Tag: Chris Ronayne

Northeast Ohio Coalition Pledges $650,000 in Food Funding With SNAP Benefits Still Up in Air – Cleveland Scene

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Thirteen hours before hundreds of thousands of Cuyahoga County residents possibly lose their SNAP benefits, a frightened coalition of Northeast Ohio mayors, councilors and sports team reps packed a newly-renovated distribution room at the May Dugan Center to announce their own efforts in the matter.

The matter being this: Come Saturday, the 190,000 Cuyahoga County residents on benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP or food stamps, might not see a dime as a byproduct of the current government shutdown.

Late Friday afternoon, a federal judge ordered the government to use an emergency reserve created by Congress to continue paying recipients, though it was unclear whether Trump’s administration would appeal the ruling, when recipients would receive funds, and whether they would be in the totals from previous months.

The current federal stalemate has shifted the gargantuan burden of feeding the hungry and less fortunate onto cities, counties, and states —as well as churches, pantries and food banks—that, as reiterated on Friday, do not have nearly enough funds to match the federal contribution.

On Nov. 1, the county and its coalition of 30 or so will attempt to fight those lost funds with $650,000. As several leaders admitted from the podium, it’s a paltry amount compared to those tens of millions. (Enough to cover a little over 2,000 people at maximum SNAP allowance of $297 a month.)

“Emergency funding will not solve the whole crisis, but it will help families in every corner of our county, from our east side neighborhoods to our west side neighborhoods to our communities to the south,” County Executive Chris Ronayne said on Friday, “ensuring our residents are not left hungry.”

This week, as the White House continued to blame the “Radical Left” for a seemingly endless shutdown, state governors began releasing monies to fuel pantries and food banks in lieu of zeroed-out EBT cards. Many, like Louisiana, New York and Rhode Island, declared emergencies to quickly shift millions of dollars in health funds to feed needy families.

On Thursday, Ohio did the same, when Gov. DeWine issued an order to use $25 million from a state rainy day fund and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families fund to help out regional food banks come the Nov. 1 cutoff point.

Dozens of volunteers handed out bags of produce and chicken drumsticks at the May Dugan Center on Friday. Credit: Mark Oprea

At the May Dugan Center, hundreds of families formed lines that snaked out the building. Many heaved boxes of hot dog buns or frozen chicken thighs as Friday’s press conference (and an endnote photo-op) carried out behind them.

Many, if not all, of those behind the podium and packing the press conference seemed to empathize with those that were waiting for bananas and bread out front. Several mentioned mothers or siblings on SNAP; others recalled childhoods dependent on government assistance.

“I relied on SNAP growing up,” Congresswoman Shontel Brown said. “One in five people in my district rely on SNAP. So, this is personal to me and to so many in our community.”

Why does party politics get in the way of feeding Americans? It was easily the one question no one could answer, from Ronayne to Warrensville Heights Mayor Brad Sellers, from May Dugan’s new volunteers to the mothers-of-two waiting in line for bags of chicken drumsticks.

“Hunger does not have a party affiliation,” Sellers told the room. “It does not care about political label. This is not a red or blue issue. This is about right or wrong.”

Several of the sports teams reps present on Friday, those that joined the coalition this week, planned to donate team revenue and donations from fans to help SNAP recipients.

Cavs Senior VP Kevin Clayton told Scene that Friday’s Cavs game would debut its own campaign to keep food banks healthy through the holidays. “But covering that $37 million a month?” Clayton said. “We can’t close that gap” alone.

Karen Pozna, a spokesperson for the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, expressed a similar sentiment. Especially when minding the stats: for every one meal the food bank provides, SNAP typically provides nine.

“We just can’t do this without the private sector and the public sector,” she said.

May Dugan itself evolved to meet the needs of the day. Executive Director Andy Trares told Scene they brought on about a dozen more volunteers to meet the demand; while they typically serve 800 families, Trares is eyeing handing out bags of food to 1,500.

Waiting in line was one of those, a woman in her fifties on SNAP with two grandchildren at home.

