MANDEL SCHOOL
NEWS AND EVENTS

While Cleveland's overall population has declined 17% from 2000 to 2010, past research by the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development has demonstrated population gains for certain age demographics in certain regional localities. Mapping Human Capital: Where Northeast Ohio's Young and Middle-Age Adults Are Locating, the second Briefly Stated report released by the Poverty Center in 2013, expands on the initial research by examining the mobility of young and middle-age adults in Northeastern Ohio.

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Despite being an established and well-studied public health problem and extensive interventions to reduce exposure, lead poisoning remains a major environmental health threat to children. Evaluation of the Invest in Children Primary Lead Prevention Project, the first Briefly Stated report released by the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development in 2013, documents the evaluation study of the effectiveness of primary prevention in homes of newborn infants to prevent lead poisoning. The study was lead by Dr. Leila Jackson of Case Western Reserve University's Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.

Download the report to read more.

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A then soon-to-be-released report from the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development is discussed in the Cleveland Plain Dealer's article "Cleveland's urban scene gets a boost from young adults moving in" on January 21, 2013. The report's author and recent Poverty Center researcher Richey Piiparinen is interviewed.

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NEO CANDO 2010+ is now live!

NEO CANDO 2010+ is a major upgrade of the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development's NEO CANDO, an interactive online data portal that provides information about demographic, socioeconomic, and other data that help define and promote understanding of the human landscape of Northeast Ohio. This updated version of NEO CANDO incorporates data from the 2010 Census and American Community Survey. It operates faster, provides updated geographies, and enables on-demand mapping using Google maps.

NEO CANDO 2010+ was released by the Northeast Ohio Data Collaborative, a unique partnership between Case Western Reserve University Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Cleveland State University Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, and The Center for Community Solutions. Several local governments and foundations have made this possible with their generous financial support including the United Way of Greater Cleveland, The Cleveland Foundation, The George Gund Foundation, Mt. Sinai Health Care Foundation, Sisters of Charity Foundation, Saint Luke's Foundation, Cuyahoga County Board of Health, and the Summit County Health District.

Visit the new NEO CANDO 2010+.

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A combination of innovative partnerships and the increasing need for individual-level data led to the development of a new data application in the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development's online neighborhood-level data tool, NEO CANDO, specifically targeted to community development practitioners. The Neighborhood Stabilization Team Web Application, or the NST Web App, gives community development practitioners access to individual-level property information at their fingertips.

The fourth Briefly Stated report released by the Poverty Center in 2012 describes the NST Web App, its functionalities, development, and current partnerships. Download the report to read more.

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When a group of Cornell University students came to Cleveland last spring, they had an opportunity to visit Cleveland and local non-profits in the region. So what did they think of the city and how does it compare to New York?

We collected some random thoughts and reviewed their recent itinerary to provide an interesting perspective. We also created a brief overview of their visit to the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development at MSASS.

It was supposed to be a meeting that began at 11 a.m., and one that Claudia Coulton would probably have to miss.

So when word got out that the Lillian F. Harris Professor of Urban Social Research at MSASS might be a no-show, someone needed to somehow convince her to go up to the third floor of the Mandel School – pronto.

When she arrived to see her MSASS peers and faculty all seated in a third-floor classroom, she had no idea what would happen next: Coulton was being named a 2012 Distinguished University Professor by Case Western Reserve University President Barbara Snyder.

"I would have never expected this could happen," Coulton said. "I'm grateful for everyone at MSASS, and the university for making this selection. My work would not have been possible without all of the support I have received from MSASS and from CWRU over the years."

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The Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development at Case Western Reserve University released a report entitled The Changing Face of Poverty in Northeast Ohio which details the increase in poverty across the region.

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Earlier this year, the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development in partnership with the Saint Luke's Foundation released a series of 12 data briefs on key social demographic and population dimensions of three neighborhoods on the east side of the City of Cleveland: Buckeye-Shaker, Mount Pleasant, and Woodland Hills. The data briefs address issues related to Saint Luke's target communities, with specific attention to changes in indicators over time. Using data from a range of Census and local sources, the briefs highlight important dimensions of life in these three neighborhoods that can inform approaches to address community needs.

