Housing
Vision
A city in which every resident can find a safe, stable, affordable home.
Questions
Cleveland has a relatively low housing density. How can the city promote higher density development that offers a greater variety of affordable housing choices and creates vibrant neighborhoods?
The foreclosure crisis of 2008 accelerated the demolition of the city’s deteriorated housing stock. How can more old homes be saved and rehabilitated?
The foreclosure crisis also opened the way for investors/scammers to flip our housing stock and siphon value from our neighborhoods. How can the city do more to prevent this?
The cost of housing includes more than rent or a mortgage. It also includes the energy cost of the dwelling and the transportation cost at that location. What creative policies and programs can help promote the development of net-zero-energy housing units in transit-rich locations to reduce the overall cost of housing?
How can we make housing a human right instead of market-driven commodity?
Recommendations
Follow the housing recommendations of the 2021 Neighborhood Platform.
Make sure the Cleveland Housing Plan has a real strategy for meeting the affordable housing needs of city residents.
Follow the example of Minneapolis and expand housing options by eliminating restrictive single-family zoning.
Adopt best practices for preventing gentrification and displacement. One strategy to maintain housing affordability is a community land trust, such as the Near West Land Trust created recently by Ohio City Inc. and Tremont West Development Corporation. Another way is to build public or nonprofit rental housing that allows renters to build equity.
Continue to evaluate the city’s residential tax abatement policy to make sure it benefits the city as a whole and is not just a give-away to developments that would happen anyway.
Advocate for a fair distribution of affordable housing in all communities of Cuyahoga County, with source of income protection to prevent discrimination against renters with housing vouchers.
Support effective enforcement and funding of the city’s lead-safe housing ordinance.
Even after the pandemic’s housing eviction crisis is over, continue policies that will help keep people in their homes.
Continue to support Cleveland’s Right to Counsel program, which provides legal assistance to low-income families facing eviction.
Adopt a “Pay to Stay” ordinance, which stops evictions for nonpayment if tenants pay rent and late fees before their court date.
Advocate for increased funding of the Ohio Housing Trust Fund, which helps develop safe, decent housing for the most vulnerable Ohioans.
Resources
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