Opening January 1, 2007 Emerald Commons became the city’s first newly constructed permanent supportive housing project.
Emerald Commons building offers on-site social services, common laundry facilities, a community room with kitchen facilities, a computer lab, parking for residents and a 24-hour staffed front desk. The building was leased within two months of opening, and within three months all residents had used on-site support services.
The project was funded mainly through the use of Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). Other financing included HOME funds (local, county and state), the Federal Home Loan Bank’s Affordable Housing Program, the local Continuum of Care and other grants. Emerald Commons is part of Housing First, a coalition of public and private organizations whose mission is to establish the permanent supportive housing model in Cuyahoga County, Ohio and to end chronic homelessness in our community. The model is performing above expectations in Cleveland, with less than a 2% return to homelessness (Housing First: Phase One Process Evaluation Results, Abt Associates. May 12, 2010).
The key partners of Housing First include CHN Housing Partners as lead developer/owner, Emerald Development & Economic Network, Inc. (EDEN) as property manager and co-owner, FrontLine Service as lead service provider, and Enterprise Community Partners as coalition leader.
