The Famicos Foundation, a nonprofit community development corporation serving the Hough neighborhood and surrounding areas, is set to break ground early this year on the Henrietta Homes project, which will result in the construction of 40 lease-purchase homes in the League Park area.
The project, named after the organization’s founder, Sister Henrietta Goriss, is mainly concentrated between E. 65th and E. 71st streets and Wade Park and Lexington avenues. Construction is expected to be completed in 2024, according to Famicos’ website.
“Henrietta Homes is intended to show that anyone in Hough has an opportunity for a place to call home, whether you have income to build a customized home or just enough income to live in subsidized housing, such as Henrietta Homes,” said John Anoliefo, executive director of the Famicos Foundation.
Carolyn Dawson, operations manager for Famicos Foundation, said the project’s cost is estimated to be $14.4 million and KeyBank is financing the project, with additional funds from the city of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, and the Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA). Four of the homes will be single-level ranch style homes that are accessible to people with disabilities or senior citizens. The rest will be two-story homes, with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a detached garage.
Dawson says Henrietta Homes is a core part of the master plan for the Hough neighborhood. “All the neighborhood master plans speak about the importance of homeownership within the revitalization process,” explained Dawson. “There’s a difficult challenge in doing single-family scattered site homes, and we as Famicos Foundation, the CDC for Hough and Glenville and other areas, we need to meet that challenge. We need to set the market and demonstrate that it can be achieved and that it can be achieved for affordable housing for low income families.”
A mix of homeowners is ideal for the future of Hough
The Hough neighborhood has become a focus of the city of Cleveland’s redevelopment efforts in recent years. The Cleveland Foundation recently moved its headquarters to the neighborhood. E. 66th St. is now the focus of a plan to create an economic corridor between Superior and Euclid Ave., including a planned Midtown Collaboration Center at the corner of E. 66th St. and Euclid Ave.
“Our clustered scattered site project is right next to the 66th streetscape,” said Dawson. “That is a plan that’s coming down the pipe hopefully soon, where there’s going to be a main corridor of businesses and places where families can go to enjoy park spaces and things like that. So it’s going to be a wonderful location in an area that’s really starting to become more vibrant.”
Ward 7 council member Stephanie Howse-Jones, who represents Hough, said that the project was an exciting development for the area. “What we’re hoping is to attract more families, as well as create some housing stability for residents currently in our ward who are looking for opportunities to be homeowners,” she said. “And then with this influx of investment, others will follow.”
Under the lease-purchase model, residents approved for the homes will first rent the properties for a set compliance period. The monthly rent payments go towards the final price of the home, which the tenant has the option to purchase at a reduced price after the end of the compliance period, which is mostly 15 years as required by the OHFA. While they rent, residents receive homeownership and financial counseling from the Famicos homeownership resource center.
Both Dawson and Anoliefo said Henrietta Homes was meant to attract both low and middle-income residents to Hough. Dawson said 20 percent of the homes will be available to very low-income families using project-based vouchers from the Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA). The rest will be available to households earning 60 percent or below the area median income (AMI), or about $56,400, according to Fannie Mae.
Dawson said a mix of homeowners will create stability in the neighborhood. She explained that around the project, apartments and homes are being built that offer housing at a mix of price points. “All of those are a mixture that is necessary for a sustainable neighborhood,” she said. “You can’t just have all low income. You can’t have all market-rate. You have to have a good mix to sustain a neighborhood, and that’s what we’re trying to achieve, but our main focus is on affordability.”
Councilwoman Howse-Jones said that many Hough residents welcome the project, in part because it will reduce blight by building infill homes on vacant lots throughout the neighborhood. “We have many vacant lots, far more blight than we want,” she said. “And so it is a welcome addition to the community, at least from the comments that I heard thus far.”
While Dawson expressed excitement for the project, she said lease-purchase programs nationally did not show “good statistics” in terms of converting renters to homeowners. One reason, she believes, is that residents used to renting properties short-term might not be prepared for the financial responsibilities that come with a longer-term commitment. “A lot of things can happen with the income that a low income family makes every month,” she explained. “It could be a situation where they have lost their job, and they’re not able to have three and four months of rental income in order to pay their rent. So it’s a very fragile process.”
Famicos hopes to avoid this through providing financial and homeownership counseling to the residents they work with, and connecting families with emergency resources if they fall on hard times. “We have to be right there next to them if something bad happens to help them through that rough patch so that they can continue renting towards homeownership.” she said.
Increasing development comes with concerns about gentrification
With all of the development that is happening in Hough, residents are afraid of gentrification that will cause them to have to leave their homes due to rising costs. Dawson said she is aware of these concerns, but believes they are misplaced. “There are some concerns about the amount of potential market rate housing and apartments, throughout both Glenville and Hough, but they’re being enticed by, you know, investors calling, that wanna purchase their homes,” she said. “You know, if you own a home, you choose to stay in that home. You pay your property taxes if they’re manageable or you get assistance for property taxes, no one can push you out of your home.”
She acknowledged that rising property values could be a source of concern for residents. “The fear is that, while it’s a good thing that your property value increases, your expenses increase. Your property taxes increase. Residents might ask ‘Can I manage if I’m on a fixed income?’”
She said this was also true of older residents, who might not be able to do repairs or be able to afford to hire someone. “All of those are concerns that cause that fear that ‘Maybe I can’t live here anymore,’” she said.
Connecting residents to sources of aid within the city, such as home repair subsidy programs, can help residents stay in the neighborhood as property values rise, she said. She noted that many of these services were tailored specifically to senior and low-income residents. “A lot of them are senior focused or low-income focused to get the grant money that’s needed in order to make those repairs,” she said.
Anoliefo said that since the project accepts residents with federal vouchers such as Section 8 and Section 6 vouchers, they wouldn’t pose much of a gentrification threat. “I don’t really see Henrietta Holmes as threatening anybody to move out because it’s subsidized,” he said. “Anybody who has some level of income can move in it, and even people who have Section 6 and 8 can also apply to live there,” he explained.
Another reason for lower success rates with the lease-purchase program nationally, Dawson believes, is the long compliance period. She explained OHFA requires 15-year periods before homeowners are eligible to buy the lease-purchase homes, although she did note this could sometimes be shortened. “In some cases, OHFA will allow a shorter period of time, but not significantly. But the deal is 15 years. That’s a long wait. If you’ve experienced home ownership and you’re ready to buy again or you’re ready to do something else, you don’t wanna wait 15 years to own a home if you have the buying power now to purchase somewhere else.” She mentioned that in some cases, other low-income residents could be brought into the homes and still be offered the property at the 16th year.
Dawson further explained that in other cases, Famicos was able to acquire lease-purchase homes from other organizations and continue the compliance periods, with successful purchases at the end. However, she said the goal is for the families who are selected at year one to complete the program. “Our mindset is focused on the original tenant,” she said. “And if a new tenant comes in, that’s fine. We’ll be supportive as well, but the real true test is an original tenant, who was grounded in the neighborhood, stays for 15 years, and successfully purchases a home where they would not have normally been able to realize homeownership if it wasn’t for that program.”
For more information on Henrietta Homes, visit the Famicos Foundation website or call 216/791-6476.
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