Cleveland Council Highlights (12/6/2020)

Dec 06, 2021

Cleveland (Dec. 6, 2021) – City Council held its regular weekly meeting tonight. This is the final council meeting for the year. Council members will be sworn in Monday Jan. 3rd, 2022.

Here are tonight’s highlights:

*Authorized the city to enter into grant agreements totaling $3.5 million with the Hitchcock Center for Women to support the construction of a new residential treatment facility.

The Hitchcock center at 1227 Ansel Rd. provides treatment and recovery services for women with substance abuses. Since 1992, the center has been operating out of the former St. Mary’s Seminary built in 1924.

Currently, the treatment center serves 223 women and 23 children. The Hitchcock center has teamed up with the Fitch Group for the construction project. Finch is proposing a new building containing updated state-of-the-art facilities and recovery housing.

Other organizations have pledged millions in support of the project. The city’s grants would come from emergency funds from the federal government – the CARES Act and the American Recovery Plan Act. Ord. No. 1074-2021.

*Adopted an ordinance for the public improvement of the city’s sewer lines, including constructing and installing replacement sewers and repairing and rehabilitating existing sewers and sewer connections, relining sewers and constructing and repairing catch basins and manholes at various locations throughout the city.

Many of the city’s sewers are over a century old. The project cost is $4.5 million. Ord. No. 990-2021.

*Authorized the payment of $2 million to Northeast Ohio Neighborhood Health Service (NEON) to assist the agency with pandemic-related community health and social service programing. The funding would go for food distribution; educational programing on healthy eating; lead poisoning testing and safety measures; and mental health services. The funding would also go to Expungement Clinics, with at least eight large scale each year for over two years.

A portion of that award -- $200,000 – will go toward upgrades – outside of what the insurance covers - in repairing the extensive fire damage at NEON’s Hough neighborhood facility. The $2 million grant comes from the city’s American Rescue Act funding.

NEON, founded 54 years ago, has seven locations across the city. The Hough location serves 20,000 people a year. Ord. No. 1005-2021.

*Authorized the city to direct a $3 million forgivable loan to an affordable housing project on East 66th Street in the Hough neighborhood.

The project, known as Allen Estates, is a multi-phase development led by Frontline Development, a minority- and female-led development group. The project will create affordable housing in a neighborhood close to League Park.

The project would include six townhomes and mixed-use apartments over a retail building. The apartment building would include 72 units, of which 15 would be affordable and the remainder market-rate. Ord. No. 1124-2021.