Council hears pleas to restore homeless and child-protection funding as HHS budget hearings begin

Cuyahoga County Council began its 2026–2027 budget hearings Oct. 23 with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) outlining proposed cuts and agency directors warning of consequences for vulnerable residents. Public commenters urged council members to restore funds for Frontline Service’s Northpointe Transitional Housing Program and the Canopy Child Advocacy Center’s child protection team.

Corey Taylor, chief executive officer of Frontline Service, told the council, “I’m urging you to protect the full funding 2026 and ’27 for the Northpointe Transitional Housing Program.” Taylor said the program “provides housing and employment services” and cited figures he said were for 2024: Northpointe “provided housing and employment services for 250 individuals, including 113 young adults.” Shawna Gurley, Frontline Service’s director of emergency housing services, described an aging building on Superior Avenue and asked the council to “continue funding to rebuilding the Northpointe program.”

Jennifer Johnson, executive director of Canopy Child Advocacy Center, and other speakers also urged sustained support for a recently established child protection team that coordinates hospitals, child-welfare professionals and law enforcement. “These are not statistics. These are children in our own community,” Johnson said, asking council members to “continue to stand with us to ensure that no child in Cuyahoga County is left without expert care and protection they deserve.” David Crampton, a member of the County Division of Child and Family Service Advisory Board, also urged full support of the child protection team and recounted a local case he said showed the team’s role in rapid assessment and placement.

Director David Merriman, presenting the HHS overview on behalf of County Executive Chris Ronayne, framed the hearings as difficult but necessary. “None of us wanna be here cutting programs and services, that we know matter in our community,” Merriman said. He described HHS as relying on levy revenue plus extensive federal and state dollars and said the department will try to “maximize all of those federal and state dollars as they become available.”

Agency directors then detailed program-level impacts. Jacqueline Fletcher, director of the Division of Children and Family Services, said the division fielded more than 29,000 calls to the kids hotline from January through September 2025—about 124 calls per day—and screened in more than 6,500 referrals. She said the division has served “over 9,000 kids this year,” that new custody episodes were about 766 year-to-date, and that improvements in screening and adoption finalizations have been made even as the division faces proposed reductions to client services, board-and-care spending and contracts. Fletcher said some staffing and security subsidies will be reduced to historic levels but that a detective and baseline protective staff will remain in county HHS buildings.

Kevin Gowen, director of the Department of Job and Family Services, warned of major federal policy changes he said stem from House Resolution 1. Gowen said the county has begun seeing impacts: “We received short notice on when this was being implemented. I was informed on October 9 it was been implemented. It was actually run, as a, cleanup…4,200 Cuyahoga County residents were notified that their benefits end on October 31.” He also described two funding shocks the county is preparing for: a federal reduction in administrative reimbursement for SNAP from historically about 50% to 25% (which Gowen said could mean roughly a $7 million annual loss for the county) and a new potential state/local cost share for SNAP benefits that could reach 0–15% depending on error rates. Gowen described proposed HHS cuts for JFS as limited to elimination of part-time front-line positions and said the department plans to reassign duties to avoid increasing call wait times.

Tiffany Dobbins Braselton, director of the Office of Child Support Services, and Richard Wyler from the agency’s fiscal team outlined the child-support budget and a structural match requirement. Wyler explained that the office’s roughly $38.4 million budget relies on program income and federal reimbursement and that “we would have to come up with $7,000,000 basically in local or levy dollars” to meet the required matching share; he said the administration provided about $5.9 million and that the office could face a roughly $1 million local funding gap.

Other divisions described smaller but consequential reductions. The Fatherhood Initiative’s director, Al Grimes, said the program’s budget is about $1.1 million and proposed contract cuts would be spread across 11 providers; the division serves about 5,400 fathers and holds an annual conference the director said would continue with outside funding if the internal allocation is reduced. Division of Senior and Adult Services Director Nicole Petricola (presentation slides subsequently corrected) said proposed reductions affect community social-service contracts, the options program that supports home-delivered meals and personal care, and a Cleveland Clergy Alliance contract; she said the agency is considering managed enrollment and other adjustments if option-program funding is reduced.

Council members pressed directors on specific impacts and process. Councilwoman Yvonne Conwell and others repeatedly asked whether cuts would reduce safety staffing for DCFS locations; Jacqueline Fletcher said the division plans to return to “normal” security staffing levels while retaining at least one detective and 24/7 protective-service officers. Council members also pressed for data and follow-up, asking for lists of nonprofit partners and precise dollar impacts per contract; directors said they would provide more detailed breakdowns after the hearing.

Merriman and multiple division heads also stressed uncertainty driven by pending federal and state rulemaking. Merriman said the department is “still awaiting the state of Ohio’s response” to federal changes and that some grant notices have been delayed by concurrent federal actions. Gowen reiterated that key federal rules had not been finalized and gave statutory deadlines only where required by law.

Why it matters: Council members must weigh levy revenue, state and federal funding changes, and an HHS proposal that officials said includes targeted reductions across client services, contracts and chargebacks. Public commenters and some council members told the committee that reductions to transitional housing and child-protection services would harm residents already reliant on county programs. The committee will continue hearings and directors said they will provide further fiscal detail to inform decisions.

What’s next: Councilwoman Turner, chair of the Finance and Budget Committee, will continue hearings next week with the remaining HHS divisions. Several council members asked for and directors promised supplemental lists and financial breakdowns of nonprofit contracts, staffing levels and expected impacts on service volumes.