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Dr Anna Maria Santiago, faculty associate of the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development and Leona Bevis/Marguerite Haynam Professor of Community Development at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences is the lead author on several recent and upcoming publications on low-income homeownership.

Foreclosing on the American dream? The financial consequences of low-income homeownership, Housing Policy Debate Volume 20, Issue 4, 2010

"Be It Ever So Humble, There's No Place Like Home: the experiences of low-income, minority homebuyers" in the soon to be published Fair and Affordable Housing in the U.S.: Trends, Outcomes, Future Directions (forthcoming September 2011)

Low-Income Homeownership: does it necessarily mean sacrificing neighborhood quality to buy a home?, Journal of Urban Affairs Volume 32, Issue 2, pages 171–198, May 2010

Read a brief section from each abstract or introduction.

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"Finding Place in Community Change Initiatives: Using GIS to Uncover Resident Perceptions of their Neighborhoods," by Claudia Coulton, and Tsui Chan of the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development, and Kristen Mikelbank of the Cleveland Food Bank, has been published by the Journal of Community Practice, released March 4, 2011.

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The journal article, "Do employment and type of exit influence child maltreatment among families leaving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families?" by David Beimers, and Claudia J. Coulton is in-press at "Children and Youth Services Review," and available online as of February 9, 2011.

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A recent journal article "Getting the Most Out of Service Learning: Maximizing Student, University, and Community Impact" in the Journal of Community Practice, is by professors Mark Chupp and Mark Joseph, is outlined in this |think magazine blog article.

Additional articles about their work, and the efforts of Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences students can bee see in the August and July 2010 articles here.

Both Mark Chupp and Mark Joseph are faculty associates of the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development.

A new report from Case Western Reserve’s Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development documents the problem of so-called bank walkaways in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.

The report, titled Stalling the Foreclosure Process: The Complexity Behind Bank Walkaways, takes an in-depth look at stalled foreclosure cases in Cuyahoga County in order to describe the factors involved in delayed foreclosure cases. Foreclosure cases that remain unresolved for long periods of time can result in serious spillover damages, incurring costs like unpaid taxes, unpaid utility bills, nuisance abatement assessments, maintenance, and in the most severe cases, could include fire damage or demolition.

The researchers examined the court records of 999 stalled foreclosure cases (cases where a decree of foreclosure has been granted but the property did not go to sheriff’s sale for over 180 days), finding that 56 percent of these stalled foreclosure cases could possibly be considered bank walkaways. The researchers also found that the possible bank walkaways are more likely to be vacant, tax delinquent, and demolished.

When considering the status of a foreclosure case in court, the researchers determined that cases where a plaintiff (the mortgage lender or subsequent note holder) took no action for 180 days or more after receiving a foreclosure judgment, and cases where a plaintiff dismissed a foreclosure judgment for reasons that did not involve resolving the mortgage lien, among other scenarios, could possibly be considered bank walkaways.

“It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what’s going on with a foreclosure case,” reports Michael Schramm, co-author and Research Associate at the Center on Urban Poverty. "Paper and electronic court records might be missing details, and plaintiffs often only give boiler-plate reasons for their actions. But defining the problem and outlining how to recognize it is the first step in finding the solution.”

Click here to download the file.

For questions or comments about this report, please contact Michael Schramm at 216-368-0206.

This work has been possible using the Center's freely available, social, economic, neighborhood and property information database, NEO CANDO, can be found on the web here.

The Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development in partnership with the United Way of Greater Cleveland, has released a series of 12 data briefs on key social demographic and population dimensions of Cuyahoga County. The data briefs address issues related to United Way’s core community priorities, with specific attention to changes in indicators over time. Using data from a range of Census and local sources, the briefs highlight important dimensions of life in Cuyahoga County that can inform approaches to address community needs.

