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Thursday, July 06, 2006
Angela D. Chatman
Plain Dealer Reporter
Yvonne Ball remembers the early mornings when she would go down the back stairs of her apartment building on the way to work and find someone sleeping in the stairwell. She'd turn around and go another way.
Poor security and drug activity were major concerns at Erie Square, a two-building complex on Euclid Avenue in Cleveland's Fairfax neighborhood.
"If anything was to happen to someone before, people wouldn't find anything out about it until somebody walked by to see it," Ball said. Now she feels secure with the guard and monitors and cameras throughout the property.
Two years ago, the Cleveland Housing Network Inc. launched its first large multifamily project with the purchase of Erie Square, said Kate Monter, the network's deputy director. One goal was to maintain rental housing for low-income people.
In the past, the network made its name working with community development corporations to build and renovate single family homes for low- and moderate-income people.
"Anytime there's more housing in the neighborhood . . . it's a great thing," said Denise VanLeer, community development director for the Fairfax Renaissance Development Corp.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development subsidizes the apartment rents. Residents pay no more than 30 percent of their income toward rent.
The network bought and renovated the building for $7.5 million. It made security and zero tolerance of drug activity hallmarks of its management.
Residents feel safer, even though some residents and a community activist said the drugs have not completely gone away.
The network added a resident services coordinator to assist tenants. And, a computer-filled learning center provides children with concentrated instruction in math, science and English.
HUD long had Erie Square on its troubled property list, and officials thought the buildings needed new ownership and management.
City Councilwoman Pat Britt, in whose ward Erie Square is located, recalled that five years ago, residents were "actively looking for some sort of reprieve" from their management. They liked where they lived, a block away from the Shops at Church Square. But broken-down elevators and poor cooperation from the management were among many tough issues.
Bill Rose, a 12-year resident, remembered when the four-story buildings went without elevators for three years. He now lives in one of the units for people with disabilities. He has had both legs amputated below the knee and uses a wheelchair.
The network spruced up the 80-year-old buildings, redoing kitchens and bathrooms; putting in new lighting fixtures, cabinets, carpeting, appliances and smoke detectors, and repainting each of the 89 apartments.
The network turned three-bedroom apartments into two-bedroom units with dens, reducing density. It added high-speed Internet access to each unit.
The buildings got a new roof, windows, a boiler, extra parking and a lobby with a mural by Sanko Fine Arts Plus, a nonprofit collaborative.
"They brightened it up," Rose said.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
achatman@plaind.com, 216-999-4115
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