“You’re gonna have a lot of starving people,” she said, holding a bag of chicken drumsticks. “But I’m just doing what they say: ‘Go to the centers. Go to the centers.’ What else can we do?”

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October 31, 2025
Ronayne Reminds Us Everyone’s Welcome in Cuyahoga During Third State of the County Address – Cleveland Scene

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There’s no denying that County Executive Chris Ronayne is the leader of the gladly received.

New small businesses. War-torn Ukrainian refugees.

He’s for more humane jails. Parks in the sky. Homeless mothers. Special Olympians. Natural Black hairstyles. Superman and his immortalized creators.

“That is Cuyahoga County,” Ronayne said during his third State of the County address. “We welcome and we lead with a welcoming nature.”

On Thursday, from a podium in the atrium of the Huntington Convention Center, Ronayne rattled off a list of county government’s reasons for praise, from big points earned on immigration, crime, courts, to police and development successes.

But Ronayne’s inclination to welcome—a word he used 18 times in his 36-minute speech—brings up clear questions about how attractive Cuyahoga County must be to battle larger, negative narratives.

Since 2020, the county’s lost roughly 24,000 people, the continuation of a decades-long trend.

The state really hasn’t helped either.

Its Senate Bill 1, which went into effect in June, has led to declining enrollment at several of Ohio’s universities, including about a 30 percent drop each at Baldwin Wallace and Cleveland State. And immigrants, mostly from Latin countries, have been abruptly locked up in detention facilities and/or deported with the help of sheriff’s offices from Geauga to Butler counties.

Still, Ronayne kept his trademark cheer. A cheer that seemed to keep blinders on and keep the focus hyperlocal—whether that be celebrating the county’s win attracting the 2030 Special Olympics, building its new Office of Violence Prevention, soon breaking ground on its new jail, or being the first county in Ohio to ban conversion therapy.

Ronayne shied away from topics too controversial—like massive loss of federal support—and kept his address focused on local wins. Credit: Mark Oprea

There are roughly 380,000 people in Cuyahoga County on Medicaid and some 190,000 that get help buying food through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, colloquially known as food stamps. About 28,000 of the latter, Ronayne said, will “be directly impacted” by the passing of Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill, which may eliminate such support to those tens of thousands entirely.

A new Cuyahoga Hunger Response Team, used to combat the federal slashing of SNAP, will launch in late October, Ronayne said.

“We’re going to have to face draconian cuts to our kids, our families and our seniors as if we were in COVID all over again,” he told the room. “And we are going to have to apply our best selves with the kindness of Cuyahogans.”

“Together,” he said, “we are strong.”

Although he teased briefly the forming of Cuyahoga LIVE!, the county’s planned music commission, and massive downtown development from Bedrock, Ronayne shied away from addressing anything touchy.

There was no mention in his prepared speech of cuts at Cleveland State, of the Downtown Safety Patrol and its chase policy, of the abrupt destruction of radio station WCSB, or of the Haslam’s sure relocation to Brook Park.

At least until those in the crowd bothered him with such questions.

What, oh what, one asked, do you think of the Browns? Does the Haslams’ $100 million “gift” to the city make up for what’s been a pretty sour breakup?

“I was happy to give a speech that didn’t mention the stadium,” Ronayne said, to laughter. He cited love for the Guardians, the Cavs and Cleveland’s upcoming WNBA team. “There is a lot of other work happening in the county.”

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October 17, 2025
Cuyahoga County Debuts Loan Program to Boost Development Along Public Transit Lines

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Mark Oprea

The Quarter on Detroit Avenue. Cuyahoga County released a loan program for developers on Monday, one that would let them borrow up to $2.5 million to finish projects in transit-rich, dense areas.

Cuyahoga County wants more Van Akens, more Little Italys, more Gordon Squares and more Larchmere Boulevards.

Or to put it in city planner speak: more transit-oriented development.

On Monday, the county debuted a program that will soon dole out loans to developers who need to round-off financing for projects on or close by train or bus lines. Those builders can get up to a $2.5 million loan at an interest rate as low as four percent, as long as their project in less than a half mile from a transit line.