The briefs examine shifts in population (changing demographics, child population, mobility), indicators of risk (poverty, child maltreatment, teen/unmarried births, educational attainment, adult literacy), and indicators of opportunity (employment, public schools, safety net supports, housing affordability).

The United Way of Greater Cleveland used these demographic analyses as a discussion launching point for their request for proposal committee process for the 2011 year. The United Way of Greater Cleveland used these demographic analyses as inputs for their request for proposal committee process for the 2011 year. This social research is
available on our website as individual briefs or one combined .PDF. They are also shared on the United Way server here.

An article in Forefront, a publication of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, titled Battling the Next Phase of the Housing Crisis, refers to the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development's research article, "REO and Beyond: The Aftermath of the Foreclosure Crisis in Cuyahoga County, Ohio," on the "rising tide" of Real-Estate Owned Properties in Cuyahoga County.

"The foreclosure crisis is breeding a new one: a crushing load of REO, or real-estate-owned, properties. These are the foreclosed homes that banks and other lenders have on their books after failing to sell them at sheriff’s auctions. In weak housing markets, including many in the Fourth District, these unsold houses too often stand vacant and neglected.

A new volume published by the Federal Reserve Banks of Cleveland and Boston and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors highlights the latest research and on-the ground efforts to attack the REO problem on several fronts. The collection of articles, REO & Vacant Properties: Strategies for Neighborhood Stabilization, was released in September to coincide with a summit hosted by the Federal Reserve in Washington. The summit aimed to help communities and practitioners find the most promising practices for addressing neighborhood stabilization and the disposition of REO properties across the country.

Among the Cleveland-area contributors to the volume were researchers at Case Western Reserve University. The researchers reported a worsening scope to the problem in northeast Ohio, offering new evidence of how REO properties further drag down communities.

In “REO and Beyond: The Aftermath of the Foreclosure Crisis in Cuyahoga County, Ohio,” Claudia Coulton, Mike Schramm, and April Hirsh found:

• Since 2007, almost all properties in Cuyahoga County (home to Cleveland) that come out of foreclosure sales have ended up as REOs.
• The number of REOs in the county peaked in 2008 at just over 10,000 properties and had declined to about 7,300 by late 2009.
• REOs are disproportionately concentrated in lower-income communities.
• From 2004 to 2008, the percentage of properties on Cleveland’s east side that sold out of REO at extremely distressed prices—$10,000 or less—shot up from 4 percent to almost 80 percent.

Read the full "Forefront" article here.

The Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development, contributed to a Summit and to the joint publication of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston named, "REO & Vacant Properties: Strategies for Neighborhood Stabilization." Resources for stabilizing communities are available off the summit's website.

"The foreclosure crisis that the nation continues to grapple with has led to scores of real-estate-owned, or REO, properties. These and other vacant properties erode the values of nearby houses, fracture neighborhood stability, and threaten to undo decades of economic progress made in communities across the country over the past 25 years. How big is the REO problem? How are communities, banks, and policymakers dealing with the challenge? Most important, what approaches are showing the most promise for success."

The Center's Chapter is titled" REO and Beyond: The Aftermath of the Foreclosure Crisis in Cuyahoga County, Ohio." The full summit report PDF may be obtained here.

The Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development is located within the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, a graduate school of social work, at Case Western Reserve University.

Briefly Stated 10-02: Women Religious in a Changing Urban Landscape: The Work of Catholic Sisters in Metropolitan Cleveland by Rob Fischer & Jenni Bartholomew has been released, and mailed to the community.

Download the report here.

Summary: Women religious play a vital role in many communities in addressing the needs of the poor, neglected, and vulnerable members of society. In the history of Northeast Ohio, Catholic nuns have been instrumental in the arenas of education, healthcare, outreach and advocacy.

In high poverty cities such as Cleveland, women religious continue to provide essential services, supports, and spiritual guidance in many venues. The experience in Cleveland is relevant to cities with an urban core where the population has shifted to suburban areas, leaving inner-city churches with declining membership and support.

In addition, this case example will show how proactive and collaborative efforts on the part of women religious can enhance the likelihood of effectively addressing community needs presently and in the future.

