Laura,
First and foremost...welcome to Ward 14 & I look forward to working with you in our community towards viable solutions.
For now, I would like to empower you with some info as a member of Ward 14...(I apologize that the current inept Ward 14 leadership isn't too helpful...but prayerfully the future will be much brighter!)
Second...let's get some solutions in progress.
REGARDING YOUR HOUSING ISSUES:
Please bypass the councilman, then, bypass his first reference to the {CDBG funded} "OBCDC or the SRO-Stockyard Redevelopment Office" & their paid "CODE ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS (CEO)" who are duplicating the job of a CITY INSPECTOR...and go directly to these top places:
The direct email for City of Cleveland complaints is:
Complaints [at] City [dot] Cleveland [dot] Oh [dot] us.
The lady who processes these complaints is:Bernadette Holman.
She receives complaints and then forwards them as follow depending on the situation. She sent me the following info to share with our Ward 14 residents.
PLEASE SEND HER THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION WHICH IS REQUIRED FOR HER TO PROCESS A COMPLAINT AND GET YOU IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION:
COMPLAINNANT ADDRESS,NAME AND TELEPHONE NUMBER
WHAT TYPE OF STRUCTURE 1 FAMILY,2 OR 3, MULTI OR COMMERCIAL, INDUSTRICAL
OCCUPIED OR UNOCCUPIED,
ADDRESS OF THE COMPLAINT
WHAT THE COMPLAINT IS ABOUT
VACANT LOTS, DUMPING GOES PARKS & MAINTENANCE
HIGH GRASS AND WEEDS JUNK AND DEBRIS, GOES TO THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT AT 664-2300, OR CLEAN CLEVELAND AT 664-2008 C/O LEO FAISON, LEO ALSO DOES FIRE DAMAGED PROPERTIES
OV.V PROPERTIES, WHERE TO BE BOARDED, OR IF A REBOARD IS NEEDED FOR RE-ENTRY
ANYTHING THAT OCCUPIED AND THE TENANTS IS COMPLAINS COMES TO ME, EXAMPLES OF WHAT I TAKE IS , OVV, EXTERIOR, INTERIOR COMPLAINT, NO PERMITS, JUNK VEHICLES,JUNK AND DEBRIS, HIGH GRASS AND WEEDS ONLY IF OCCUPIED COMES TO ME.
IF NOT CLEAR ON WHATS OURS AND WHAT IS NOT, FEEL FREE TO CALL THE OTHER DEPARTMENTS TO ASK THEM WHAT THEY DO, OTHERWISE FORWARD INFORMATION NECESSARY TO GENERATE COMPLAINT WITHIN BUILDING & HOUSING, IF NOT OURS I WILL INFORM YOU TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE WHERE THE COMPLAINT SHOULD GO.
Bernadette Holman
Complaints [at] City [dot] Cleveland [dot] Oh [dot] us
The process is all bureacratic, a paperwork tracking nightmare, and created to defeat normal residents. It fuels the need for redundancy, duplication and wasteful spending of HUD dollars. Instead of that same money being used to help needy families conduct repairs etc.-it's being used to create an administrative/court nightmare for residents...see the lenghty process required to react to extreme cases...
Fed. CDBG Funds>City>Councilman>CDC>CEO >&(CITY INSPECTOR)> violation list>Citation>Criminal Housing Court(CEO SHOWS w/Inspector against owner)>Civil Housing Court (Receivership)-(CEO SHOWS w/Inspector against owner)>Judge gives house to TRUSTEE-usually the CDC>Repairs Completed through CDC Coordination>Liens established against owner to pay TRUSTEE/CDC/REHAB>house sold by CDC=$>Trustee/CDC/City. HMMM>>>>>>Quite the nightmare when you are already financially struggling...and BTW...when you call the CDC for help with grants or call the Councilman for help....you end up in a nightmare mess of collusion that seems like it is never ending... Wow...and all that just to clean up a property....which could take up to 3 years in some cases.....This process is quite unbelievable for those most difficult cases. All that wasted effort, money, time, etc...couldn't these actively engaged CDC's find better ways to help a cooperative owner to resolve the immediate problem without putting them through this nightmare? (Mind you-these are pretty much the cycles of EXTREME cases of non compliance by often times elderly, disabled, and low income residents/owners.)
Ultimately, (CANDIDATES) can we please find a better route to mitigate these cases? There are so many resources out here... collaborative, dedicated volunteers helping each other...working with these families who NEED intervention would be a direct investment that builds up our community...This kind of direct assistance from those HUD funded positions would be an EMPOWERING & ENRICHING INVESTMENT OF THOSE CDBG DOLLARS ALL THE SAME....
I do recommend that if you are going to start this process, to make submissions in writing, to track the progress, and to do all the work that a CEO would do to ensure that the execution of the job gets done through to finish...As it is ultimately a nightmare of paperwork for those actively working on reacting to lists of abandoned houses.
THE ABOVE EMAIL IS IN REFERENCE TO YOUR OTHER SUBMISSION ON PD:
"All good rhetoric, Brian, until you live for ten years with the house on my street that somehow never gets cited or demolished...despite a late night visit from ATF a few years back, a tree through the roof, boarded up and weed-ridden. Or, even better how about the drug trafficking CHN house on the block, with kids and a pit bull? Code enforcement and demolition in Cleveland has and will always be selective to benefit investment strategies, like the 2000 Denison demo for NRP.
Don't play altar boy, Brian. Like, Cimperman, you know the game all too well...."
Well, prayerfully the contact info above will empower you to get some immediate, direct, and promising resources towards intervention regarding the house issue.
Second, I recommend calling the NEW Sheriff at 216-443-6000 and asking for him to collaborate with 2nd District, the FBI WEED & SEED Program possibly and maybe we can get some help towards some intervention on those other issues... Particularly since these quality of life issues are completely ridiculous.
Third, CHN: Feel free to call/email them with your detailed info and pursue them about this nuisance stuff at that house... I don't think that their community investors would appreciate the negative publicity about what goes on through their programs...
CHN MAIN OFFICE: 216-574-7100 • Fax: 216-574-7130 • Kimberly Preston kpreston [at] chnnet [dot] com
2999 Payne Avenue • Suite 306 • Cleveland Ohio 44114
FOURTH: Call the Clark Metro Development Corporation at 216-741-9500. Speak with BRIAN about your housing issues. He is leading a group of youth to collaborate solutions for our residents as they collect data on abandoned properties, help families who need work done on their properties, and they are starting to process housing complaints. Perhaps he can help you to find some resolve with your immediate needs in collaboration with his resources.
Finally, do you have a block club?
If not, let's organize one and take back our streets and empower the residents to work together towards eradicating criminal activity on the streets by implementing the block club neighborhood watch activities...we did it on my street and within 3 months-the primary thugs were gone...Those thugs and criminals don't like proactive citizens and it's often easier for them to MOVE than to stick around for our wrath! Our block club's direct approach really made a world of difference in a short time! It also united us about things...and I am happy we did it...
Hope that these items will assist you in your quest! Thanks for caring so much!!!
P.S. I am posting all collectively b/c I am uncertain what you have tried/not tried to date in addressing these issues. Have a blessed day!