Those corridors — 22 in total — are where you’d expect, including near the Red, Blue, Green and Waterfront lines, the HealthLine, MetroHealth Line and about 10 highly-used other bus lines, from the 22 on Lorain Ave. to the 26 on Detroit and the 41 on Warrensville Road.

The county’s idea is rooted in its annual transit-oriented development study that its been funding since 2022. (And reached an “all-time high” last year.) It’s an idea that, if done right, is mutually beneficial: more apartments and shops along dense areas, more people using transit to get to them.

It “is smart growth in action,” County Executive Chris Ronayne said in a press release. TOD is “strengthening local ties, boosting our economic and transportation infrastructures and ensuring resources are within reach of all of our residents.”

Such a boost pairs nicely with similar incentives at Cleveland City Hall, where city planners are moving forward with a Smart Code zoning pilot in three neighborhoods, representing Cleveland’s best bet to codify zoning law that automatically encourages dense, walkable development.

Also, in 2023, the city put a perks system—transit-demand management—into law to encourage developers to build bike racks, pocket parks, shuttles, or more to go along with their apartment complexes.

And the county’s program bears similarities.

Loans awarded to developers can be used for new construction—parking lots, sidewalks, tree lines—or improvement to preexisting structures. Projects have to be at least a half-mile from one of 22 transit lines, include a non-housing element, and prove that at least one job will be created for every $150,000 borrowed.

Building in front of an RTA station? You have to have an “active first floor use,” the program guide stipulates.

But will developers buy in? Many often gripe about Cleveland’s relatively low tax abatement policy, about higher-than-usual federal interest rates and a tough housing market that leaves few guaranteed incentives for developers not swayed primarily by passion.

Also, tax perks from the state—like for low-income projects—may not be the kicker.

This “signals to the development community that we are listening,” Cuyahoga County Planning Commission Mary Cierebiej said in a statement.

Those interested in more details can tune in to a Zoom webinar on September 9.

Developers have until September 29 to submit a first round of eligibility applications. Final approvals, the county said, for loans will be doled out later this year and early 2026.

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August 26, 2025
In Second State of the County, Chris Ronayne Plays it Cool for Packed Atrium

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Mark Oprea

Chris Ronayne’s State of the County speech on Thursday was compact just as it was comprehensive.

Despite the ceaseless drumming and droning of vuvuzela horns outside the new atrium at the Huntington Convention Center, County Executive Chris Ronayne delivered his second State of the County address in a mostly cool and concise manner on Thursday.

For a little more than 40 minutes, Ronayne rattled off a “best of” tour of county achievements, both recent and foretold, to a sold-out crowd of 800—and about a half dozen pro-Palestine protesters who repeatedly interrupted Ronayne’s boosterism as if privately on set cue.

Despite the constant criticism for the county’s $16 million investment in Israel bonds, Ronayne kept his fatherly, friend-to-all schtick intact, whether it was lauding the creation of the Child Wellness Center, or helping to build the new Fairfax Market in Midtown, or applauding Downtown Cleveland’s own “Superman Summer.”

Ronayne kept his tour concise just as it was comprehensive—especially when touching on sensitive matters. Both the controversial County Jail project in Garfield Heights—which has seemed to worry surrounding residents—and the possible loss of the newly-named Huntington Bank Field to Brook Park, were glossed over quickly, it seemed, as if to check off a box.

“Cuyahoga County is leading the way,” he said, when touching on the projected $750 million correctional facility. “Our government continues to innovate, modernize and transform.”

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Mark Oprea

Several pro-Palestine protestors interrupted Ronayne’s speech throughout.

With just a year-and-a-half in the county executive post, Ronayne has spent what seems to be an incalculable amount of time trying to present the county in a positive light, which seems bolstered by Ronayne’s encyclopedic knowledge and affection for a place where he’s lived the bulk of his life.

It’s how Ronayne, in his 34-minute speech, seemed to frame his policy: vying to keep the 54 municipalities in Cuyahoga County politically attuned through a highly personalized lens. (“You can see I’m very close to our mayors,” he winked at one point. “We got each other’s backs.”)

