Larchmere Homes: 30 new affordable lease-purchase homes near completion

When viewed from the sidewalk, the single-family home on Buckingham Ave. in Cleveland’s Buckeye-Shaker Square neighborhood looks comparable to other newly built homes springing up across the city, many of which are selling for more than $300,000. Yet this one is different. It’s part of a lease-purchase program that’s helping to bolster homeownership in the city of Cleveland. 

Even though one can imagine homebuyers or renters clamoring over the home’s well-designed exterior, open floor plan, and broad, open front porch that’s perfect for sitting, entertaining, or cooling off, this is no ordinary home. With its full basement, three bedrooms. and one-and-a-half baths, it may not look like the stereotypical notion of affordable housing – squat, bunker-like brick buildings that are separate from the surrounding community. That’s exactly the point of this home and other houses in the Larchmere Homes program. Residents here pay just $760 per month – an affordable amount – but they’re integrated into the community. 

The new home off of E. 121st St. just north of Shaker Blvd. is part of the nonprofit CHN Housing Partners’ lease-purchase program. Thanks to funding from Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) from the state of Ohio and other sources, the home rents to residents who earn less than 60% of the area median income (AMI) for Cuyahoga County (for one person that’s $37,980, two people $43,440, three people $48,840, four people $54,240 and five people $58,620). After living here and paying rent for 15 years, and also taking homeownership classes and getting financial counseling, these long-term residents will have the opportunity to purchase their homes at a discount. 

Building home equity

“We were thinking about how we could preserve the long-term opportunity for someone to become a homeowner and keep it affordable,” said Kevin Nowak, executive director of CHN Housing Partners, during a recent tour of the Buckingham home, one of 30 new homes being built as part of the organization’s Larchmere Homes program. “We want to plug in long-term affordable homeownership opportunities.”

The lease-purchase program is part of CHN Partners’ longstanding efforts to create more affordable housing and homeownership in Cleveland neighborhoods. Over the past 30 years, the nonprofit has built more than 2,400 lease-purchase homes in the city, the majority of which have been sold to owner-occupants. Larchmere Homes, which is now almost complete, is their newest project, with 13 homes north of Shaker Blvd. and 17 homes south of Shaker Blvd. (All residents have been selected for this project, and homes are nearing completion.)

While Nowak noted that CHN Partners “serves everyone,” he also said that more than 70% of the program’s residents are Black, and that part of CHN’s mission is to reduce the income and homeownership disparities between white and Black residents in the city. “There’s a real generation of homeowner equity out of this project,” he said of Larchmere Homes. 

While 15 years may sound like a long time, LIHTC, the main funding source, requires the property to remain affordable rental housing during that time. Through CHN, lease-purchase residents earn a $1,000-per-year credit that they can use towards the eventual purchase of their home. The average purchase price of a lease-purchase home is about $20,000, said Laura Boustani, the agency’s vice president of external affairs. This is because CHN is able to transfer the equity it builds up in the house over time to make the property more affordable for the resident. 

Designing for resident needs

The Larchmere Homes sites were selected based on availability and proximity to transit, said Jennifer Chandler, senior program manager for CHN Housing Partners. “We start with a list of 18,000 vacant parcels in the city and narrow them down,” she said. “We look for areas with available lots, but we also look at proximity to public transit and how walkable it is.” 

The Larchmere Homes lots were available through the city or county land bank and mostly located within a 10-minute walk of a GCRTA Rapid station (the Buckeye-Shaker Rapid station at E. 116th St. and Shaker Blvd.). 

Bill Jackson, CHN’s manager of construction, said the homes were designed with residents’ needs in mind. In addition to open floor plans, they feature universal design features such as wide hallways and doorways, easy-to-open cabinets, and multiple height kitchen counters. There are also two ADA-accessible houses within the 30-unit Larchmere Homes development, meaning the house is all on one level and is accessible to a person who is in a wheelchair. 

Jackson said the open floor plan concept started based on resident feedback CHN received on earlier projects. “It started out because residents said they wanted a see-through house,” he said. 

Easing into home ownership

Cequita Hagood-Powers moved into a three-bedroom home on Hamlen Ave. near Shaker Blvd. earlier this year. After years of trying to purchase a home and dealing with a succession of “slum landlords” – she moved in with her mother to find stable housing after her last landlord failed to provide her with heat in the winter – she finally got accepted into CHN’s program. 

“Ever since I moved from home at the age of 19, I’ve always rented,” she said. “At some point, I just got tired of that and wanted to own my own home. I tried on my own for years and they made it really hard. CHN didn’t make it hard to get into the program. All of your information had to be current, but otherwise it was much easier.” 

The only surprise so far, Hagood-Powers said, has been the upkeep of the yard, where grass seed was planted when CHN completed the home. “It didn’t come with any clear instructions,” she said with a laugh. However, she caught on quickly and has been watering it every day. Now that the grass is finally coming in, Hagood-Powers said, she recently cut it for the first time. 

CHN’s lease-purchase program, true to its hybrid name, is not a typical rental situation, either. During the term of the lease, residents are responsible for exterior maintenance while CHN is responsible for anything inside the house. Residents also receive homeownership and financial counseling aimed at helping to prepare them for the realities of eventually buying a house, including learning the skills of home maintenance and setting aside funds for repairs. 

“We call it our family success program,” said Nowak. “We’re helping to empower them to become homeowners through financial coaching and counseling.” 

Boustani said there were literally hundreds of applications for the homes. To Nowak, this speaks to the depths of the affordable housing problem in Ohio. Statewide, he said, there’s a shortage of about 400,000 affordable and workforce housing units. Right now, the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, the state agency that funds LIHTC, typically only funds one project a year, but Nowak and other affordable housing advocates are trying to convince the state legislature to change that. 

Danielle Hammann, vice president of investment relationships for Enterprise Community Partners, a national nonprofit that aims to increase housing affordability, racial equity, and upward mobility, said her agency invested in Larchmere Homes in part because they believed it would help Black residents in Cleveland. “The investment was very targeted to promote upward mobility of people of color,” she said, referencing the fact that the Buckeye-Shaker area is 87% minority residents. “CHN is providing services aimed at helping people become homeowners, and this is a very exciting opportunity for tenants to build equity and wealth in their homes.”

This article has been updated to reflect the fact that CHN Housing Partners has developed 2,400 lease-purchase homes, not 1,700 as originally reported.

Reach CHN Housing Partners on their website, call (216) 574-7100, or email help@chnhousingpartners.org. Learn more about the lease-purchase programs at CHN here.