Last year, people started showing up at local homeless shelters with an issue employees hadn’t often seen: These unhoused individuals had federal Section 8 housing vouchers they couldn’t use. Staff at Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry (LMM) started looking for solutions.
A common theme ran through the stories clients told caseworkers at the nonprofit, which operates several shelters and works to get people into stable housing. Landlords didn’t want to accept the vouchers, which cover the majority of a tenant’s rent. The process to inspect the unit and set the amount the voucher would pay for rent often took months. While property owners awaited approval, they weren’t receiving any rent for their units. In a competitive housing market with rising rents, landlords had even less incentive to take a chance on a renter with a voucher.
LMM staff reasoned that if they could devise a way for landlords to be paid while they waited for inspections, more voucher holders living in shelters would be able to find permanent homes.
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This is a really unique approach. We’re able to move families out of shelter before the inspection. It’s obviously better for a family to not be in shelter as long, as well as it creates more shelter space for other families, which is really needed.”
Erin Kray, LMM’s associate director of housing and shelter.
The nonprofit stepped in to lease area apartments that shelter residents can move into, creating a program called Family Transition in Place (TIP). A family can stay in the unit, with the agency covering the costs, during the inspection and approval process. Once that is complete, the voucher holder can sign a lease with the property owner. If, for some reason, the process doesn’t work out, the program will look for another place to lease.
In the year since the project launched, about 20 families have been able to use vouchers to rent homes, said Erin Kray, LMM’s associate director of housing and shelter.
Read about one family that found stable housing working with the Family TIP program
“This is a really unique approach,” Kray said. “We’re able to move families out of shelter before the inspection. It’s obviously better for a family to not be in shelter as long, as well as it creates more shelter space for other families, which is really needed.”
The nonprofit operates the Haven Home family overflow shelter in Slavic Village and the Men’s Shelter on Lakeside Avenue. It also has housing programs that assist veterans and people re-entering the community after incarceration.
The Family TIP program dared to challenge what many had considered an insurmountable obstacle.
“People will tell you families are not allowed to move in before the inspection,” Kray said. “This was just because nobody found a way to pay for it [before the voucher became effective.]”
The Family TIP design borrows from a program LMM started in 2020 to reduce the population in shelters in an effort to control the spread of COVID-19 during the early days of the pandemic. That effort was inspired by a permanent housing model created by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Many who work with the unhoused say it was the pandemic that exposed the growing problem of homelessness among low-wage and working-class families in Greater Cleveland, a problem that has been exacerbated by rising rents.
Finding ways to get more landlords to accept Section 8 vouchers
Since late last year, rent increases in Greater Cleveland have outpaced what’s been seen nationally. The typical rent here increased 7% between August 2023 and August 2024, according to Zilliow’s latest monthly rental report. Nationally, the typical rent rose 3.4%.
Rising rents are putting a strain on many renters, including low-wage workers and the working class. Some of them have federally subsidized vouchers to help pay their rent. Voucher holders told Signal Cleveland many landlords don’t want to deal with the bureaucracy – the paperwork and inspections. Others say the vouchers pay less than the going rate for rent and landlords can get their asking prices elsewhere. Some suspect landlords flat out don’t want to accept vouchers, which is sometimes referred to as “source of income discrimination.”
The Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) issues the most vouchers in the county. CMHA has nearly 14,000 vouchers in use with another 1,900 available, according to the agency. Only about 40% of CMHA voucher holders find housing within six months of getting the subsidy, according to the agency.
CMHA said it is trying to get more landlords to accept vouchers by tapping U.S. Housing and Urban Development programs that may give landlords incentives. The incentives can include “expedited processing and financial benefits as well as damage mitigation funds,” the agency wrote in an email to Signal Cleveland.
Property owners interested in Family TIP may contact: E’Lyric “E.J.” Christopher, Rental Partner Coordinator at [email protected]
Families interested in the program must be referred by their shelter case workers.
LMM’s Family TIP sees a promising future
LMM’s Family TIP program is currently funded through a few grants LMM receives for programing. The nonprofit sees TIP as a promising solution because it meets the needs of a family requiring a permanent home and a landlord looking for tenants.
“It’s really just bridging the gap,” said Belinda Dawson, an LMM housing project coordinator. “It’s bringing affordable housing to the tenant a little bit quicker. The landlord is collecting money until the subsidy kicks in.”
With the program still in its early stages, Dawson said the staff continues to make tweaks and improvements.
“I only see it growing,” she said of Family TIP.
