CDBG Funding For Salary of LakewoodAlive Ex. Director

[sharon kinsella]

Are you kidding me!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but a little digging has shown me that Lakewood Alive has a submitted a proposal that will pay for much of the salary of the Executive Director and 48,000 for the salary of a part-time - that's right I said part-time person to do the housing thing? Are you kidding me?

Is NorthCoast going to be fully funded? Is the Office on Aging going to be fully funded? Are we going to give funding to the Domestic Violence Center for housing Lakewood crisis clients? Are we going to give money to the homeless shelter. Do people think that these monies should be used as a personal bankroll for paying much of the $57,000.00 Executive Director's salary for an organization that doesn't have any other full-time employees?

Is the CAC going to approve this?

Believe me if I had known about this and that the meeting was tonight I would have been there.

This stuff is like a Twilight Zone episode.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Are you kidding me!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but a little digging has shown me that Lakewood Alive has a submitted a proposal that will pay for much of the salary of the Executive Director and 48,000 for the salary of a part-time - that's right I said part-time person to do the housing thing? Are you kidding me?

Is NorthCoast going to be fully funded? Is the Office on Aging going to be fully funded? Are we going to give funding to the Domestic Violence Center for housing Lakewood crisis clients? Are we going to give money to the homeless shelter. Do people think that these monies should be used as a personal bankroll for paying much of the $57,000.00 Executive Director's salary for an organization that doesn't have any other full-time employees?

This stuff is like a Twilight Zone episode.

Sharon

Their taxes list $55,000 for total payroll.

What I find even more troubling is that a group that has spoken out about the need for
shopping,shopping,shopping over mid/low income housing that exists, and members
that have stated, well they cannot afford to live here, being given this money at all.

As I stated a year ago,if they are not willing to answer simple questions like, what
happened to the Spooky Pooch money? How can they be trusted with anything?

Why not Lakewood Christian Center, which has space for more offices, has done wonders with their budget, and has a proven track record of helping those with
problems instead of creating them. Also has a track record of 100% transparency.

.

[sharon kinsella]

I was shocked when I found this out.

I would have thought that the Christian Center had the expertise and the trust to work with people in economic trouble.

Since when is it the mission of Lakewood Alive to do housing? I thought they were all Downtown development. Or is it anything for a buck?

[sharon kinsella]

By the way, anyone interested in seeing the proposal submitted for the money, can view them at onelakewood.com - this is the city website. Go to the Community Development tab and click on the top for the proposals. They're all listed.

[Ahmie Yeung]

My husband and I have a lot of loyalty to Cleveland Tenants Organization from our time as poor college students renting from slumlord parasites in Little Italy. IIRC, they also are supposed to (contracted to?) provide services for Lakewood renters. They also have a much longer track record of doing actual good than Lakewood Alive does, and as far as I know have never had so much as a the whiff of suspicion of ulterior motives.

If we don't have affordable rental properties for people who aren't ready to commit to buying (financially or other lifestyle situation-wise), how are we going to get people to fall in love with our town and buy houses here? It's the path that got my family to buy here - we rented here for a year and then decided we wanted to buy here instead of in Parma where I grew up. Parma didn't have enough appealing rentals for us to try it before we bought it. I doubt we're alone in that, especially in our demographic.

[Danielle Masters]

This is really disturbing to me. I just don't get how they have the expertise to handle this. Working with people to stay in their foreclosed homes doesn't sound like something someone can just do. I imagine a little background in social work would be essential.

I guess there expertise could be in the being able to buy foreclosed homes mega cheap and using those properties for other purposes.

[sharon kinsella]

That's what I heard also.