For More Information: Steve Wertheim, 211/First Call for Help, 216/436-2225
Brian Davis, NEOCH, at 216/432-0540
CLEVELAND, OHIO
For Immediate Release: December 15, 2008
HousingCleveland.org celebrates three years of service to Cuyahoga County and Cleveland. Over 1.4 million searches have been conducted on this site to date. 4,654 landlords have used this site in 2008.
In 2004, housing advocates and housing and social service providers came together with the common need for a web-based system to list the available affordable housing in Cuyahoga County. HousingCleveland.org was created in August 2005 and has assisted tens of thousands of individuals, free of charge, in finding local housing.
Since the site’s inception in August 2005, over 1.4 million searches have been conducted and over 22,000 units of housing have been listed on the website. Every day, almost 1,500 searches are conducted at the site. Users of the website can now search for housing in 50 different cities in Cuyahoga County. The site has expanded to Medina County and is looking at other opportunities in Northeast Ohio. In the last two months as the economy has soured, the number of available listings on the site has grown by 12% as more and more landlords are struggling to find tenants who have the ability to pay the rent. Libraries, shelters, and housing assistance centers direct clients to HousingCleveland.org as the first source of information on available affordable housing in Cleveland.
HousingCleveland.org is a partnership effort of the thirteen diverse nonprofit and government organizations listed in the attached fact sheet. An advisory committee with representatives from these organizations is responsible for its oversight. They meet throughout the year to manage the website and foster its continued development. Project management is provided by Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH) and United Way of Greater Cleveland’s 211/First Call For Help. The site uses software created by Socialserve.com, a nonprofit corporation that partners with state and local agencies across the country to provide listing and locating services for affordable housing. Socialserve.com is responsible for maintaining the information on the rental properties that are listed on the site.
United Way’s First Call for Help provides a link to housing searches. People in need in Cuyahoga County can dial 2-1-1 for assistance. Socialserve.com maintains a toll-free, bilingual call center to which landlords can call to list their property (1-877-428-8844 or TTD/TTY 7-1-1) and (2) contacts the landlords of the listed properties every few weeks to make sure that the unit is still available. What separates this website from others in the community is what one landlord from Euclid, Ohio, said: "I like your service. I wish I had more homes to help the good people. I received tons of calls. I spoke to so many nice people. I am not worried -- with your service out there, I know I can always find a quality renter. Talk to you again when I have available properties." The call center also serves tenants seeking housing.
As of December 2008:
• 2,679 available units are listed on the site
• Representatives of more than 8,700 rental properties have entered their units on the website this year
• 4,654 landlords are using the site
• Searches conducted at the site have increased 12% over 2007
• Housing units in 43 different cities across Cuyahoga County have been listed this year
Since the Website was Created:
• Over 180,000 users have visited the website
• Those users conducted more than 1.4 million searches
• More than 22,000 units were added to the site
PARTNER AGENCIES FOR HOUSINGCLEVELAND.ORG
211/First Call for Help (a program of United Way of Greater Cleveland)
Cleveland Tenants Organization
Cleveland/Cuyahoga County Office of Homeless Services
Cleveland Department of Community Development
Cleveland State University Center for Neighborhood Development
Cuyahoga County Department of Development
Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA)
Emerald Development and Economic Network (EDEN)
Legal Aid Society of Cleveland
Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry
Maximum Accessible Housing of Ohio
May Dugan Center
Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH)