“Wherever I am, I always stop to hear from residents. I tell them I work for them. I work for all of you,” he told the crowd.

“And the reality is our entire county team works for you,” he added. “Protecting our children, investing in housing, keeping our roads and bridges safe, supporting our small businesses, improving our government services, transforming our social safety net, innovating in sustainability and leveraging our assets for growth.”

And growth was often substantiated by, as in Bibb’s State of the City, impressive data: 502 small businesses helped with the county’s financial assistance; 122 guns taken off the streets by the Downtown Safety Unit; 222 low-interest loans handed out for home improvements; $130 million from the EPA for the county to use towards climate pollution reduction.

But Ronayne’s itch to highlight dozens of county programs and hurrahs sometimes felt a bit lacking in the exec’s trademark chutzpah, as if he was narrating a script for a marketing video to be shown in the Convention Center lobby.

“Our word to the world is that you are welcome here,” he said, capping off a mention of the county’s new Welcome Center for immigrants. “We all are. All of us.”

A welcome that apparently extended to the half dozen pro-Palestine protesters who managed to sneak into general admission tables. (“It’s the First Amendment right,” he said, as one accused him of “supporting genocide.”)

At one point, during the event’s Q&A, a man wrapped in a black-and-white keffiyeh scarf asked Ronayne if he would reconsider the $16 million in Israel bonds in the county’s investment portfolio.

Ronayne responded both curt and personal. He thanked the man for “coaching the kids” in the deep, complicated matters surrounding the Israel-Hamas War. He recalled his work as a local soccer coach.

“I’m just going to say this,” Ronayne added. “We are not moving away from Israel bonds.”

And that was that. Until next year.

“In the words of my mother, a small business owner who got me through school and got me here today, I say to you what she said to me,” Ronayne said, ending his speech. “Let’s keep going.”

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September 6, 2024
“Income Isn’t Rising With Property Valuations”: Cuyahoga County Dems Urge State to Provide Relief on Climbing Property Taxes

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Mark Oprea

Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney of Ohio District 16 joined Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne on Tuesday morning to remind residents that the upcoming spike in property taxes could be alleviated on a state level.

A handful of Cuyahoga County and state Democrats gathered in a room on the fourth floor of the County Headquarters on East 9th on Tuesday morning with one consistent, resonating message:

Property values are increasing next year. But that’s not our fault.

In the spring, Cuyahoga County officials announced that home and property owners would see values jump, on average, 32 percent across the board following the sexennial reappraisal.

Such high spikes, framed by officials as kind of catching up from the devastation of the Great Recession, were also highly disparate depending on whether one’s house is in the city or the suburbs: While property values are set to climb about 25 percent in suburbs like Westlake, Orange and North Royalton, properties in Cleveland are set, a map shows, to nearly double.

That resulting complication—double the appraised values in a city with nearly half the household incomes of the suburbs that surround it—led the Democrats present Tuesday morning to reassert their fight to right the perceived wrongs decided by a state legislature outside of their control.

“If you think your valuation is too high, tell us,” County Executive Chris Ronayne told media present. “As a reminder, a 30-percent increase in value does not necessarily mean a 30-percent increase in your taxes. Again, valuation increase does not mean tax increase.”

Orchestrated by the County’s Fiscal Office every six years at the demand’s of the state, a mass reappraisal, carried out by a phalanx of field workers surveying homes from the sidewalks, carries a load of political implications.

These re-evaluations—despite Ronayne’s optimism—usually do result in higher tax payments come March for most homeowners.

For example, a Clevelander with a home valued at about $150,000 in 2023 would see that property value shoot up to $223,500 come 2025. And they’d pay, according to the county’s oh-so-convenient tax calculator, $4,648 in taxes—about a $660 increase from the year before.

To combat the blow, especially to seniors and the disabled on a fixed income, County and state reps devised a series of tax alleviators. Property owners can use EasyPay to “prepay” in monthly installments; chip off some taxes if they’re over 65 and lower-income; get a 2.5 percent reduction for homeowners; and delay tax payments if they’re in the military.

