The ongoing Woodhill Homes development project in the Buckeye-Woodhill neighborhood—a six-phase, six-year $250 million development project by Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA), the City of Cleveland, and Boston-based The Community Builders (TCB)—just received a post-COVID boost through a $10 million HUD Choice Neighborhoods Supplemental Funding Grant.

Earlier this month, HUD awarded additional funds to 16 current Choice Neighborhoods Implementation grantees throughout the country, including Buckeye-Woodhill. The additional funds are meant to address the pandemic-related disruptions and will be used on current construction projects for new, high-quality housing.

“It allows us to be able to continue to move the project forward,” says CMHA CEO Jeffrey K. Patterson. “The pandemic created a lot of additional costs to the project. This allows us to have the opportunity to try to close some of those gaps and be able to keep things moving forward. We're really excited about HUD's efforts to try to support housing authorities with this additional funding.”

Patterson says the additional costs were “across the board,” from labor to materials. “I think what's good is that HUD said, ‘we understand that some of these things have changed. Here are some resources to keep those projects moving forward.’ I think that that is just great.”

Woodhill Station West Phase One - interior kitchen - living room renderingThe Woodhill Homes Choice Transformation Plan first received a $350,000 Choice Neighborhood Planning Grant in March 2018; then CMHA was awarded a $35 million HUD Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant to execute the transformation plan.in May 2021; and Marous Brothers Construction broke ground on the first phase last July at East 93rd Street and Buckeye Road.

The $46.4 million phase one of the project will create 120 apartments—42 one-bedroom, 62 two-bedroom, and 16 three-bedroom units—with 90 units reserved for current Woodhill residents, 18 units for residents earning under 60% Area Median Income (AMI), and 12 units for residents earning under 80% AMI.

Other features include a fitness center, a community room, outdoor picnic area, and playground for a total of 4,520 square feet of community space.

Jeff Beam, regional vice president of The Community Builders, which works with the mission to build and sustain strong communities where people can thrive, says he is committed to a stronger Woodhill neighborhood, where people have accessible and affordable housing options.

“We have one-third of the units under construction, and another phase in the planning stages,” Beam says. “Relocation is always challenging, but we’ve developed good relationships. There’s been a tremendous amount of partnership collaboration and trust building.”

Additionally, Beam stresses that the Woodhill project is a Buckeye-Woodhill community project. “It’s not our vision, it’s the community’s vision,” he says. “We’re just serving in the technical capacity to get the project done.”

Patterson agrees that the project is moving along well, and that phase one should be completed by the first quarter of 2024. He says phase two at East 112th Street and Woodland Avenue broke ground in January.

Woodhill Center West construction“You'll begin to see the fences put up around the construction site and they actually are starting to be able to turn some dirt and get some things going on out there,” he says. “So, those are exciting things and [we] are going to create some really good housing opportunities for the folks in that Buckeye-Woodland community, as well as the current residents at Woodhill who get the first opportunity to return to the site.”

The original Woodhill Homes was built in 1939 and was one of the first public housing developments in Cleveland, and is one of the oldest in the country.

Both Beam and Patterson credit the work of Cleveland City Council president Blaine A. Griffin in his work to make the Woodhill Homes project a reality. Griffin has been involved in the project from the beginning, advocating for the development and fighting to help the neighborhood residents move out of poverty.

Woodhill [Homes] Estates is very important to me, I live two blocks east of it,” says Griffin. “The parents who have raised kids there, my kids grew up with their kids. I want to retain as many of those residents as I can.”

Griffin says most of the current residents are optimistic about the changes and improvements happening in the Buckeye- Woodhill neighborhood.

“People are receptive, but some people are doing other things,” he says. “A lot of the people who are living in that neighborhoods have been here for a long time.”

Griffin adds that this project can be a positive catalytic change for Buckeye-Woodhill. “We have the potential to change the trajectory of the neighborhood in a big way,” he says. We’re getting rid of one of the islands of poverty and attracting all these working families and middle-income families to the area. We’re working to stabilize and support the people who are here and attract the middle class with families back to the neighborhood.”