A Home for Every Neighbor program puts unsheltered Clevelanders into affordable, stable housing

Mario Thompson has walked in a world most people never see or want to see. It’s a series of makeshift outdoor encampments thrown together by unhoused people throughout Cleveland.

Shelter consists of tents, cars and abandoned buildings. Rats scurry through garbage and around needles on the ground. People live with open wounds because they don’t want to go to a doctor or hospital, fearing they would be judged for being homeless.

Thompson – lead case manager at West Side Catholic Center, which helps the poor and homeless – believes those encampments might soon disappear entirely, thanks to a new city of Cleveland program, in partnership with Cuyahoga County’s Office of Homeless Services.

It’s called A Home for Every Neighbor and it’s designed to take people quickly off the streets and directly into affordable housing. The speedy process is designed to take 30-60 days, instead of three-four months or even a year through traditional methods.

A Home for Every Neighbor is different also because it focuses on securing housing first, instead of making housing contingent on people finding a job, entering a drug-addiction program or seeking mental health services.  

“We’re building trust and rapport with the homeless,” Thompson said. “They have been let down by so many other people so often they don’t trust people. It takes a lot more to convince them that we are here to get them permanently housed and make sure they have the resources to do it.”

Tenants’ rents are 100-percent subsidized for one year as they learn to live independently. The program is funded with $4.7 million from the city’s general fund and the last of federal rental-assistance funds from the COVID-19 pandemic.

To make the program work, the city is partnering with several government agencies and nonprofits, including West Side Catholic Center. A Home for Every Neighbor has also recruited apartment management companies and landlords to provide housing, which is no easy trick given their past reluctance to take in homeless people.

The launching of A Home for Every Neighbor was announced one year ago but housing the homeless didn’t begin until July. The goal is to house 150 people in the first 18 months of the program. 

So far, it’s on pace to achieve or even surpass that goal, with 112 people now living in an apartment or house. About 70 percent of them were chronically homeless.

Chris Knestrick – executive director of Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, a key player in A Home for Every Neighbor – said the program acquires housing for clients instead of leaving that task to them. That’s another unique feature.

“When someone on the street is trying to survive, it’s hard to get on a bus or walk somewhere to find housing,” Knestrick said. “You have to fill out a rent application, have a security deposit and interview for the apartment. For people struggling to survive on the streets, that’s not possible.”

Tom Sutton, political science professor at Baldwin Wallace University, said A Home for Every Neighbor is a step in the right direction when it comes to addressing homelessness. However, the program is funded only for one year, and finding money to keep the effort going might be challenging. 

“Sources of funding just aren’t there, and given the administration now in Washington, D.C., and the state of Ohio historically, I don’t see a lot of funds coming from those sources for something like this,” Sutton said.

Robert Fischer, social science professor and director of the Center on Poverty & Community Development at Case Western Reserve University, added that convincing people who are homeless accept help typically has been difficult.

“We should celebrate what’s happened here,” Fischer said of A Home for Every Neighbor. “But will they stay in the housing within that one year and what happens after that? It wouldn’t be a win if a majority returned to the streets.”

Nevertheless, Fischer acknowledged that the program has been “wildly successful” so far.

“Driving around town over the past few months we have noticed encampments that are no longer there,” Fischer said.

Shifting sands 

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress, 771,480 people were homeless on one night in January throughout the country. That’s the highest number on record for a single night.

That number, which has increased by 18 percent from 2023, includes those in emergency shelters, safe havens and transitional housing. It also includes those living on the streets, which is the population A Home for Every Neighbor has targeted.

In Ohio, 11,759 people experienced some type of homelessness in 2024, an increase of 3.3 percent from 2023, according to the HUD report. Of that number, 20 percent were unsheltered.

The HUD report says the problem is driven by several factors, including lack of affordable housing, inflation, stagnating wages, natural disasters, a rising number of immigrants, systemic racism and the end of homeless prevention programs created during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Locally, the Cuyahoga County Strategic Action Plan for the Homeless 2023-2027 says that the number of homeless in the county, those living on the streets and in shelters, has remained relatively steady at about 1,500. 

The homeless population includes people grappling with  addiction and mental illness, but Sutton said there is a growing category of people who simply can’t afford housing.

“Somebody loses a job, or there is a split in the family, and as a result income drops,” Sutton said. “Meanwhile, rental rates have gone through the roof here in Cuyahoga County as they have in many parts of the country.”

Thompson helped a married couple who had no addiction or mental-health issues but lost their home because they couldn’t keep up with mortgage payments after a death in the family. They ended up in a tent on the street.

