The Observation Deck

Mental Health Services, http://mhs-inc.org/, has recently expanded its mission to include an active homeless resettlement program. The program is designed to support redevelopment in select Cleveland neighborhoods by forcibly relocating Cleveland’s homeless and mentally ill to Lakewood.

MHS is required to provide fully staffed 24 hour support services for its clients. Current law requires any property used for that purpose be zoned for that purpose. An apartment building zoned for residential use is currently prohibited from being used as a mental health treatment facility or halfway house.

Through its agent, Big Oak LLC, MHS is seeking the repeal of Lakewood’s residential ordinances to allow apartments to be used as homeless shelters and halfway houses. If that effort is successful it will have a devastating impact on the City of Lakewood.

Are our City officials prepared to fight this assault on our City?

Where do council members stand on this issue?

Where does the Mayor stand on this issue?

If MHS is going to use our tax dollars to finance a lawsuit against our City why should we continue to fund MHS?

When a service organization unilaterally changes its mission from one of helping the homeless and mentally ill to an ideological mission of homeless resettlement I say it is time to cut off their funding.

Here's a link to the court docket, looks like the city just got served the other day:

http://cpdocket.cp.cuyahogacounty.us/p_ ... mmary.aspx

Where'd you hear about the halfway house part? The lawsuit doesn't mention that. Didn't the lawyer state in the previous email response that they wanted to have a support office in the building only?

Obviously, people can claim whatever they want, but do we know if granting them the zoning change they're requesting would permit them to expand their services?

Since the first meeting that Mayor Fitzgerald held upon hearing about the nefarious actions of Oak Tree/MHS/Eden, it has been my contention that the combined actions and intentions of the main protagonists have been duplicitous at best.

The active involvement of the Mayor and Councilman Butler, does lead me to think that the City will activily contest the latest legal maneuverings of the Oak Tree/MHS/Eden coalition.

It is my contention that appealing the decision of the Lakewood Board of Zoning is not the conclusion, but the beginning, of a series of legal challenges that will ultimately see Oak Tree Manor not as a residential apartment building, but rather a clinical intervention/treatment site.

Bill - thanks for finding the Court of Appeals filing.

Bill, are you sure tax dollars are directly funding this appeal? I don't think MHS would consider Big Oak LLC its agent though I do understand the reuse in question is for an office to house MHS staff.

I would love to see what agreements have been made between MHS, EDEN, Big Oak LLC and HUD regarding this program. Every question I've raised about the process has resulted in one party passing the buck to the other. When Kevin Butler convened a meeting with Big Oak, MHS and members of the community, much of the discussion was around the MHS clients. They are not the issue at hand. The issue is substantially changing the use of a residential property to house a clinical program. MHS, EDEN, or whoever in my opinion has not served their clients well at all. They are the ones that did not thoroughly vet the property they were moving their clients into. If the program required an office, they should have made sure that an office conforming to zoning laws existed. And now the expectation is that the city of Lakewood should change their zoning laws to accommodate their malpractice?

Currently Big Oak LLC owes nearly $100,000 in back taxes...to the county where they are filing this appeal so they can have a non-zoned office in their building to house a program that receives the bulk of its funding from county property taxes. If MHS wants to partner with entities that don't pay their taxes, then MHS can seek funding elsewhere. They should not get one dime from Cuyahoga County.

I wasn't going to say anything but, what the hey, Eden has been operating units in Lakewood for a long, long time. Quick, tell me where they are.

Did you know that the Westerly has a Supportive Services Coordinator in every building? Scary people, those Westerly residents.

Here's their website, look upon them and cower!

http://www.edeninc.org/

Sharon,

EDEN owns properties throughout Lakewood and the county, one on Bonnieview right around the corner from Oak Tree Manor. EDEN owned properties are not a problem, and from what I've heard, EDEN owned properties are good neighbors. On the other hand Big Oak LLC has not been a good neighbor. Google "Oak Tree Manor Lakewood" so you can see the rave reviews from their tenants. Until recently I had a great deal of respect for both EDEN and MHS. But why programs that rely on county tax dollars would partner with a landlord that maintains poorly reviewed housing and does not pay property taxes is beyond me. I am happy to pay more taxes for the services these organizations offer. But when they partner with people who don't pay their share, I get very annoyed. Check out the track record of Big Oak LLC on the county website. How many services can be provided with the nearly 100K in back taxes they have not paid? Services are being cut because of a lack of revenue. Property taxes provide the lion share of that revenue. How many people are not being served because they are not paying their share?