Everyone else can submit a complaint to the county, electronically, by mail or in person, if they feel that their property value reassement isn’t just or fair. These complaints must include an appraisal from the last three years; photos of home damage or maintenance; repairs estimates; a purchase agreement and sales comparisons for other homes.

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Cuyahoga County

The 2024 reappraisal map shows a kind of rebalancing that experts say is a catching up from Great Recession-era home values.

And these complaints, Ronayne reiterated this morning, must be submitted by Friday.

The more longterm fix, Ronayne said, lied in the strength of the legislation his fellow Dems were fighting to see considered in Ohio congress, from H.B. 263—which would freeze property taxes for residents age 70 and older who make less than $70,000—to H.B. 645, which would dole out $1,000 rebates.

Grocery prices aren’t predicted to fall. And neither are home prices themselves.

“We need help,” he said. “The reality [is] that that the two ends aren’t meeting: income isn’t rising with property valuations. And so we support every bill that these state representatives have put forth.”

All three representatives flanking Ronayne and his call to residents—Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney, Rep. Phil Robinson and Rep. Sean Brennan—warned those eyeing higher payments in 2025 to see those upcoming burdens as malleable and fixed to a political system that, with the right votes, Ohioans have control over.

Ronayne’s guests also pointed to another assumption: lowering these taxes would require a levy at the county level.

“I want to be very clear, that is a false choice,” Sweeney said. She hinted at reworking of Ohio’s $90 billion budget, one that could see, if legislation is passed, a ramping up of workarounds like the homesteaders exemption: “We have the money to pay at the state for property tax relief now.”

And not just for those who own.

“I was a former renter. I know I pay property taxes,” Brennan told the crowd. “Anybody in the room that pays rent knows you pay property taxes and your rents are going up.”

“I’ve got many senior citizens in my district calling me, telling me they don’t know how they’re going to afford their rent because it just went up $150 a month,” he added. “I’ve been on the phone in tears with some of these folks because they just don’t know how they’re going to do it.”

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August 28, 2024
Roldo: The Haslams Will Get What They Want

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Mark Oprea

Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne told the Browns it wants no part of financing a Brook Park dome

This dog won’t hunt.

This dog doesn’t really have to hunt.

Or bark. Or bite.

Because top Democratic pols – County Executive Chris Roynane, Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and City Council President Blaine Griffin – will end up giving the Haslams, Gilberts and Dolans just what they want.

Haven’t they always?

Bibb has already offered $461 million for the present stadium redo and Ronayne has told the Browns the county won’t support a $600-million ask for a Brook Park dome.

In the end, they will fold. Like a cheap tent in a wind storm.

Roynane already signaled that in his press conference that was supposed to draw a line in the sand to the Cleveland Browns plan – if it is a plan and not simply a strategy – to move the team out to Brook Park.

And Mayor Bibb has already promised the Haslams hundreds of millions of dollars to stay put on the lakefront.

I have been around political maneuvering by both the pols and the team owners long enough to recognize when a “NO” really means “OKAY.”

What the pols should be saying to all three teams? We have to renegotiate the Gateway and lakefront deals where the teams have sweetheart deals.

That’s how to start negotiations now.

Back in 2014, estimates put the public contribution to Cleveland sports stadiums around $1.2 billion.

And plenty has been spent since.

The city and county — which helped build the sports facilities and further moved to make them property tax free — have to share in the profits, including ticket sales, a share of naming rights, scoreboard ads and a portion of TV income.

What’s fair is fair.

Instead, we get nonsense like, “This dog won’t hunt.”

This dog has to learn to share the cost of doing business.

The last time the Cleveland baseball team paid rent for a stadium was in in 1989 when the then “Indians” rented the old Cleveland Stadium, run by Art Modell. The annual payment was $737,448, with a rebate. Final cost: $569,048.

Now the rent they pay is $0. For a stadium now flush with hundeds of millions in renovations with most income going to the team owners.

Gateway was always generous to a fault.

