MANDEL SCHOOL
NEWS AND EVENTS

As part of an ongoing partnership with the community of East Cleveland, all first year full-time masters students from the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences conduct a survey of all vacant homes and lots in the city. The recent foreclosure crisis only exacerbated the high rate of abandoned property in East Cleveland. Estimates indicate that East Cleveland has the highest foreclosure rate in the state. MSASS students, accompanied by East Cleveland residents from the Northeast Ohio Alliance for Hope (NOAH), surveyed the vacant properties as the first step in assisting the community in developing a long-term plan for addressing the problem of abandoned property and vacant land.

In the short run, the students’ survey data and technical assistance from the MSASS Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development helped the City of East Cleveland secure $2.2 million in federal funds from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. The results will help city officials prioritize which buildings should be demolished first, which can be rehabbed, and substantiate the need the city has for more funds from NSP and any future stimulus package.

The students found that 20 percent of all parcels with residential structures were vacant and another 4 percent of all parcels were vacant land. Of the vacant houses, over 40 percent were rated a letter grade of D or F, meaning they would likely need to be demolished. The results of the housing survey are now being used by the City and MSASS Community and Social Development students to conduct further research on the housing in the three target areas for demolition. Students are surveying residents on these streets to inform them of the upcoming demolition, gain their input on priorities and begin to strategize what might be done with the vacant land.

Mark Chupp, an assistant professor at the Mandel School, said the neighborhood-based initiative grew out of a neighborhood assessment conducted by MSASS students in the spring of 2008. The outreach effort fits well with the Mandel School's interest in expanding experiential learning opportunities among its students.

Student Latoya Gates put it this way, “It was theory when I came in; it [the survey project] became quite an experience.”

“At the core of the community and social development curriculum we teach at the Mandel School is the importance of stepping back and listening to people in the neighborhood tell us what they need, not have us tell them,” Chupp said. “Our students learn that their role is to empower neighborhood residents to bring about the kinds of change the residents want.”