“They were taken advantage of because they didn’t belong there,” Thompson said, “The woman went to the hospital with a medical condition but they couldn’t discharge her because she had no place to go.

“It was a pleasurable moment when A Home for Every Neighbor found them housing,” Thompson said. “They went straight from the hospital into a unit.”

Homeless advocates have worked to overcome false perceptions – like the homeless are lazy and unwilling to work – so that programs like A Home for Every Neighbor can gain support from the public and, more importantly, landlords. 

“We are communicating that these are good people, and bad things happen to good people, and there but the grace of God go I,” said Deacon Lou Primozic, founder, president and CEO of I’m In Ministry!, another A Home for Every Neighbor partner.

Thompson said homeless encampments are communities like any other community. There are disputes, but people also watch out for each other. 

“Even after we house them, they still reach out to each other,” Thompson said.

Team-oriented 

In past years, the City has let the County government take the lead on the homeless issue, allocating federal money it received for that cause to the county programs.

Mayor Justin Bibb, who took office in 2022, decided that the city should take a more active and leading role. A Home for Every Neighbor brings together existing organizations that have always assisted homeless people under one umbrella to accelerate the process of housing people living on the street.

Those partners include FrontLine Service, Cleveland Mediation Center, Downtown Cleveland Inc., Safe Spaces Transitional Housing, Catholic Charities, The Salvation Army and YWCA. 

Also, the city hired Clutch Consulting Group in Houston for $364,000 to help design A Home for Every Neighbor. The firm has created similar programs in 15 cities, including Houston, where according to the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston and Harris County, more than 32,000 formerly homeless people have been housed in that area since 2012.

“We created a model that meshed what Clutch was doing in other cities – approaching people on the street, engaging landlords and doing it quickly,” said Liam Haggerty, housing and outreach program manager for A Home for Every Neighbor.

Led by Haggerty, the city and its partners formed teams to tackle specific tasks, like case management, legal aid, drug treatment and even obtaining furniture for newly housed clients. 

The operation begins with street outreach teams, with folks like Thompson, visiting homeless encampments, forming relationships with people there and learning what their individual needs are. 

Encampments have included those near the Abbey Avenue bridge, at East 20^th Street and Davenport Avenue, near Colgate Avenue, on Superior Avenue at East 17^th and 18^th streets and near West 73^rd Street and Clark Avenue.

Haggerty agrees with Thompson that gaining trust from the unhoused can be challenging but there are other reasons they might be reluctant to leave the street.

“Some have chosen not to go to shelters due to safety concerns, or not wanting to abandon their pets, or a couple not wanting to separate,” Haggerty said. “They might also have mental health problems.”

Fischer added that a subgroup draws identity from living on the street, and a strong sense of independence they feel because of that, so they can be hard to reach.  

Whatever the situation, outreach teams don’t force housing on people. They respect their choices. If they express interest, team members ask about their housing needs. Do they require pet-friendly, handicapped-accessible or family units? 

“This program has shown the ability, because they have a guaranteed way to get people off the street and are good at engaging people wherever they’re at, to convince folks to accept the offer of housing,” Fischer said. 

The case management team then helps clients choose and apply for the right home. Once their housing is established, clients work on obtaining their high-school- equivalency certificate, a job or disability support, whatever they need to stay housed.

“There’s really intensive support in the beginning, as folks transition from homelessness to being housed,” Haggerty said. “Especially for folks who have been outside and unhoused for a long time, it can sometimes be a traumatic and challenging transition.”

It’s the housing acquisition team that reaches out to landlords and explains A Home for Every Neighbor. One large property management company agreed to provide units and in turn educated their landlords about the program.

“Word is getting out and it’s getting easier to find units now,” Thompson said. “Landlords are learning that it’s not a risk to take people in. 

“Not everyone’s background is clean,” Thompson said. “They might have past evictions. But the landlords look past it and know that people deserve second chances.”

A furniture team contributes furniture, pots, pans, plates, towels, coffee makers and toasters. That team is led by Primozic and I’m in Ministry!, which long before A Home for Every Neighbor has repurposed thousands of pieces of furniture and clothing every year for those in need.

Working with A Home for Every Neighbor has profoundly impacted Primozic and his volunteers. Once he delivered furniture to a woman who had just moved from the street into an apartment.

“She woke up outside that day and now was in an apartment with light, heat and a bed. She said it was surreal for her,” Primozic said. 

When Primozic first met the woman, he extended his hand. She asked for a hug.

“When l left, I asked for a hug goodbye,” Primozic said. “She burst into tears. She said she had not been hugged or given a hug in years. I’ll remember that for the rest of my life.”