A summary presentation of the results for Women Religious in a Changing Urban Landscape: The Work of Catholic Sisters in Metropolitan Cleveland can be viewed here.

Doctoral Candidate Diwakar Vadapalli presented a paper in India, at two separate occasions on collecting, analyzing, and using Social and Economic Indicators, based on the Center on Urban Poverty’s NEO CANDO database model.

The paper: "Indicators, actionable data, and ‘model villages’: NEO CANDO as an example for similar systems in India" by Diwakar K. Vadapalli, and Claudia J. Coulton was presented at: The National Seminar on ‘Building of Model Villages through Panchayat Raj Institutions’ on 10th August, 2010 at The National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD), Hyderabad, India

The second presentation on this same research was titled, "Indicators, actionable data, and local decision-making: NEO CANDO as an example for similar systems in India" also presented by Diwakar K. Vadapalli on Aug 18, 2010 at the invitation of the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore, India.

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MSASS Professor Learns More About Schools' Role in Revitalizing Neighborhoods

"Before parents with young children buy a new home, they want to know the quality of the neighborhood public schools.

Mark Joseph, assistant professor at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University, does too. He's examining how public schools have a role in revitalizing urban neighborhoods—especially neighborhoods where new mixed-income developments are being built.

He's particularly interested in housing under development in Chicago and other major cities with HOPE VI funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Joseph and Jessica Feldman from the University of Chicago report challenges facing these schools in the article, "Creating and Sustaining Successful Mixed-Income Communities: Conceptualizing the Role of Schools," which appeared in the journal Education and Urban Society.

In a prior study, Joseph found that the income groups do not always mix in these housing situations and many middle-class families do not have children. But schools can shake things up. According to Joseph, they are a critical component in linking middle-class families and lower-income families to the broader social and economic mainstream."

More of the THINK article, "MSASS Professor Learns More About Schools' Role in Revitalizing Neighborhoods"

Click for more of Mark L. Joseph's research.

The Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development is located within the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, a graduate school of social work, at Case Western Reserve University.

Briefly Stated no. 10-01, "Service Learning in Community Development: Partnering with East Cleveland" by David G. Harris & Mark G. Chupp has been released. Electronic copies are available here, and hard copies will be shared with partners in the community.

Summary:
Residents of East Cleveland are fighting to improve the quality of pubic education and access to vocational opportunities. “White flight,” economic disinvestment, and ineffective political leadership have led to the disadvantages faced by East Cleveland (Kathi & Cooper, 2005). Nearly 1,200 vacant structures blight their 3.1 square mile landscape. Case Western Reserve University recognizes the potential roles that they can serve in aiding neighboring East Cleveland into becoming a desirable place to call home.

Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences students joined residents and firefighters to survey every vacant property in the City. Students utilized their experiences with conducting the survey, and through additional fieldwork, recommended strategies for the impact of vacant housing on topics like workforce development, education, safe streets and neighborhoods, and the senior population.

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This research, aided in part by the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University serves as the basis for a partnership for the revitalization of East Cleveland with contributions from students, faculty, and the university who are collaborating with residents, community organizations, and the City of East Cleveland.

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A new report from Case Western Reserve University's Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development, Cleveland State University and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, documents the foreclosure crisis and community responses in Greater Cleveland.

The new report "Facing the Foreclosure Crisis in Greater Cleveland: What happened and How Communities Are Responding," weaves together updated research from Pathways to Foreclosure, Foreclosure and Beyond, and Beyond REO with over a dozen examples of community responses to the foreclosure crisis that range from government reform and legislation to counseling and prevention initiatives.

The report finds that in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County, subprime mortgages, in some sections of the city and suburbs, rapidly supplanted conventional loans as the primary product for home purchases and refinances. By 2005, more than 10,000 foreclosures were filed on residential properties in a single year. A growing number of properties entered prolonged periods of vacancy, stuck either in the foreclosure process or in REO—real-estate portfolios of mortgage companies and servicers.

