Cleveland Real Estate News

It seems like a natural fit and apparently others think so too. Homeless people and families are finding refuge in vacant/abandoned properties here in Cleveland. They are doing it in several ways, including just squatting, or moving in hoping not to be discovered. This article from Live Streak points out how this is happening around the Country, including here:

“Many homeless people see the foreclosure crisis as an opportunity to find low-cost housing (FREE!) with some privacy,” Brian Davis, director of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, said in the summary of the latest census of homeless sleeping outside in downtown Cleveland.

The census had dropped from 40 to 17 people. Davis, a board member of the National Coalition for the Homeless, cited factors including the availability of shelter in foreclosed homes, aggressive sidewalk and street cleaning and the relocation of a homeless feeding site. He said there are an average 4,000 homeless in Cleveland on any given night. There are an estimated 15,000 single-family homes vacant due to foreclosure in Cleveland and suburban Cuyahoga County.

Fox News’ website also reports on this issue, this time mentioning (but not explaining) how advocates for the homeless are helping people get into abandoned homes:

Elsewhere around the country, advocates in Cleveland are working with the city to allow homeless people to legally move into and repair empty, dilapidated houses. In Atlanta, some property owners pay homeless people to live in abandoned homes as a security measure.

Truth be told, abandoned properties are not a new thing, it’s just that we have more of them now. Cities like New York have tried to solve the problem for decades. This is an interesting site – Inner City Press – like one of the old underground, grassroots newspapers we used to see only now it’s on line. They list a bunch of really interesting books to read on the topic of encouraging homesteaders for properties abandoned and without any city tax monies coming in. They suggest a few of them as good examples for models in any city. Here is an excerpt:

Inner City Press began in the South Bronx in 1987, helping homeless and doubled-up families join together to fix up abandoned buildings and make the housing they needed.  The ICP Homesteaders’ Association soon grew to over 200 families, fixing two dozen buildings, in the Bronx and Harlem.  (For an account of the ICP Homesteaders’ early struggles, by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Barry Bearak, click here. 

Do you think any of these ideas are of value? I admit the homesteading model sounds appealing. Have you heard of any other programs here trying to do the same thing?  Let me know. Peace Out – 3C