CLEVELAND — Cuyahoga County's Housing First initiative is partnering with A Place 4 Me to design and build a 50-unit supportive housing development that will help transition-aged young adults 18 to 24 who are experiencing homelessness.
The housing development, which has an anticipated opening of summer 2023, is planned to be constructed in Cleveland's St. Clair-Superior neighborhood.
According to the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland, around 570 young adults sought homeless services across Cuyahoga County in 2019. Due to limited capacity, only a small percentage of those young adults were able to find supportive housing.
Those numbers are still staggering in 2021.
"We have two hundred, almost two hundred youth that at any given month are seeking their homeless assistance," said Kevin Nowak, executive director of CHN Housing Partners.
Many of the young adults facing homelessness are aging out of foster care, have grown up with chronic homelessness, are part of the LGBTQ+ community or are dealing with the impact of systemic racism.
'We were seeing this gap in services where we certainly didn't want young people to have to wait in shelters while they were experiencing homelessness just to qualify for these resources," said Christie Sozio, associate director of A Place 4 Me.
The goal of the development is to create a permanent residence to help break the cycle of homelessness by providing close access to job training, transportation, grocery stores, banking, health care and quality childcare.
The housing development has been created in partnership with A Place 4 Me, Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland, Enterprise Community Partners, CHN Housing Partners, EDEN Inc. and FrontLine Service.
Low-income housing tax credits from the Ohio Housing Finance Agency have helped fund the $12 million development to be located on East 45th Street.
Groundbreaking is expected next spring or summer.
Below is a list of resources for those experiencing homelessness in Northeast Ohio:
A Place 4 Me – https://www.ywcaofcleveland.org/end-homelessness/a-place-4-me/
CHN Housing Partners – https://chnhousingpartners.org/
EDEN Inc. – https://edencle.org/
FrontLine Service – https://www.frontlineservice.org/
Enterprise Community Partners – https://www.enterprisecommunity.org/
Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland – https://socfcleveland.org/
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