Making Way for Permanent Supportive Housing
More than a decade after closing in 2006, the Old Brooklyn YMCA building was torn down in June by the Cuyahoga Land Bank. Neighbors joined City Council President Kevin Kelley, Councilman Tony Brancatelli. EDEN, CHN Community Partners and the Metro West Community Development Corp to cheer on the demolition of the dilapidated building and an adjacent warehouse on West 25th Street.
CHN Housing Partners and EDEN, Inc. plan to build a 71-unit permanent supportive housing apartment building under the Housing First Initiative. Housing First is a housing assistance approach that provides permanent housing to people struggling with access to affordable housing, serving as a platform from which they can pursue personal goals and improve their quality of life. Performing above expectations, the Initiative has seen a success rate of 98 percent for the occupants of its first 10 permanent supportive housing buildings.
“Successfully attacking long-term lack of housing is not a simple task,” says Bill Whitney, Chief Operating Officer of Cuyahoga Land Bank. “In addition to CHN and EDEN, other funders and service providers involved in the Initiative include HUD, City of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, OHFA, the V.A., and numerous other County-funded agencies and social service organizations.”
When construction of this apartment building in Brooklyn Centre is completed in 2020, the Initiative will have developed 500 permanent supportive housing units in the community and put a major dent in the number of long-term homeless.