That’s where the city and county need to start in any new dealing with any of the three owners: Redressing the past errors, all favoring the owners.

And that’s where Roynane and Bibb are dealing from the bottom.

They know this better than the public does.

But they are still dealing as if everything is even and fair.

The deck was stacked from the beginning.

Apparently the Browns ownership has long thought of a new stadium.

Ken Silliman, a former city hall lawyer and former Gateway board member, wrote in his self-published book that a Browns executive had, years ago, pulled him aside after a meeting between the city and Browns, asking as Silliman writes, “… would the city instead consider building a brand new football stadium and, if so, where it would be located.” Silliman noted that the lakefront stadium wasn’t even 15 years old at the time of the conversation.

The truth is that the team owners with their staffs are well ahead of the city and county officials, who often rely on private Cleveland lawyers that seem to represent private interests more than the public agents that hire them.

The first step would be to hire high-powered lawyers from outside Cleveland or Ohio to represent the public.

Then there might be a fighting chance to get a deal that wouldn’t be lopsided in favor of the owners.

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August 15, 2024
At Last, Public Square Says Goodbye to its Jersey Barriers

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Mark Oprea

Mayor Bibb oversaw the final end to Public Square’s Jersey barriers, on Monday.

The day has come at last.

No, the Browns didn’t clinch a Superbowl, nor did the city solve its uneven housing crisis. But the ugly, intrusive, grey Jersey barriers that have sat for the past eight years on Public Square are gone.

And for good. (Not just for St. Patrick’s Day parades and other special events.)

“Well, the day is finally here: We are removing the Jersey barriers in Public Square,” Mayor Justin Bibb said at a press conference on the square’s central stage Monday afternoon, in front of three bulldozers with metal clamps at the ready.

Bibb framed the ceremony—a ceremony for concrete removal!—as a milestone harkening back to a minor campaign promise in 2021. That of which segued into a lengthy legal and financial battle, over two mayoral administrations, to bring Public Square into the image of how its makeover was designed.

“We quickly realized there were a lot of things we had to do to make sure we got this moment right,” Bibb told the crowd. “And sometimes you have to go slow in order to go fast and do things the right way.”

The barrier removal, which was kicked off by three sounds of airhorns, marked Public Square’s second phase of renovation since its first in 2016.

As was approved by the city’s Design Review Board last May, the square is set to see 60 steel bollards installed in and around its area, nine that will be retractable “raptors” to let RTA buses in and out easily. Construction, expected to wrap up this summer, will also tighten the square’s crosswalk in half, from 93 to 45 feet, and give it a raised platform to make crossing more inviting to pedestrians.

The makeover, eight years after James Corner Field Operations redesigned the space ahead of the Republican National Convention, brings up questions outside the realm of beautification.

There are also public safety issues separate from keeping pedestrians, buses, cyclists and cars operating without any harm.

There have been at least two shootings on Public Square since the one following Winterland’s tree lighting ceremony last November.

Other than tout the city’s largest police academy graduation count—52 officers—in the past few years, Bibb turned to the square’s growing population count, with Sherwin William’s headquarters rising literally as he spoke, along with new tenants occupying 55 Public Square to the north.

“The best thing we can do to keep Public Square safe and secure,” he said, “is to have more people, more economic activity, more economic energy.”

The promise of which remains a mixed bag.

Riding the high from a recent Washington Post bump (which glorified Cleveland’s job “leading the nation” in office-to-residential building conversions), Bibb, along with County Executive Chris Ronayne and RTA CEO India Birdsong-Terry, framed the development boost as a natural predecessor to, well, more people just coming to hang out.

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Mark Oprea

Ironically, Public Square’s Gund Foundation Green was empty on Monday, prompting questions about how stakeholders will help populate the space outside of major events.

And still, 30 to 40 percent of the ground-floor retail facing Public Square is vacant. And ironically, despite the sunny 60 degree weather on Monday, the Gund Foundation Green behind the day’s speakers was entirely devoid of parkgoers.

Others, namely passers-by watching the bulldozers haul concrete away, were confused at the spectacle in general.

