How Cleveland tackles nuisance properties — and why Cuyahoga County could lose 400 homeless beds

This is the Public Meetings Report from Signal Cleveland, Cleveland Documentors, and WOVU 95.9 FM, a rundown of what happened in local government meetings right here in Greater Cleveland. I'm Lawrence Caswell. The Public Meetings Report is based on the work of Cleveland Documenters, residents like you who are trained and paid to document these meetings for the public. On Tuesday, July 14th, documenters Charles Hill, Evelyn Landis, and Monique Jay Jones sat in on a community safety meeting in Cleveland's second police district. At the meeting, they learned about the City of Cleveland's Problem Properties Roundtable. The Roundtable brings different city departments together to coordinate a multifaceted approach to resolving issues with nuisance properties around the city. This can include collaborations between code enforcement, public safety, utilities, and community relations departments. Second District Police Commander Tim Mofo Judd also explained to residents at the meeting how the city's nuisance property law works, as well as the process for holding property owners accountable. He also gave an example of how one homeowner solved their own nuisance property problem. What we found in the property owners are taken by the reins and go out, we don't want to get fined anymore, and they're taking that property and making it better. We've had one property and I won't call it by name, but there were vehicle meetups at a property. That person put sprinklers on their roof. Awesome idea, right? They thought outside the box and those people don't do that anymore there. They don't want to get rain now. Also, on Tuesday, July 14th, documentary Laura Falkenstein listened in as Cleveland's Urban Forestry Commission met to receive committee updates and hear new business. Urban Forestry Commissioner Laura Marks updated the group on their tree ambassador program and their inventory of dead trees in the Collinwood area. Marks said most of the trees had been, quote, buck rubbed, meaning deer are rubbing their antlers and scent on new and smaller trees knocking them out of their soil. Mark's proposed a motion at the meeting recommending the city begin managing the deer problem. White-tailed deer directly kill young trees, gardens, and landscaping, and the city of Cleveland has no checks on the deer population within the city limbents, and unchecked deer population grows by 30% per year. Urban Forestry Commissioners agreed to add their proposal to their fall meeting agenda. On Wednesday, July 15th, documentary Miriam Schumann sat in on a community safety meeting in Cleveland's 5th District. City officials there kept the meeting short due to high temperatures that day. The air conditioning at the Five Points Community Center on East 152nd Street, where the meeting was held, was not working. A member of the Cleveland Division of Fire spoke with residents at the meeting about recognizing the signs that a person is suffering from heat stroke or dehydration. He also addressed the drowning death of a child at East 55th Street Marina on July 11th, and advised residents that if they see someone drowning, to stay as close to the victim's location as possible, so emergency medical services will know where to go once they arrive. On Thursday, July 16th, documentary's Maria Shikaze and Maya Trimp sat in on a Cuyahoga County Office of Homeless Services Advisory Board meeting.

The board approved a 2026 project priority list to receive funding from the federal government's Department of Housing and Urban Development, known as HUD. The list is tailored to new HUD guidelines that prioritize transitional housing and service projects over permanent housing. Howard Birchman of the Homelessness Consulting Firm Housing Innovations said the new priority list could see the county lose up to 400 beds for the homeless. HUD has the expectation that folks are ready to have 20 hours a week of personalized services or activities that are part of their program. Obviously, that takes a higher level of staffing than what we achieve, that outcome. outcomes of having higher levels of services funding is unfortunately some loss of housing assistance. It's slightly, just slightly over 400 beds that if all of this is funded, those have the number of bed, fewer beds that we will have in the system as a result of this competition. This has been the weekly public meetings report from Signal Cleveland, Cleveland, Cleveland, and WOVU 95.9 FM. The documentaries whose work contributed to this episode are Charles Hill. Evelyn Landis, Monique Jay Jones, Miriam Schumann, Maria Chikaze, Maya Trimp, and Laura Falconstein. Documentor's work has been compiled this week, as always, by the Mighty Doug Brillpatorak. And the public meetings report is produced by Jennifer Harding-Cosnell. And for more Cleveland News and information, sign up for SignalCleveland.org slash subscribe. And you can subscribe to this podcast by searching for Signal Cleveland wherever you listen to podcasts. The Public Meeting Report is a production of Signal Cleveland and Cleveland Documentars in partnership with WOVU 95.9 FM. For Signal Cleveland and Cleveland Documentors, I'm Lawrence Caswell. I'll talk to you next time.