Shaker continues home improvement programs, considers proactive apartment measures

SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio — Council voted last week to continue city collaborations with the Home Repair Resource Center (HRRC) and the Cleveland Restoration Society (CRS) for various grant programs.
City officials also planned further talks on more proactive monitoring of apartment buildings after council received letters from the Shaker Square Alliance and a tenant with ongoing heating issues.
The latest contract with CRS only amounts to just over $27,000 for providing technical assistance in obtaining low-interest loans through its Heritage Home Program.
But that adds up to considerable bang for the buck, City Economic Development Director Laura Englehart pointed out in a memo for council’s Jan. 27 meeting.
As the largest non-governmental regional historic preservation organization in Ohio, CRS has provided more than $12.5 million in home repair and restoration loans to 217 Shaker Heights households since 2008.
The Heritage Home Program targets houses built more than 50 years ago, more than 7,800 of those in Shaker that would be eligible for low-interest home restoration loans this year.
Code compliance
Of the $200,000 allotted to HRRC in this year’s 18-month contract, $150,000 will be reserved as grant funds available to Shaker Heights residents for brick-and-mortar repairs.
Contracting with HRRC since 2021 for all of the city’s own home repair programs, Englehart noted that Shaker has seen higher demand in recent years.
The city used to average 25 households and about $42,000 a year for violation-based repairs from 2012-2022.
In 2023, home repair grant spending exceeded $79,000 serving 52 households, prompting council to authorize $111,000 for brick-and-mortar improvements at the start of last year.
Then with 47 projects completed or underway and $109,000 expended by July, council kicked in another $60,500 for more HRRC-administered programs to finish out the year.
“While final data is still being compiled for 2024, we expect to fully expend the $166,000 available in the 2024 grant cycle,” Englehart said, adding there will be a “large pipeline of projects continuing into 2025.”
This came in response to a question from Sean Malone about the “exponential growth” of the programs, with demand doubling not once but twice in recent years.
Englehart said that council always has the option of adding more home improvement funds later in the year.
Providing an earlier comparison between the two programs, Englehart said the average Heritage Home loan size from CRS over the past ten years is close to $64,000 and steadily increasing.
Meanwhile, the maximum city-funded home repair grants of $3,500 are largely intended to help lower- and middle-income residents correct cited building code violations — with considerable help coming from the HRRC.
Shaker Square Alliance
Council also received a letter written by Greg Bonanno on behalf of the Shaker Square Alliance taking note of “several incidents” primarily involving heat — or lack of it — in local apartment buildings.
“It appears that the city’s only means of becoming aware of issues within a rental-unit property are through point-of-sale inspections and tenant complaints logged with Building and Housing,” Bonanno stated.
Both methods can be considered reactive and unreliable, requiring either the sale of the property or tenants risking retaliation from landlords.
Boilers can evade thorough city inspections during points-of-sale, which has led to the city serving tenants with orders to vacate buildings when the heat goes out.
The Shaker Square Alliance goes on to make several proactive recommendations that include:
— Making the annual certificate of occupancy contingent on an inspection of major building components: roofs, heating and cooling, electrical, lighting, water, gas
— Requiring landlords to demonstrate “proof-preventive” maintenance activities, based on a schedule set by the city
— Increased inspections to individual units at random
— Funds or loans made available from the city to landlords for capital improvements.
— Cooperation between first responders and Building and Housing, “if not already being done”
On the last item, Bonanno said that first responders may observe things about buildings or individual units “that might cause concern about livability.”
Council also heard from Rose Gold Carter, a resident of Shaker Lakes Apartments, three combined buildings with six different addresses on Kemper Road, Larchmere and Moreland boulevards.
She said her apartment lost heat on Jan. 6, along with electricity in her kitchen, and conditions were not safe to return home for 10 days after that.
Relatively new ownership told the city that any issues in the apartment complex remained isolated, with new equipment already installed.
In the meantime, Carter added the landlord and management were not proactive in addressing those issues.
She said they further denied her request for reasonable accommodations, forcing her to stay with friends.
Carter believes landlords must be held more accountable, whether emergencies occur in single units or entire buildings.
Councilwoman Nancy Moore commented how impressive the response of the Building and Housing Department has been to complaints from residents about any number of issues.
“The issue here is not that we don’t provide immediate and forceful response,” Moore said.
“The issue is what we as a city do to proactively help residents in aging apartments, where systems are deteriorating to the point during the coldest weather and tenants literally cannot stay in their apartments.”
Moore has requested an internal discussion by the departmental management team to bring back some proactive alternatives to council.
David Weiss took issue with some of the factual points in the letters.
But Weiss confirmed that he and Building and Housing Director Kyle Krewson recently spoke about ways for the city to “get out ahead of these problems.”
This may include contracting with an independent maintenance firm for when something does happen.
Agreeing with Moore, Councilwoman Kim Bixenstine felt the Shaker Square Alliance made some “thoughtful recommendations.”
Bixenstine looked forward to hearing from the administration on whether they would be feasible, in terms of costs and additional resources — including personnel.
Natural gas rates
In a special meeting held Jan. 21, council voted to extend the city’s natural gas aggregation program with Interstate Gas Supply (IGS), which expires at the end of March.
But the contract will only cover six months, as opposed to the current two years, with the cost decreasing from April through September to $4.21 per “1,000 cubic feet (MCF).”
This is down 35 cents from the IGS existing rate of $4.56 per MCF, with customers receiving “opt-out” letters this month.
Further explanation will be offered on the city’s website, including the rationale for switching to six months for the roughly 6,500 residential and small commercial customers.
In a nutshell, “given current market conditions, the city believes it’s in the best interests of program participants to offer a shorter, six-month term,” local officials said.
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