“Really? Since 2016? Why were they put here in the first place? There’s a reason, right?” Steve Harper, a Jehovah’s Witness who advertises in front of 200 Public Square, told Scene as his eyes studied the bulldozers.

After Bollard Gate was explained to Harper, his thoughts aligned with that of a city planner. “I think they just need more people here. And people need things to come here for—I mean, what’s really here? You know?”

Nearby to Harper, watching the same bulldozer trucks, Audrey Gerlach agreed.

“That’s exactly our goal,” Gerlach, Downtown Cleveland, Inc.’s vice president of economic development, told Scene. “It’s not sustainable to produce big festivals on Public Square every day. But there are goals, of course, to create a regular environment of excitement and vibrancy through programming that is appropriately scaled for regular use.”

And Gerlach should know. DCI will be taking over management of Public Square from the Group Plan Commission. Gerlach declined to say when DCI would take over programming, or if they would hire another general manager themselves as the current one retires.

As for the 5,000 RTA riders a day that travel through Public Square, the transit agency announced that pick-up and drop-off will take place north on Superior Avenue until June 11, when construction wraps up this summer.

And for the possibility of closing Public Square completely to buses in the future?

“All things are on the table,” Bibb said.

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March 25, 2024
Lakeside Men’s Homeless Shelter Extension Opens, Putting Dent in County’s Demand for Beds

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Mark Oprea

Melissa Sirak, director of the county’s Office of Homeless Services, speaking at 2020 Lakeside on Tuesday.

A year ago, in March 2023, Cuyahoga County released a strategic plan to best combat growing rates of homelessness exacerbated in wake of the global pandemic. Among the call for outreach workers and more affordable homes, the report clocked a goal for 2028: to house 500 more.

On Tuesday, the county seemingly stepped a bit closer to hitting its mark when it cut the ribbon on 2020 Lakeside Avenue, a brand new building intended as a sibling operation to the next-door men’s shelter at 2100, which Cuyahoga County has been overseeing in partnership with the Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry for almost two decades.

Out of the 5,000 or so the county estimated are homeless inside its boundaries, roughly 350 of those people are unsheltered, single men. (About the number of beds at 2100.) And, for the past few years, local governments and nonprofits have been drumming up solutions on the best way to steer this population—and the growing population of homeless women—into permanent housing.

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Lutheran Men’s Shelter at 2100 Lakeside Ave.

That is, if those that occupy the numerous tents that dot Superior Avenue choose to check in to 2020, or if they find greater value sleeping out on the sidewalks, without noisy neighbors, potential drug interference, or the nagging intimidation of barriers-to-entry.

“It’s bittersweet, because we need these beds, we need this space,” County Executive Chris Ronayne said from a podium inside 2020 on Tuesday. He recalled a recent tour of the shelter next door: “I was just making the rounds and walking, and realizing that it’s crowded. It’s crowded. And we need to give our residents the dignity of space.”

What looks to be a far cry from conditions in the past including spoiled food, the county’s newest shelter features 113 beds—the majority of them bunked—in a 14,000 square-foot room that resembles more of a barracks than a hostel. Each “semi-private” room contains one or two Hallowell lockers, and are separated with nine-foot, powder blue walls. There are lights for reading, outlets for charging phones, among other amenities.

It’s a stark contrast, it seems, from what lingers feet away from the new building.

“They really did a better job,” Loh, an activist who was present at county meetings rallying for action “every week,” told Scene, as she walked through 2020’s pristine shower stalls. In other shelters, “you can’t use the toilets. They run out of drinking water. Run out of bathroom tissue.”

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Mark Oprea

Brand new sinks and showers at 2020 Lakeside. “It’s a big improvement” from 2100’s shelter next door, housing advocate Loh told Scene.

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Mark Oprea

Most of 2020’s beds are bunked, and grouped in a very open room setting. Most have just one or two lockers. Some walls are color-coded, a county employee said, to help those with mental deficiencies find their beds.

