2010-2015 Consolidated Plan for CDBG funds

Submitted by lmcshane on Fri, 10/09/2009 - 16:27.
11/10/2009 - 18:00
11/10/2009 - 20:00
Etc/GMT-4

Mayor Frank G. Jackson is extending a special invitation to all Cleveland residents and community stakeholders to participate in one of the upcoming Citizens Participation 2010 community meetings focusing on next year’s spending of CDBG funds and the development of the City’s 2010-2015 Consolidated Plan.

CDBG Citizens participation meetings will take place on the following dates, times, and locations listed below:
Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 6-8 p.m.
Lutheran Hospital - Learning Center
West 28th Street and Franklin Avenue
(Free parking)
 *       *       *
 
Thursday, November 12th, 2009, 6-9 p.m.
Cleveland Foodbank – Community Room
15500 South Waterloo Road
(Free parking)
 
PLEASE NOTE:  A special Citizens Participation 2010 presentation will also be made to CDC representatives during the Thursday, November 19th CD/CDC Monthly Meeting, 10 a.m. to 12 Noon, Cleveland Convention Center , Room 212, 500 Lakeside Avenue .
 
Each city receiving funds from the U.S. (HUD) is required to convene a citizens’ participation meeting where the community is given an opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns on the use and expenditure of CDBG funds within their communities and neighborhoods.  In addition to addressing the yearly expenditures of the CDBG funds, the City is required to undertake a process to produce a document entitled the Consolidated Plan.comprehensive planningDepartment of Housing and Urban Development
The Consolidated Plan contains an assessment of the community’s housing and neighborhood development needs and description of the City’s strategies for addressing needs over the next five years.  Although the plan must look at a broad range of available resources, the focus is on activities that can be implemented using funds from the four HUD grants, which Cleveland receives on an annual basis:
·        Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)
·        HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME)
·        Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG)
·        Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA)
·         
If you have any questions please e-mail me or contact me at 664-4597.
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Consolidated Plan for CDBG funds

Submitted by lmcshane on Sun, 10/18/2009 - 15:33.

  Just a reminder to keep this date posted---
 

Oh my Laura, would you

Submitted by jerleen1 on Sun, 10/18/2009 - 16:46.

Oh my Laura, would you please keep poking us about this date.  I surely want to get my two cents in on this one. 

Demand Accountability

Submitted by lmcshane on Mon, 11/09/2009 - 05:28.

Please read:

http://www.cleveland.com/cityhall/index.ssf/2009/10/mayor_frank_jackson_seeks_citi.html

http://media.cleveland.com/cityhall_impact/other/City%20Council%20block%20grant%20allocations.pdf 

http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/about/budget/budget09/

What constitutes NDA allocations???  Your tax dollar!

See also:

http://www.vacantproperties.org/resources/documents/CityofClevelandCodeEnforcementPartnership.pdf

 
From February 08, 2009 article by Linda Chojnacki in the Real Estate section Plain Dealer ...beginning in April, the Land Bank will begin revitalizing our neighborhoods by addressing the foreclosure crisis.  Properties will be obtained, massive demolitions will begin, and land will be held for 15, 20 or even 30 years...
 
See also:

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/10/cuyahoga_county_government_ove.html

SEE especially--

http://www.city.cleveland.oh.us/clnd_images/mayor/initiatives/5yearCIP.pdf

There are many long overdue street repairs in this document and long overdue maintenance and upkeep issues addressed. There are investments in bike ways and the towpath and there is a notable dedication of $4 million in funds to build a "LEED" rec center in Collinwood, but no mention of major repair work at any west side rec centers--there is money for greenspace development at Zone rec center, however, for the record--the east side has double the number of rec centers found on the west side and all of the facilities are falling apart.  Estabrook especially needs a new roof.  Should the City of Cleveland be building a new rec center, when the existing centers are so poorly maintained?

Also, close to $15 million is dedicated to demolition in the 2009 and 2010, but no explanation of how to manage the demo debris and how it will be disposed, not to mention the considerable red flags raised by demolition contracting under the FBI-watched Building and Housing department. 

Overall--the Jackson five year plan provides some hopeful investment in the community, but don't sit back and settle for the same old.  Please READ and SPEAK out. Demand ACCOUNTABILITY.

I guess we will all have to

Submitted by ward14resident on Sun, 11/08/2009 - 15:49.

I guess we will all have to go in person when speaking as I think all our leaders are deaf. 

I suggest the city stop

Submitted by ward14resident on Sun, 11/08/2009 - 16:48.

I suggest the city stop spending money on studies and start doing the actual work that needs to be done.  Isn't there someone that is paid to keep track of what is needed?  Why spend money for so many studies while little work is actually getting done.  For example, the noise barrier studies.  How many dollars were spent studying the problem only for the suggestions to be trashed in the long term?  Some people are making lots of money doing studies, while the people that actually live in the areas that need the work do without.  Nice job if you can get it!

Ward 14 and 15 projects

Submitted by lmcshane on Tue, 11/10/2009 - 07:33.

Presented in the five-year plan...L-GO funding equals General Obligation bonds.  This was formulated before the ward merger...is this still how funding will be disbursed?

