Cleveland Neighborhood Progress outlines ‘middle neighborhoods’ rehab strategy, cites $3M state and $7.2M city investments

Cleveland Neighborhood Progress leaders told the Select Committee on Housing that a concentrated program of home rehabs and commercial corridor repairs can reverse long-term disinvestment in so-called "middle neighborhoods." The presenters described a two-pronged strategy: renovate clusters of homes to close an "appraisal gap" and pair that work with storefront and streetscape improvements to attract private investment.

"Middle neighborhoods" were described by Tanya Menas, who identified herself as CEO and president of Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, as historically single-family, walkable areas whose housing stock and commercial districts have aged. Menas said those conditions have opened the market to "predatory investors who are buying up many of these homes, putting the lipstick on a pig and flipping them or really turning a lot of our...very strong homeowner communities into rental communities." She argued that targeted, place-based investment can retain residents and attract new homeowners.

Casey Petritis, identified in…