediation Center, Smart Development Inc. and Legal Aid will all receive funding. Cleveland State University will also receive money and is tasked with evaluating the program.

Councilwoman Stephanie Howse-Jones asked Surratt and United Way’s partners to keep track of their work, including how often it saves the city of Cleveland money in the long run by addressing issues before the city or courts becomes involved.

She said that data would help in three years if the United Way were to come back to council for more funding, something Howse-Jones said she supports.

“The investment in prevention is always better than having the investments in reactive behavior,” Howse-Jones said. “The city of Cleveland absolutely has to commit to more preventative things.”

Since the organizations involved are already offering these services, Surratt said they will be able to hit the ground running once they receive the funding.

Sean McDonnell is a reporter for cleveland.com and the Plain Dealer. You can reach him at smcdonnell@cleveland.com.


Source: cleveland.com - Cleveland City Council considers spending $1M to bolster renter assistance programs in the city

 

 

 

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