March 19: Cuyahoga County Council, Health, Human Services and Aging Committee
Covered by Documenter Angela Rush (notes)
Grant to support student families at Scholar House
The Louise C. Stokes Scholar House is in line to receive a $10,000 grant from Cuyahoga County Council to purchase personal hygiene and household cleaning supplies for student families living in the building.
CHN Housing Partners, which runs the Scholar House, would use the money to purchase items such as first aid kits, toiletries, diapers, baby bottles, feminine hygiene products and trash bags, according to CHN’s director of financial mobility, Nina Holzer. The Scholar House’s Care Corner provides these items to students and their families for free.
The Louise C. Stokes Scholar House opened in 2023 and currently houses 40 low-income families who have at least one member attending classes at Cuyahoga Community College or Cleveland State University. Fifty-nine minor children live in the building.
Cuyahoga County Council District 6 Member Robert Schleper, Jr. asked how families transition out of the program. Holzer said families are able to stay while the student earns a degree plus six months after graduation.
“During that six-month time, we’re working with them pretty intensively to say, do you have a job lined up, what is your plan, do you have housing lined up, if you’re gonna move out of the neighborhood, do you have school lined up for your kids,” Holzer said.
District 7 Council Member Yvonne Conwell asked about the children who live in the building. According to Holzer, most of the children are under the age of 5, and many attend Step Forward’s onsite early learning center and a nearby Head Start program.
Cuyahoga County Council approved the grant at its meeting March 25.
Delays in child support fulfillment contracts
Cuyahoga County’s Health and Human Services department asked the committee to advance a resolution approving child support contracts to the full council for a vote on its first reading because the contracts are late this year. Legislation usually requires three readings before council can hold a vote.
Richard Weiler from the county’s child support office explained the contracts enable the department to use domestic court, juvenile court and the prosecutor’s office to help them collect child support payments.
“If we have any type of enforcement,” said Weiler, “it could go before them and they can sanction the party that needs to pay.”
The contracts allow the child support agency to be reimbursed for up to 66% of its administrative costs. The value of contracts is around $11 million.
Weiler explained that a staff shortage and changes to the number of magistrates the juvenile court has overseeing child support cases led to the contracts being submitted late.
Conwell advised the committee they were only receiving an update and not making any motions for approval. “This is kind of unique in how we’re doing this,” she said.
The committee advanced the legislation to the full Council who passed it on the first reading under a suspension of the rules at its meeting March 25.
