CLEVELAND — On Friday, under a tent in Cleveland's Jefferson neighborhood, a large group of local and state officials vowed to make a change in the city's middle neighborhoods.
"We need massive intervention from government, from philanthropy, from community development partners, and ultimately from the private sector to return these neighborhoods to the healthy state that they were in before," Cleveland Neighborhood Progress CEO Tania Menesse said.
The initiative has been in the works for a year thanks to Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, with the group securing nearly $11 million in funding to rehabilitate 100 homes in the Collinwood, Lee-Harvard, Old Brooklyn, and West Park communities.
"We are renovating these homes by adding bathrooms, updating kitchens, and adding additional square footage," Menesse explained, "because the fact is we need to be able to compete for home buyers."
"I'm excited about this great work, excited about the great progress, and I couldn't think of a better partner than CNP to shepherd this critical partnership and effort for the city of Cleveland," Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb said.
The project is backed by a number of organizations, including the Cavaliers.
"We know that the heart of the community, the urban community, is actually how our city's going to thrive, and we want to continue to invest, reinvest in the community," Kevin Clayton, vice president and chief impact and equity officer for the Cavs and Rocket Mortgage Entertainment, told 3News.
Friday's launch was a celebration of a fresh start on West 127th Street, and the first home purchased for rehabilitation.
"We're doing this because we're competing with the out-of-state LLCs that are buying up single-family homes in Cleveland and turning them into rental units," Edward Stockhausen, sennior vice president of advocacy and external relations at CNP, said. "We're going to make sure that there are homeowners who live in the neighborhood and buy these homes."