Untended properties deteriorated and were vandalized. The value of housing stock plummeted, leading speculators to buy REO properties in some neighborhoods in bulk and for pennies on the dollar. Neighborhoods with large African-American populations were particularly hard hit by foreclosures and the negative spillover effects.

But Greater Cleveland did not sit idly by; this report also documents our response. Local governments, non-profit organizations, and community groups mobilized to educate potential home buyers, prevent foreclosures, and rehabilitate vacant properties. They have coordinated their efforts and responded strategically, using data to drive their actions. In addition, groups have worked to mediate issues on-the-ground and at the policy level, working to prevent this crisis from ever happening again.

Download the "Facing the Foreclosure Crisis in Greater Cleveland: What happened and How Communities Are Responding" report

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"State TANF Policies and Employment Outcomes among Welfare Leavers," by Younghee Lim, Claudia J. Coulton, and Nina Lalich

Social Service Review December 2009, Vol. 83, No. 4: 525-555. DOI: 10.1086/650532 is available here.

This study examines the influence of state welfare policies on employment outcomes of women leaving welfare during the initial period of welfare reform implementation. The study finds that the stringency of work requirements is likely to increase employment among later welfare leavers, but neither the leniency nor stringency of work requirements is related to employment among early welfare leavers. The study finds that lenient work requirements are found to increase the probability that welfare leavers’ first jobs off welfare carry employer-provided health insurance.

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Finding Place in Making Connections Communities: Applying GIS to Residents’ Perceptions of Their Neighborhoods
By Claudia J. Coulton, Tsui Chan, And Kristen Mikelbank, January 2010

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ABSTRACT
The growing recognition that place matters has led to numerous foundation- and government-sponsored initiatives that address the needs of disadvantaged neighborhoods and families in tandem. Fundamental to these people-based and place-based strategies is the assumption that residents are both the beneficiaries and the cocreators of improvements in their neighborhoods and the systems that serve them. However, despite the centrality of place in these community initiatives, defining neighborhoods as they are experienced by residents has proven challenging. This paper demonstrates how a household survey can be used to ascertain residents’ views of the place they refer to as their neighborhood. The study uses data from the Making Connections (MC) target areas in 10 cities. A representative sample of households were asked the name of their neighborhoods and instructed on how to draw maps of their neighborhoods as they viewed them. GIS tools were used to uncover spaces within the MC target areas that residents included in their definitions of neighborhood as well as spaces that seemed to fall outside their collective definitions. The study revealed several overlapping areas that constituted resident-defined neighborhoods within most Making Connections target areas. The paper discusses the implications of this diversity of resident neighborhood perceptions for community change initiatives.

This research is part of the work that the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development participates in for the Annie Casey Foundation's Making Connections Initiative.

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Behind the Numbers report shows much lower home purchase lending levels in 2008

The Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development's November 2009 Behind the Numbers takes a closer look at trends in ‘home purchase loan’ originations in Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland through the period 1995-2008.

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All too often research is conducted in a way that is disconnected from the reality of life in communities, with findings often having little relevance to real-world program and policy decisions. With this publication, the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development highlights an example of how research and evaluation data have been effectively used over time in a major community initiative in the Cleveland region.

Drawing on a decade of transformative research done in partnership with Cuyahoga County's Office of Early Childhood/Invest in Children and its public/private set of collaborators, the report describes the experiences of this community initiative and concrete examples of how data have been used to inform practice and policy.

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"Transforming Civil Discourse and Neighborhood Identity through Action Research," a paper written by Mark Chupp, was recently selected by the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) as the "Best Paper for 2008." Chupp, Assistant Professor at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, and Faculty Associate of the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development, presented the paper at ARNOVA's 2008 conference.

The announcement of this award was released during the 2009 conference and the notice of the award is listed in the ARNOVA Newsletter. WINTER 2010 VOLUME 38, NO. 3 on page number 3.

"New Evidence and Implications for Community Initiatives" by Claudia J. Coulton, Brett Theodos, Margery Austin Turner

Publication Date: November 02, 2009

The text below is an excerpt from the complete document at the Urban Institute. Read the full report in PDF format.

