Credit: Laura Morrison

The city of Cleveland has selected the Clark-Fulton neighborhood as the target of millions of dollars in federal funds for affordable housing through the newly christened FHAct50 program.

The Ohio Housing Finance Agency usually gives out about $25 million in federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits throughout the state. The new program, FHAct50, named in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act, will give an additional $3 million in credits to three Ohio cities — Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati — that could attract as much as $30 million in affordable housing investment in each location.

The cities were tasked with identifying a specific neighborhood for the funds, as to maximize the impact of the program, and, in order to create mixed-income communities, also had to guarantee there would be commensurate construction of market-rate housing — unit for unit — to match the addition of affordable housing during the same time period. The city will have full control over picking which developers and projects receive the tax credit.

A short introduction on a new FHAct50 website for Cleveland reads:

“The city has collaborated with their citizens to select one neighborhood that is ripe for market-rate housing investments and broader economic growth. In Cleveland, that neighborhood is Clark-Fulton. The city and residents will work together to create a plan for this target area that strategizes long-term development goals. The city will then recruit community partners to help execute this plan. After laying this groundwork, the city is authorized to competitively and transparently select affordable housing developments that support the plan to receive tax credits. This local competition replaces OHFA’s traditional competitive requirements and allows investments to be more tailored and responsive to local needs than ever before.”

What does that last part mean?

As Scene’s sister paper, the City Beat in Cincinnati, explained as they worked through the process:

In a departure from OHFA’s normal competitive process, in which the agency weighs applications from across the state using a large number of criteria, the city — along with Cleveland and Columbus — will get almost total say over which developers receive the credits.

That’s as long as they present a transparent plan for picking the developers and as long as the picks are overseen by a board or commission that includes low-income residents.

The downside: the cities will have to forfeit an advantage they have in OHFA’s regular scoring process for the rest of the credits it doles out for those three years.

Cleveland has opted in for 2019, 2020 and 2021.

If you want to learn more, a community meeting will be held Wednesday, May 8th, at the City Life Center at 3340 Trowbridge Ave. from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

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Vince Grzegorek has been with Scene since 2007 and editor-in-chief since 2012. He previously worked at Discount Drug Mart and Texas Roadhouse.

4 replies on “Cleveland Selects Clark-Fulton Neighborhood for Millions in Federal Affordable Housing Funds”

  1. Perfect. Another federally funded neighborhood. Its something the way America is breeding socialist at taxpayers expense. More investment in perpetual poverty.

  2. And, the rest of the neighborhoods already outrageous property taxes will just go up even more than they already are if thief Budish has anything to do with this!!!

    Until crooks like Taxin Jackson and thief Budish are finally recalled from office and sent right to jail, nothing will likely ever change around here except more waste, more corruption, and higher and higher taxes to pay for it all!!!

  3. Lies and more lies –

    Brooklyn Centre Masonic
    1.5 Acres
    2 Major Property Owners
    Vision: Preservation of 33,000 SF
    Historic Building with Retail or Office.

    Tax delinquent
    Parcel Number, Deeded Owner, Address, City, State, Zip Code
    015-25-027,”WHITE GOLD PROPERTY MANAGEMENT, LLC”,”3780 W 25 ST”,CLEVELAND, OH,44109
    $5,356.12

    015-25-028,”WHITE GOLD PROPERTY MANAGEMENT, LLC”,”3784 W 25 ST”,CLEVELAND, OH,44109
    $19,601.46

    015-25-031,”WHITE GOLD PROPERTY MANAGEMENT, LLC”,”3804 PEARL RD”,CLEVELAND, OH,44109
    $76,535.05

  4. Just reminding Sam Allard that FHA50 monies are the primary reason for the push to identify Metrohealth as being in the Clark-Fulton neighborhood (when reality check – it is in the Brooklyn Centre neighbordhood) Low Income Tax Credits are a boon to CDCs like MetroWest – which is actually Detroit Shoreway Councilwoman Jasmin Santana needs to be transparent in terms of the players involved. CCH is the Metrohealth CDC and they don’t have 990s filed yet – ditto Metrohealth – if you look at DSCDO that is another story – they are heavy w/staff making 100K+ Developer NRP is already signed on for the LITC housing proposed around Metrohealth. I gave incorrect info on the sale of Wong property across from MetroWest- Correction: on the Wong Family -they received 1.3 million (not 3+ million – I transposed). Please stay on top of this story – Greg Zucca announced a grocery store in “Clark-Fulton.” That would probably be somewhere on west side of W.25 – but old Aldis or even Brooklyn Centre plaza (half empty – loss of CVS) makes more sense – all around.

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