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Committee backs forwarding $250,000 ARPA award for Cleveland Heights transitional living project
Summary
Cuyahoga County committee voted to forward Resolution 20240396 — up to $250,000 from District 8 ARPA funds to Mertus Taylor/Students of Promise — to the full council for three readings to support conversion of a rectory at Imani Temple Ministries into transitional housing and wraparound services for homeless women and children.
Cuyahoga County’s Education, Environment & Sustainability Committee on the record moved Resolution 20240396 forward to the full council, a step toward awarding up to $250,000 from the District 8 ARPA community grant fund to support a transitional living facility for women and children.
Bob Ivory, representing Students of Promise, told the committee the project would convert the rectory at Imani Temple Ministries in Cleveland Heights into a 30-person transitional living facility offering case management, career counseling, financial literacy and mentoring. Ivory said Cleveland Heights–University Heights school officials reported 167 students identified as homeless, impacting roughly 91–95 families; he described the facility as intended to address that local need while remaining open to referrals beyond one district. He said the group secured a conditional use permit from the Cleveland Heights planning commission to operate at the site.
Committee members asked for specifics on how the ARPA award would be spent. Ivory said the request was written to cover both capital upgrades and program operations; he estimated roughly half would go to building improvements required by local fire and building code (sprinkler systems, window modifications, ADA accommodations) and half toward programming and staff. Ivory said Students of Promise will employ house monitors and administrative staff, and will contract case management and night security services. He listed additional sustainability funding being pursued from private foundations, a nonprofit called Future Plans, a pending state budget submission, PNC Connection and the Cleveland Foundation.
Supporters — including local clergy who said their congregations and boards back the project — told the committee the facility would provide neighborhood-based support outside downtown and build on more than a decade of Students of Promise work in local schools. Committee members praised the proposal and moved the resolution to the full council for three readings by voice vote.
The committee did not adopt a final spending authorization; the motion forwarded the resolution to the full council for consideration. Next steps: the resolution will appear before the full council for the three-reading process required by council rules.