Abstract

Americans change residences frequently. Residential mobility can reflect positive changes in a family's circumstances or be a symptom of instability and insecurity. Mobility may also change neighborhoods as a whole. To shed light on these challenges, this report uses a unique survey conducted for the Making Connections initiative. The first component measures how mobility contributed to changes in neighborhoods' composition and characteristics. The second component identifies groups of households that reflect different reasons for moving or staying in place. The final component introduces five stylized models of neighborhood performance: each has implications for low-income families' well-being and for community-change efforts.

This research is part of the work that the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development participates in for the Annie Casey Foundation's Making Connections Initiative.

More papers that Claudia Coulton has authored for the Urban Institute can be viewed here.

Diwakar K. Vadapalli, Doctoral Research Fellow at the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development, presented a paper in Carmona, Spain, April 22-24, at a research meeting titled, "Social Welfare and Cash Transfer Meeting," which was organized by both UNICEF and University College London, to discuss the role of social welfare services in improving cash transfer programs.

A communiqué released from the meeting is available here.

Mr. Vadapalli's paper is titled, "Barriers and challenges in accessing social transfers and role of social welfare services in improving targeting efficiency: a study of conditional cash transfers," and it was featured in the July edition of NASW News in the article, "Services Enhance Cash Programs: Information flow among the parties is vital to the success of cash transfer policies," by Paul R. Pace, that reports about this research meeting.

Mr. Vadapalli's paper will also be presented at the 2009 Symposium of the International Consortium for Social Development in Monerrey, Mexico on July 28th, 2009. It will appear in a special issue of the international journal Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies titled, "UNICEF Special Issue: Barriers and challenges in accessing social transfers and role of social welfare services in improving targeting efficiency: a study of conditional cash transfers by: D. Vadapalli."

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Family Homelessness in Cuyahoga County

A new Briefly Stated number 09-03, titled "Family Homelessness in Cuyahoga County" has been released. It summarizes research in a white paper by the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development regarding an analysis of the number of homeless families and "doubled up" families in Cuyahoga County.

The Briefly stated can be read or downloaded here.

The White paper, also titled "Family Homelessness in Cuyahoga County," can be read or downloaded here.

A brief radio article, on NPR affiliate WCPN, referencing this paper can be read or heard here.

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Lord knows...But what do we know about the effectiveness of faith-based programming?

Beginning with the Clinton Administration and greatly extended under George W. Bush, the federal government has expanded the role of faith-based providers in the delivery of a range of human services.

Since 2001, the Faith-Based and Community Initiative (FBCI) has aimed to give these organizations equal opportunity with secular and larger organizations to secure federal funding for the delivery of social services.

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Quality Matters - Assessing the quality of early care settings in Cuyahoga County

This document summarizes recent research which investigates the effects of County programs which promote increased capactiy and quality in the region's childcare.

Using data from 177 pre-school classrooms, this study was undertaken to assess the level of quality in regulated early care and education settings in and around Cleveland, Ohio.

The quality of care in settings serving young children is a crucial concern in policy and practice circles as we seek ways to promote child development. This study examined the structural and contextual factors associated with high quality care and was designed to inform a community-wide initiative focused on child well-being and school readiness.

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New Poverty Center report examines what happens to properties after sheriff's sale and REO ownership

Many properties that go into foreclosure eventually end up at a sheriff's auction, where they are usually purchased by the banks, mortgage companies, mortgage services, and government-sponsored enterprises involved in financing the foreclosed mortgage loan. These properties are referred to as "REO" (real-estate owned) properties. Between 2005 and 2008, there has been a drastic increase in REO properties being sold at extremely low prices—$10,000 and often less.

The Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development has produced a report,
Beyond REO: Property Transfers at Extremely Distressed Prices in Cuyahoga County, 2005-2008, that takes a look at the trend of REO properties sold at $10,000 or less; the most frequent sellers and buyers of these properties in 2007 and 2008; time between property transactions; the price of properties in subsequent transactions; and limited information about the practices of some buyers and sellers of REO properties.