The Westerly was purpose-built to provide supportive services. Oak Tree Manor was not. I feel both MHS and EDEN were negligent in their vetting of this property as suitable to relocate their clients. I think we should expect due diligence on the part of MHS and not have them dump their clients any old place. In this case, I think that's exactly what they did. And when questioned in a public meeting about it basically blamed their bad choice on EDEN, who were conveniently not there. Classy.

My point was people saying that it was a "program" driven type of project. It's just supportive services being offered, it's not a treatment program.

And you are correct about Oak Tree Manor. The place is a dump. I wouldn't house a rat there let alone a person. They are slum landlords and are operating a sub-standard apartment unit. No one, I mean no one, should have to live there.

But, Bill needs to quit embellishing on what it is. It only serves to demonize the clients. They haven't hurt anyone and have a tough enough time without having to overcome even more prejudice.

sharon kinsella wrote:My point was people saying that it was a "program" driven type of project. It's just supportive services being offered, it's not a treatment program.

I think MHS would beg to differ:

"These programs provide permanent housing with intensive treatment and supportive services for adults who had been persistently homeless and without treatment."

http://www.mhs-inc.org/ph02.asp in describing the Kingsway Manor that is now Oak Tree Manor.

The process MHS/Eden/Oak Tree Manor have persued leaves a bad taste in the mouth. The building is not suited to meet the needs of the client/resident. Expecting that Lakewood will change it's residential zoning, after people have been moved into Oak Tree Manor, is not sound business. Is it possible that the actions of MHS/Eden/Oak Tree Manor has left the population MHS/Eden serve without the necessary resources, treatment and services?

Kingsway Manor is in Tremont.

http://www.socfdncleveland.org/OurFocus ... fault.aspx

Scroll down the page.

Sharon,

You are correct. Kingsway Manor is in Tremont. That is the location from which the MHS clients currently living at Oak Tree Manor were moved. http://www.mhs-inc.org/MHSPrograms.asp The MHS program at Kingsway Manor no longer exists. I think the Sisters of Charity need to update their website if they are referring to the same program. I don't know why the program was closed at Kingsway Manor and where the clients from Kingsway Manor who chose not to move to Oak Tree Manor currently reside.

sharon kinsella wrote:Kingsway Manor is in Tremont.

http://www.socfdncleveland.org/OurFocus ... fault.aspx

Scroll down the page.

And the treatment program described for Kingsway Manor is now located in Lakewood - at Oak Tree Manor - per the MHS website - "treatment" - MHS description.

I still contend that MHS have acted in an extremely underhanded manner in their dealings with Lakewood and residents.

Kate McCarthy wrote:I would love to see what agreements have been made between MHS, EDEN, Big Oak LLC and HUD regarding this program. Every question I've raised about the process has resulted in one party passing the buck to the other.

There are some indications that MHS clients in Tremont were traded to Big Oak as part of a financial deal between MHS, Big Oak and others.

MHS is a business. Like any other business its primary concern is an uninterupted revenue stream generated by its product. In this case the product is the client base. The revenue stream is generated by government subsidies for the maintenance and treatment of its clients.

In that environment the client becomes an investment instrument owned by the agency, something like a government bond exept it comes in the form of a human being.

A group of thirty "clients" has a dollar value. The current dollar value of those clients is the present value of all of those future cash flows. In this case $225,000 per year in income from the leases to Big Oak. Homeless agencies "bundle" individual homeless and mentally ill into human bonds that can be "leased" to landlords.

I'm trying to find out what was traded for that income flow but I've run into something of a dead end.

In csarist Russia a landlord could lease the labor of his serfs to another landlord. In Ancient Greece men got wealthy by renting slaves to the state. The business model of MHS has ancient roots.