Affordable Housing Finance

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Best Preservation Project:

Emeritus House Shines in Central

AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE • November 2008

BY JERRY ASCIERTO

CLEVELAND—Emeritus House has always been more than just a collection of housing units. Though the population it serves has undoubtedly changed over the years, the building’s impact on its community has been significant in a number of ways. And thanks to a substantial preservation effort by the Famicos Foundation, Emeritus House is poised to serve its community for years to come.

The nine-story historic landmark in Cleveland’s Central neighborhood has been the headquarters for the Phillis Wheatley Association (PWA) since it was built in 1926. The building originally served as transitional housing for African- American women migrating from the South, offering educational and job-training programs, as well as health care assistance.

Women continued to be the focus until the 1970s, when the building entered the Sec. 8 program. Today, the building provides housing for very low-income seniors and the disabled, as well as a range of community services.

The PWA provides a voucherbased day care program for lowincome families and a music school for area youth at Emeritus House, services that have become vital to the residents of the Central neighborhood. The association also provides a meals program, healthscreening services, and social programs geared toward the seniors inhabiting the building as well as those in the neighborhood at large.

Emeritus House in Cleveland originally served as transitional housing for women. Today, it provides housing for very low-income seniors and the disabled.

The preservation of Emeritus House is the latest development helping to stabilize the Central neighborhood, an area that contains the highest concentration of public housing units in Cuyahoga County. “Emeritus House is a key neighborhood resource and a significant piece to a bigger puzzle in revitalizing the entire Central community,” says Councilwoman Phyllis Cleveland, who allocated $50,000 in Community Development Block Grants to the preservation. “It’s an important building, and it was very important to the community to maintain this property as affordable housing.”

By the early 2000s, it became apparent that Emeritus House needed a substantial rehabilitation as empty units sat unfilled. The vacancy rate in the decade prior grew from 15 percent to more than 37 percent, “and that was really just because of the building’s condition,” says Ron Johnson, a board member of PWA.

The gut rehab didn’t just preserve the structure; it made for an improved quality of life for the residents. Before the renovation, the building had 42 efficiencies and 14 one-bedroom units. After Famicos tore out walls and eliminated space that had been devoted to common areas, it had 42 one-bedroom units and 14 efficiencies.

In addition to larger units, the rehab also found space for a new computer lab for residents. Now, Emeritus House is 100 percent occupied, with about 20 people on the waiting list.

And thanks to the rehab, there’s room to grow. The building’s basement housed a beauty school, a restaurant, and a retail store through the 1940s, but that space had long been abandoned as unsafe. During the renovation, the basement flooded due to heavy storms, destroying $100,000 worth of mechanical equipment such as boilers and water heaters.

Now, the rehab has cleared approximately 9,900 square feet of usable space in the basement. The association is mulling how best to utilize this newfound capacity. “There may be an opportunity to supplement some of the social services that Phillis Wheatley does not currently offer and maybe invite other agencies to open up a location there to provide services to the residents, as well as the community,” says Johnson.