CMHA Wins Grant, Buckeye-Woodhill Neighborhoods to be Reimagined

May 26, 2021

The Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority and the city was awarded a coveted $35 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, securing the needed resources for a rebirth of the Buckeye-Woodhill neighborhoods.
 
CMHA was a finalist last year for the “Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant.” Securing the award completes the funding needed to rebuild, really reimagine a long-neglected area of Cleveland that is already seeing new investments, parks, art and more in the neighborhood.
 
“This Choice grant is a game changer that will help reshape the narrative of the Buckeye-Shaker and Woodland Hills story,” said Councilman Blaine Griffin. “It is great to see our community get the investment we need and deserve.
 
“As a long-time homeowner in this area who has raised three children along with my wife and served and mentored many more children and families from this community, I cannot think of a more deserving group of people. This is personal to me. And I join with the residents as we experience this great moment.”

The 487-unit Woodhill Homes is one of the earliest public housing developments in the nation and second oldest in Cleveland, opening in 1940. Cleveland officials embraced building public housing as affordable places for struggling families to live and replaced unsafe tenements many moved into during the city’s growing population boon. Unfortunately, after decades of integrated public housing, federal policies enabled mostly white families to get mortgages and move out. Federal policy also did not include the necessary funding to keep up the aging public housing.
 
The housing complex is off Woodland Avenue, with University Circle and Shaker Square less than two miles away. The HUD award allows for the demolition and construction of new housing that will include some public housing units that will be mixed with the other low-income and market-rate apartments and townhomes that will not be overseen by CMHA. The intention is to do this in two phases and to break ground later this year.
 
The entire Buckeye-Woodhill community being reimagined is and area surrounded by East 93rd Street, Buckeye Road, Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, East 116th Street and railroad tracks and has nearly 6,700 residents.
 
Two nearby sites have financing and are planned for adjacent construction. Woodhill Station West is slated to have 120 units on the site of the former Buckeye Woodland Elementary School. Woodhill Center East will have 77 units, a mix of apartments and townhomes on Woodland Avenue.
 
The aim is to mix new low-income and market rate apartments, townhomes and homes and adding new streets to connect the neighborhood. New senior housing is planned as well as new parks and common areas, as well as rehabilitating homes. CMHA has many partners, including the city, The Community Builders (TCB), City Architecture, Case Western Reserve University, Burten, Bell, Carr Development and the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity is also involved. More than 60 organizations took part in hundreds of neighborhood meetings.
 
The new neighborhood will be a mix of low and market-rate units that to observers will be impossible to differentiate. The newly rebuilt rapid station nearby is an asset to all current and new residents in the neighborhood. Opportunity Corridor, slated for completion next year, is also close by.
 
“This is personal to me,” said Councilman Griffin. “And I join with the residents as we experience this great moment, and thank them for their continued engagement, meeting and more to get this award. This is your victory.”
 
Councilman Griffin also thanked President Biden, Vice-President Harris, Secretary of HUD Marcia Fudge. “CMHA and TCB never gave up in securing this award,” he added.