Cleveland Mayoral Candidates Town Hall Forum:

Answers on Housing and Homelessness

September 2001

These are the questions that each of the candidates were asked to answer. All of the ten candidates on the ballot were sent a questionnaire. Below are Mayor Jane Campbell's responses.

1. Affordable Housing. The results of the 2000 U.S. Census indicate that over 51% of occupants in Cleveland are renters. Other studies show that over half of Cleveland renters pay over 30% of their income on rent, with a quarter paying over 50% of their income on rent. Additionally, approximately 33,000 families in July applied to get on a waiting list for the CMHA run tenant based Section 8 program. The need for more affordable housing is obvious for both tenants and homeless people. If you are elected mayor, what will you do to alleviate the affordable housing shortage? Related to that, do you support a universal living wage tied to the cost of housing in a community?

J.C. Response: Affordable housing: As Mayor, I will work with our neighborhood organizations to identify the affordable housing issues facing each neighborhood and develop a neighborhood housing strategy that addresses each community’s need for new housing, both affordable and market rate. I will work with private and non profit developers and CMHA to develop mixed income housing projects such as the proposed Hope VI Riverview redevelopment, which integrate incomes in new development. I will to set aside City funds to match federal funds available for the development of affordable housing and will aggressively seek those funds for Cleveland. I will focus the community’s attention on our declining multi-family housing stock and work with our neighborhood organizations and our development community to identify and implement strategies to preserve, restore, and manage affordable multi-family housing.

I support the City’s living wage legislation, which provides for a cost of living increase tied to the Consumer Price Index.

 

2. Homeless plan. How would you as the Mayor of Cleveland bring homeless people, grantmakers, government entities, business and social service providers together to develop a plan to end homelessness and expand the affordable housing available in Cleveland? Since homeless people come from all over the region how would you involve the suburban communities in a plan to end homelessness?

J.C. Response: As I indicated in the first question, I would begin by working with our neighborhood organizations to develop community housing plans which identify the housing needs and opportunities in each neighborhood. I will expect these plans to address the housing needs of the current homeless population and strategies to preserve existing affordable housing and expand affordable housing options. I will expect these plans to comprehensively address social services, drug and alcohol treatment, mental health services, and job training for homeless persons, whether or not they are in shelters.

Issues of affordable housing and homelessness impact the suburbs as well as the city. I would work with our County Planning Commission to identify affordable housing needs, opportunities, and strategies county wide and with our County Commissioners to develop the resources necessary to meet this challenge both in the City and in the suburbs.

3. Temporary labor. What would your administration do to end the exploitation and low income people by the downtown temporary labor companies?

J.C. Response: I would support efforts to organize the workers in those companies and would consider regulations that the city can enact to ensure fairer treatment of these workers. I would also work to make sure that every Clevelander has basic primary health care coverage.

4. Intra-Governmental affairs. Welfare reform and the de-institutionalization of people with a mental illness have traditionally been under the direction of the County or State of Ohio, but the impact of the decisions made by these other government officials have had extremely negative consequences for the City of Cleveland. Would you involve yourself as Mayor in the affairs of other governments if the decisions have a major impact on Cleveland?

J.C. Response: Of course I would. I believe that a Mayor must assertively advocate the interests of the people of Cleveland to the other governments whose actions impact the City—the county, the state, and the federal government. I have always advocated the interests of the people I have represented and would continue to do so as Mayor of Cleveland. As former State Representative and a County Commissioner, I believe that I am uniquely qualified to undertake the mission of working with these other levels of government on behalf of Clevelanders.

5. Development. Over the past decade, Cleveland has undergone immense revitalization of the downtown area to attract and benefit middle and upper income residents and suburbanites. Cleveland’s professional sports teams have received three new complexes through extensive benefits and incentives offered by the City. Would you consider requiring that all development projects on city owned sites or developments requiring government assistance pay into an affordable housing fund to help maintain and/or develop affordable housing? How would you more effectively and certainly use the housing resources already available, and also leverage private funds to maximize production under your housing policy?

J.C. Response: Creation of an affordable housing fund linked to downtown development is one way some cities have chosen to address the need for affordable housing. Given the current state of downtown development in Cleveland, a linkage program will not work. A more successful strategy, I believe, will be to support mixed income housing developments, to require that all multi-family hosing developments—new and rehab—include affordable units, and to work with our neighborhood organizations and non-profit developers to preserve existing affordable housing and to create new affordable single family housing units that are knit into the fabric of our communities.

As Mayor I would create a Neighborhood Endowment for the 21st Century dedicated to investments in housing, technology, neighborhood retail, industrial development, historic restoration, and cultural projects. This fund would be capitalized by the proceeds of Chagrin Highlands development, repayments from outstanding economic development loans, and an annual contribution from CDBG matched by resources from the private and foundation communities. I would leverage this fund to compete for federal and state development money available to support housing development, site remediation, and infrastructure.

6. Vacant Structures. The 2000 Census also indicates the number of vacant housing units in the city is approximately 11%. What plans does your campaign have to reutilize these structures for the public good, or encourage private owners to appropriately use the structures?

J.C. Response: My administration will work with our neighborhood development corporations and non-profit developers to identify vacant units that can be restored to productive use. We will move aggressively to demolish unsalvageable residential sites and redevelop those sites for new, mixed income housing.

7. Housing Inspection Services: A) Cleveland has many aging elevator systems in high rise apartments. Elderly residents especially are fearful of the constant malfunctioning elevators. What will you do to ensure that owners maintain, renovate or replace aging elevator systems? B). Lead based paint is a significant problem in Cleveland. City housing inspectors frequently cite landlords and owners for peeling and chipping paint. There is no coordination however, with the city inspection services that work on lead paint reduction. What will your administration do to better coordinate inspection services relating to maintenance and environmental health issues? C) The city condemnation code is very broadly written, allowing great subjectivity in deciding when to notify tenants of the condemnation, leaving many tenants living in condemned apartments without their knowing about it. Will you make any changes to the condemnation and tenant notification policies if you become mayor?

J.C. Response: My administration will fully staff inspectional services, including elevator inspectors, and will prosecute aggressively those owners who do not maintain their elevator systems properly.

Eliminating the scourge of pediatric lead poisoning will be a top priority of my administration. I will task my Director of Health to lead an interdepartmental team dedicated to eliminating lead paint on a systematic, worst/first basis. We will reorganize the delivery of services to our neighborhoods to ensure that the inspectors from Health and Building and Housing work more closely together and we will use the power of the City’s GIS system to more accurately track progress in eliminating lead from our environment.

It is essential that the City establish and maintain a consistent policy of notification to tenants in condemned properties. As Mayor, I will review the City’s public notification processes to insure that these important processes are implemented fairly and uniformly.

 

8. Tenant Rights. Cleveland has just passed an ordinance that supplements the Ohio Landlord/Tenant law to provide more protections and remedies for tenants. How will you assure residents that their rights under the new law will be protected and enforced, especially in relation to security?

J. C. Response: As the City’s chief administrative officer, the Mayor takes an oath to enforce the City of Cleveland fairly and impartially. If I have the privilege of being elected Mayor, I intend to adhere to the letter and the spirit of my oath and will enforce this, and all other ordinances to the best of my ability.