"My concern for several years has been that there are inventories of assisted housing in Cleveland that people don't know about," said Peter Iskin, a lawyer for the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland.

The society is in the consortium, as are the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority, the city of Cleveland, the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, the Cleveland/Cuyahoga County Office of Homeless Services and other groups.

The site will be free to people seeking housing and to landlords listing properties. It will even list landlords who accept people out of prison, who are barred from many types of housing.

The Web site will be connected to the United Way Services of Greater Cleveland's First Call For Help/211 referral service and will be accessible via the Internet. Callers will be able to ask First Call For Help/211 to access the database and provide information, or they can do it themselves.

"We get thousands of calls for housing every year," said Stephen Wertheim, director of 211.

The county Department of Employment and Family Services has provided a $147,000 grant from Temporary Assistance to Needy Families that will pay for one year of the site's operation.

A nonprofit group that specializes in developing and maintaining affordable housing locator services will set up and run the site and answer calls to a toll-free telephone number as a backup to 211.

Socialserve.com provides this service in more than 500 communities, including St. Louis; Charlotte, N.C.; and Indianapolis, said founder and Chief Executive Van Gottel. It has statewide contracts in Arizona, Colorado, Indiana and New Jersey.

The Coalition for the Homeless' Bridging the Gap program, which links homeless people with housing, started the local effort while identifying sources of affordable housing, said manager Leighann Ahmad.