Emerald Commons to offer the homeless housing and support services

Sunday, December 18, 2005

Angela D. Chatman
Plain Dealer Reporter


The Housing First Initiative, which seeks to boost the amount of permanent supportive housing in Cuyahoga County, has launched its first project after three years' efforts.
The coalition of advocates, service providers and city and county officials has identified a need for more of this subsidized housing coupled with support services for the chronically homeless.
Its target population includes people with problems ranging from mental illness to alcoholism who can live independently with a little help.
The $8.65 million Emerald Commons on Madison Avenue at West 79th Street in the Detroit-Shoreway area on Cleveland's West Side is the first new construction of the 1,000 units the initiative hopes to create in coming years.
Work began this fall on the apartment building, which will have 52 efficiency units.
"It's a home. It's an apartment. It's not a shelter. It's not an institution," said Kate Monter Durban, assistant director of the Cleveland Housing Network Inc., a project developer.
Emerald Commons and two other projects will create the type of atmosphere that Marilyn Penn said got her back on track.
Penn, 49, is a recovering alcoholic who suffers from bipolar disorder and has anxiety attacks. Mental Health Services gives her counseling at the Kingsway Manor Apartments, where she lives.
Penn jangles her keys with pride. One opens the exterior door of the apartment building in the Tremont neighborhood. One opens her mailbox. And one opens the door to her federally subsidized one-bedroom apartment.
"As long as I'm paying my rent and taking my medication, this is my key to my door. And this is important to me," Penn said, singling out her apartment key.
Penn, who works full time, hopes to buy a home and reunite with her family, including the daughter she hit in the head with a hammer during a drunken jag.
Charles Byrd, Kingsway's program manager, said the agency provides counseling, medication monitoring and day-to-day help for the 50 residents.
"People here basically have the opportunity to live a normal life, independently," he said.
Emerald Commons will have similar services, provided by Recovery Resources, the AIDS Task Force of Greater Cleveland and Mental Health Services. The Emerald Development and Economic Network Inc., known as EDEN, is the other developer.
Residents will get federal rent vouchers. Federal money and other resources will pay for the services.
Cleveland City Councilwoman Sabra Pierce Scott backs a second project, Emerald Alliance, in Glenville because she said it would serve a segment of the neighborhood's population. EDEN, the housing network and the Glenville Development Corp. are the developers.
The Famicos Foundation plans a third project: a comprehensive renovation of its single-room-occupancy building at 1850 Superior Ave. to provide on-site services and security for 44 residents.
The concept is relatively new to Cleveland, but early projects nationwide date from the late 1980s and early 1990s, said Sally Luken, who heads the Corporation for Supportive Housing Inc.'s Ohio office in Columbus.
The Ohio Department of Mental Health spearheaded developments in the late 1980s. The Ohio Housing Finance Agency, which provides financing and tax credits for housing, invested $1.5 million in these projects in 2004 and set aside $1 million for them in 2005, said spokesman Mike Hogan.
Luken said federal money has financed nearly 11,000 units in Ohio, including the 100 units at the Commons at Grant in Columbus' trendy German Village neighborhood.
In Cleveland, a consultant is re-evaluating Housing First's goal of 1,000 units in five years. But the group now has the momentum to push more projects.
"The people are already here, so why not embrace them and build the safety net beneath them?" said City Councilman Matt Zone, who was recognized nationally for building support for Emerald Commons in his ward.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
achatman@plaind.com, 216-999-4115

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