Twenty years ago Cleveland was deteriorating: unemployment and poverty seemed overwhelming, and there was little concerted effort to stem the tide. Today, the community development industry in Cleveland is one of the most effective in the country. But Cleveland still faces tremendous challenges: its unemployment rate is the second highest among the 100 largest U.S. cities, and the poverty rate is among the highest.
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Cleveland is on a path to improve the quality of life for current residents and entice new ones back into the city. Over the next three years, Enterprise Cleveland will help build or renovate 1,950 affordable homes. This includes 500 homes for formerly homeless with the services to help them battle their life challenges. Photo Janine Bentivenga |
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Enterprise has invested $225 million in Cleveland over the past 20 years to help:
- Build 5,500 affordable homes, including 2,300 through an innovative lease-purchase program that brings homeownership into the hands of low-income residents.
- Strengthen 30 community organizations that have produced 7,000 new affordable homes and rehabilitated another 8,000.
- Implement a commercial development strategy that has produced more than 350,000 square feet of commercial/retail space.
- Pioneer a well-integrated community development system with public, private and nonprofit organizations working together to produce 80 percent of new neighborhood housing and 600 new homes annually.
The American dream came true for Gloria Cowsette in February 2003 when she took ownership of the Collinwood home she had rented for 15 years. Earning minimum wage as a factory worker and raising a son and a daughter alone, she didn’t think homeownership was possible. Cowsette bought her home from the Cleveland Housing Network after completing the nonprofit organization’s lease-purchase program. Tenants are able to take title to their homes after 15 years of paying rent and meeting the responsibilities of homeownership. They are left with a small mortgage and homes valued at much more than what they paid for them.
Cowsette was one of 26 new homeowners to take title to homes developed with money raised from the sale of federal low-income housing tax credits. The program has become a national model by selling the tax credits to investors and using the sale proceeds to help renters become owners. Enterprise Cleveland has provided access to more than $133 million in tax credits to create more than 2,000 homeownership opportunities for people like Gloria Cowsette.
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Enterprise is a member of the Cuyahoga Earned Income Tax Credit Coalition. The members help low-income taxpayers receive quality tax preparation, wealth-building opportunities and other services in order to strengthen our neighborhoods’ economies.
Cleveland Profile (PDF, 470 KB, October 2007)
Enterprise Community Partners
3500 Lorain Ave., Suite 300
Cleveland, OH 44113
Phone 216.631.0280
Fax 216.631.0450
Email Bill
Bill Whitney
Local Office Director
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