It’s what, one thinks as they tour, $4.4 million in American Rescue Plan Act dollars can build. But that was then, back in 2021, when the county’s budget for solving homeless issues was given more financial grace by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Which makes one wonder how exactly, as Ronayne and others suggested on Tuesday, the county could wrangle more funds together to fix the shelter next door. “We’re at this cross-current of ARPA winding down,” Ronayne said, “at exactly the moment when, sadly, our rates of unhoused are going off.”

As are hesitation to build facilities. Last February, residents of Ohio City sounded off at a Board of Zoning Appeals meeting, fearing that LMM converting an office building off Franklin Avenue would be hazardous to their neighborhood. BZA approved the construction regardless.

Similar tones of fear were seen at a town hall meeting in Munson Township last month, where hundreds of anxious locals showed up in attempt to steer the Geauga Faith Rescue Mission away from constructing a 10-bed shelter for women in their apparent backyards. (It worked; GFRM is now hunting for another site.)

Michael Sering, LMM’s Vice President of Housing & Shelter, said that he believed 2020’s opening would create an absorbing effect, both deflating some of the overcrowding at 2100 and other shelters, and speeding up renovation of their first space.

“We will no longer need offsite location and shuttle trips to meet periodic influxes” of people, Stearns told press. As for 2100, “we can now rearrange or de-concentrate one-third of our beds. And that will make for better spaces for everyone.”

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March 6, 2024
Bibb Announces $2 Million in Funding to House Homeless

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Mark Oprea

Superior Avenue, in Downtown Cleveland, has been host to the increasing visibility of the city’s homeless population post-pandemic.

Send out more outreach teams on the streets of Cleveland. Incentivize landlords to take Section 8 vouchers. Build more no-frills housing with affordable rates.

These are some of City Hall’s ideas to tackle the sweeping issue of homelessness across Cleveland, as announced in Mayor Justin Bibb’s presentation on the matter Friday morning.

Bibb, flanked by County Executive Chris Ronayne, along with shelter operators and housing-specialist advisors, framed what he’s calling the Home For Every Neighbor program as the city’s comprehensive offensive on what’s typically tackled by volunteers and private nonprofits.

Such an “aggressive, more focused and targeted approach” to handle what truly is a ground issue, Bibb said, aspires to reach big goals by mid-2025: to have rehoused at least 150 homeless residents.

“And in Cleveland, what excites me about this issue is that it’s a solvable problem. It’s a solvable problem,” he told press Friday morning. “We want to make sure we can nip this issue in the bud before it becomes more systemic.”

The $2 million, a portion of which will fund a study on how other cities have successfully tackled the issue, follows city and county investments in recent months.
In January, Cleveland allocated roughly a quarter million to bolster seasonal shelters. And in early February, the county announced a $3.9 million federal grant that will be funneled to a half dozen outreach organizations focused on ending youth homelessness.

But, as critics to top-down approaches say, the city will have to essentially pick and train the right boots on the ground to influence the unhoused into going through what can be strict, and intimidating, pathways to stable housing.

By studying what’s worked elsewhere—like in Houston, Dallas, Denver and St. Paul—the eventual Home For Every Neighbor plan, Bibb’s presentation revealed on Friday, echoes the county’s own five-year Strategic Plan before it: funding and sending out outreach teams to walk the streets, especially during blizzards, to direct the unhoused to shelters.

Then, it becomes a housing issue. Landlords would get perks to house those coming from temporary beds. Developers would be incentivized to build a minimum percentage—to be named—of non-market rate apartment units. A 25-unit “Safe Haven” home, without steep barriers to entry, would be built on city property to add to the overall stock.

Chris Knestrick, the executive director of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, said that the clear linkage between the county and city’s plan gives him hope that NEOCH’s lobbying, and occasional criticism, of the city’s staid approach to getting the unhoused housed is promising.

“And I think internally we’re pretty excited,” he told Scene on Friday. “I think it’s been years of asking government, the city and county step up, and we’re very happy.”

City Hall plans to hire a strategic consultant to grow its homelessness initiative by May 1. RFPs are due to the city by March 25.

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February 24, 2024