Legalize More Housing.

Our goal must be more housing for more people, better housing for everyone, and housing that you can afford—regardless of your income. And to facilitate increased and equitable housing production, we should legalize not just duplexes but triplexes, quadplexes, in-law suites, and alternative dwelling units.

A strong diversity of housing stock—not just large luxury apartment buildings, not just single-family homes—provides more options for more life stages and more income levels in our diverse community. This means serving real people: seniors aging in place, young adults looking for a first apartment that fits their budget, growing families that need another bedroom, workers who want to live near transit, and empty nesters aiming to downsize without leaving the neighborhood.

Design and form should continue to match our community character. But especially on the Near West Side, we can embrace infill development and provide the “missing middle” that reflects what already works in our neighborhoods.

Our Near West neighborhoods were once leaders in beautiful, family-friendly multi-unit housing. We can be again. 

Build Housing on City Land.

The City of Cleveland owns more than 18,000 parcels of land all across the city, including here on the Near West Side. We should put that public land to good use and build housing—while ensuring control stays in public hands.

There’s a number of ways to produce public-minded affordable housing on public land. One of the most powerful ways to do this is through long-term ground leases, in partnership with community land trusts like the Near West Land Trust. The public can retain ownership of the land while allowing the private construction of new housing—leased for up to 99 years. That housing can include deeply affordable rental units, permanently affordable homes for purchase, co-ops, or mixed-income developments that prioritize local residents.

Ultimately, the goal must be to ensures that our public land remains a tool to fight back against rising rents and exclusionary housing markets. It’s a strategy to build more housing—and keep it affordable—for this generation and the next.

PUSH UNDER-USED PROPERTY TO BACK TO USE.

On one hand, vacant land and abandoned buildings drag down our blocks. This is as true on the Near West Side as it is anywhere in Cleveland. And on the other, short-term rentals like Airbnbs force neighbors to take on more noise, trash, and chaos than they signed up for—while living next to a home that also sits vacant most of the year.

In both cases, much-needed housing is taken off the market and stops new neighbors from moving in. That’s a family that can’t make our neighborhood into their home, can’t put down roots, and can’t contribute to the life and prosperity of our community.

We need to support that push back against these forces. First, that means investing in city staff to perform necessary code enforcement work—and making sure those efforts are targeted where they’ll have the biggest impact. We should also require short-term rentals to be licensed and tracked, with serious limits on how many can operate in residential areas and prohibitions against operators with multiple offenses. And we should redouble our efforts on vacant properties—using tools like civil tickets, tax delinquency, and receivership to put those homes back into circulation for Cleveland families.

DEFEND FAIR HOUSING AND EMPOWER RENTERS.

Before I was a homeowner, I was a renter. I lived in apartments—some nice, some not. And we have to make sure we're investing in tenant protections for every member of our community. Especially when federal fair housing enforcement laws are under attack, we as Clevelanders have the responsibility to stand up.

• Cleveland is fortunate that we have a strong fair housing ordinance on the books. We can bolster it by ensuring that “immigration / citizenship status” and "source of income" are added to our list of local protected categories. This way, where you come from and whether you use a voucher can't be a basis for housing denial.

• Of course, rights like these have to be enforced to be effective. I fully support strong public sector institutions like the Fair Housing Office and the Department of Building & Housing, which can track and respond to complaints and proactively ensure compliance. If they need new tools, technology, or personnel to fulfill their essential mission, then it’s my priority, too. Ultimately, we must ensure we have a city that's welcome to all.

• Part of that commitment means supporting Cleveland's highly effective “right to counsel” program, which ensure that tenants who have at least one child and whose household income is at or below the federal poverty line have the right to free legal representation in eviction proceedings. By preventing evictions where alternatives exist, this program not only keeps residents in housing but cuts down on overall costs to our social service system. Expanding it is both the right thing to do and can provide additional system-wide savings.

• Finally, we can support tenants who want to become homeowners by requiring that they have the first opportunity to purchase the home they're renting when it goes on the market. And we can also extend that right to community nonprofits and land trusts, so they can step in and keep rental housing affordable for the long term. Innovations like this, used in other cities since the 1980s, can empower our long-term residents and ensure they can remain in our community instead of leaving it up to out-of-state property speculators and hedge funds.