Ward: 14
Project_Name 2009 Org. To Benefit Funding Source 2010 2011 2012 2013 Total
Bike Trail-Scranton Rd City Planning L-GO $0 $0 $238,250 $0 $0 $238,250
Bike Trail-Train Ave Greenway City Planning L-GO $0 $0 $0 $530,600 $0 $530,600
Carter Rd (Columbus-Scranton) Public Service- L-GO $0 $0 $0 $0 $244,000 $244,000
Engineering &
Construction
Cemeteries-Monroe Parks, Recreation & L-GO $0 $91,500 $0 $0 $0 $91,500
Properties
Cemeteries-Scranton Parks, Recreation & L-GO $0 $53,500 $0 $0 $0 $53,500
Properties
Clark Avenue Public Service- L-GO $0 $0 $300,000 $690,000 $0 $990,000
Engineering &
Construction
Columbus Road (W 25-Center
Street)
Public Service- L-GO $0 $0 $115,000 $158,000 $0 $273,000
Engineering &
Construction
Columbus Road Lift Bridge Public Service- L-GO $0 $0 $3,270,000 $0 $0 $3,270,000
Engineering &
Construction
Fulton Road Rehab (Clark-Detroit) Public Service- L-GO $0 $0 $100,000 $180,000 $0 $280,000
Engineering &
Construction
Scranton Road Rehab (Clark to
Train)
Public Service- L-GO $0 $0 $0 $50,000 $90,000 $140,000
Engineering &
Construction
Streetscape-W 25/Clark City Planning L-GO $0 $0 $300,000 $0 $0 $300,000
Train Avenue Rehab Public Service- L-GO $0 $0 $0 $114,667 $168,333 $283,000
Engineering &
Construction
Summary for ‘Ward’ = 14 (12 projects)
Sum $0 $145,000 $4,323,250 $1,723,267 $502,333 $6,693,850
Ward: 14
Thursday, July 23, 2009
121
Ward: 15
Project_Name 2009 Org. To Benefit Funding Source 2010 2011 2012 2013 Total
Bike Trail-Big Creek Greenway City Planning L-GO $0 $100,000 $800,000 $0 $0 $900,000
Bradley Rd. (Jennings to Skyview) Public Service- L-GO $0 $0 $47,000 $461,000 $0 $508,000
Engineering &
Construction
Denison Avenue Resurfacing Public Service- L-GO $0 $266,667 $516,667 $0 $0 $783,333
Engineering &
Construction
Fulton Road Rehab (Clark-Detroit) Public Service- L-GO $0 $0 $100,000 $180,000 $0 $280,000
Engineering &
Construction
Towpath Capital Repairs Parks, Recreation & L-GO $0 $0 $600,000 $600,000 $600,000 $1,800,000 Properties Summary for ‘Ward’ = 15 (5 projects)
Sum $0 $366,667 $2,063,667 $1,241,000 $600,000 $4,271,333

Agreed Ward14 resident

Submitted by lmcshane on Tue, 11/10/2009 - 07:36.

An outrageous sum of money is dedicated to planning....

How to play the HUD funding game

Submitted by lmcshane on Sun, 02/28/2016 - 10:19.

 

Residents in Old Brooklyn-Brooklyn Centre must qualify for HUD Community Development Block Grant funds to help balance the development of high end real estate "hot spots" like Tremont and Detroit  Shoreway.  There is a need to balance the population -just enough -to qualify for the federal dollars, handed out based on the percentage of low-income residents.

Hence, what I like to call the HUD Funding game.  In Northeast Ohio, the quasi-governmental agencies that receive this HUD funding, "neighborhood" community development corporations, must draw their service boundaries to encompass what I will refer to as the "poverty factor."   The umbrella agency that provides "guidance" to Northeast Ohio CDCs is a merger of several non-profits - the CNDC (Colleen Gilson), the Living in Cleveland Center (Jeff Kipp) and Neighborhood Progress (Joel Ratner).

If anyone has read my blog posts here at REALNEO - you will know that I have an inherent distrust for the operations of CDCs, based on my personal experience living and working in the Tremont neighborhood in the the nineties.  I contend that the creation of the "land bank " --a concept which in Northeast Ohio was hatched by Gus Frangos and Jim Rokakis, while they were city council reps, respectively serving Downtown-Tremont-Ohio City and Old Brooklyn-Brooklyn Centre -- is the reason we see the never-ending cycle of demolition, arsons and depreciated real estate, especially on the near west side.  The flipping "magic" as I will call it - never quite caught on the east side in Slavic Village - where the duo (Rokakis-Frangos) made promises to their friends who invested there.  But, it did open up the wide, wide, wide world of "demos for developers" - guaranteeing a far more lucrative cash flow than "development fees"  (aka kickbacks) through council controlled CDCs.

Fast forward to December 2015 - a Ph.D. student from Canada called me to discuss my take on "land banks" - he also contacted "Thieving Communities" and the Scene magazine.   I posted the following comment to the article release - it did not pass the censors, so I am reproducing here:

 

I am grateful that the schemes in Northeast Ohio are being shared on a world stage. The complexities of housing and real estate speculation are impossible to understand without a full timeline of HUD funded community development corporations(CDC). Once intended to help provide affordable housing - these quasi-governmental agencies (the "Land Bank is Cuyahoga Land Reutilization Corp - a CDC) now skim development fees after transferring vacant properties to developers. I can provide a local example: Detroit Shoreway Development Corp picks up a property from the "land bank" *(20K lien tax cleansed) - sells it to a developer for $15,000 (pure profit) - that developer invests $60,000 and it is listed now on the market for $275,000. Do I hate this flipping and the developer? No. But how does this encourage affordable housing? It doesn't. The same CDC - has to justify it's existence in terms of low-income housing so in "partnership" with another non-profit - Cleveland Housing Network - in the same HUD service area - secretly negotiates transfer of a large commercial property to CHN for permanent supportive housing. Lots of potential for "fees" and contract steering to Marous Bros.***

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2016/02/03/the-practice-of-demolishing-abandoned-houses-in-cleveland-ohio-is-limited-in-its-capacity-to-address-underlying-causes-of-housing-injustice/

 

 ***

http://www.cleveland.com/countyincrisis/index.ssf/2010/09/the_cuyahoga_county_corruption.html