Blaine Griffin Denies Playing Politics With Homeless Funding for NEOCH, But Still Sore at PB CLE Support

Last year, as a grassroots campaign launched around Issue 38, a variety of local organizations came out in support of the participatory budgeting push, including the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless.

NEOCH contributed $17,200 in cash and other assistance in backing the ballot issue that squared with its mission and, it hoped, would lead to more funding and representation for unhoused Clevelanders in the future.

"We saw that PB CLE could be a way for [the unhoused] to have deeper civic engagement," said NEOCH's Executive Director Chris Knestrick.

The issue, vehemently opposed by Cleveland city council, narrowly failed at the ballot, but the repercussions are still being felt.

Last week, Council okayed legislation that would send $225,000 in city funds to NEOCH and the Metanoia Project to fund emergency shelter work on west side.

But Council President Blaine Griffin, and Council's Finance, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee didn't approve the funds without conditions: NEOCH will have to send the city detailed receipts every 30 days on how it's spending the money, as Signal Cleveland first reported. Without mentioning PB Cle specifically, Griffin painted NEOCH as an organization that had worked against council.

And this week, hours after deploying new rules at Monday's council meeting that would allow him to boot disruptive protestors from chambers, Griffin told Scene it wasn't council that had brought politics into the equation but NEOCH.

"We have some serious concerns whenever we fund organizations that then in turn create a political arm, and for lack of a better word, utilize it to work against us," Griffin said, standing in Council Chambers. Griffin green-lit the dollars, he said, "because we care more about those folks that are unhoused as opposed to getting political retribution.

"We believe that people should organize," he added. "We believe that people should engage residents. But we did not pay for them to lobby, put ballot initiatives and have staff people and other folks work against the interests of what we believe is the best of the city."

In an interview Tuesday, a day after Cuyahoga County doled out $3.9 million to fund a suite of homeless outreach initiatives, Knestrick remained perplexed by Griffin's take.

He told Scene that all of their previous grants require strict receipts for reimbursement—that is to say, Knestrick can't spend a dime of City Hall's dollars without them knowing what it's intended for.

"So there's no possible way to be able to, even if I wanted to take it out," Knestrick said. "And our housing justice positions are not even funded by the city."

NEOCH had also drawn the ire of Councilman Mike Polensek after the organization led support for Euclid Beach mobile home residents forced out by the Western Reserve Land Conservancy's decision to turn the land into a park. (“I don’t know what they do, and they receive funding — and I couldn’t tell you, if my life depended on it — besides causing problems or trying to agitate council members,” Signal quoted Polensek as saying recently about NEOCH.)

The $225,000 NEOCH and Metanoia will receive in February will go solely to seasonal shelters, which will help temporarily house about 300 people.


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