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These profiles summarize key data pertinent to the early childhood population in Cuyahoga County’s communities. This is provided as a reference tool that may be helpful in understanding community needs and existing services for children. A version of this profile was originally developed by the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development for Invest in Children. Invest in Children, administered by the Board of Cuyahoga County Commissioners, is a community-wide public/private partnership working together to help increase the development, funding, visibility, and impact of early childhood services in Cuyahoga County. The common goal of these partners is to make sure that all children have quality services available to them, which assist in their earliest developmental years and ensure they enter kindergarten healthy, happy, and ready to learn. Click here to view sources for indicators in the profiles.

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New Poverty Center report examines circumstances most likely to lead a property to foreclosure

Foreclosure rates in Northeast Ohio have grown exponentially in recent years and present unprecedented challenges for communities, governments and households. Subprime lending has also increased markedly as a proportion of all mortgage loans originated in the region during this period and is widely believed to have played an important role in the current foreclosure crisis.

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A new report from the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University addressing the foreclosure issue calls for refinancing loans or providing assistance to homeowners as an effort to maintain property values and prevent vandalism and deterioration to vacant structures.

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January 1, 2000 through September 1, 2007

It is now 6 months later and the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development, using its NEO CANDO database, has updated the results of the Behind the Numbers Brief Number 6, Houses in transition: a report on properties owned by financial institutions and real estate organizations in Cuyahoga County, 2007.

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Behind the Numbers, BRIEF NO. 6, Titled "Houses in transition: A report on properties owned by financial institutions and real estate organizations in Cuyahoga County, 2007," discusses the rapid rise in foreclosure rates and housing abandonment in Cleveland and its surrounding suburbs.

This topic is garnering national attention and threatening to overwhelm the government agencies and community organizations that address the problem.

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The Poverty Center has released its May 2007 Briefly Stated, "Space to learn and grow: Early care and education capacity in Cuyahoga County." This document summarizes recent research which investigates the effects of County programs which promote increased capactiy and quality in the region's childcare.

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As part of Invest in Children's Annual Meeting on June 4, 2007,
Cuyahoga County will share an update on the ongoing evaluation of its
programs. Since 2000 faculty and staff from the Center on Urban
Poverty and Community Development at MSASS have conducted a variety of studies related to the the condition of and services for children up to age six in Cuyahoga County. The evaluation team is led by Dr.
Claudia Coulton, Lillian F. Harris Professor, and Dr. Rob Fischer,
Research Associate Professor.

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Claudia Coulton, Co-Director of the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development, is presenting the Catalog of Administrative Data Sources for Neighborhood Indicators at the IASSIST (International Association for Social Science Information Services & Technology) 2007 Conference in Montreal. This monograph discusses using neighborhood indicators to identify problems, plan programs, stimulate community activism, target investments, evaluate initiatives and otherwise inform the community about itself.

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WCPN's Mhari Saito interviewed Mike Schramm, a programmer analyst at the Center on Urban Poverty, regarding an analysis that he did regarding the number of unrecorded sheriff's deeds in Cuyahoga County.

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Cuyahoga County Early Childhood Initiative Evaluation: Phase II Final Report

Introduction:

Since mid-1999, a bold initiative has been underway in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, to improve the well-being of the youngest members of the greater Cleveland community. A community-wide initiative targeting children from birth through age five and their families was launched in July 1999, and in the following 5 years demonstrated substantial success in developing a universal and comprehensive approach for supporting families with young children.

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Cuyahoga County Early Childhood Initiative Evaluation: Phase I Final Report

Synopsis:

In Cuyahoga County, Ohio, a community-wide, multifaceted initiative directed at children from birth through age 5 has been forged to meet the need for a universal and comprehensive approach for supporting all families with young children.

In its first three years (July 1999 - June 2002), the Early Childhood Initiative (ECI) was launched by a broad-based coalition of public and private partners brought together by County government. The programs of the ECI have been woven into the fabric of local services and have met their target goals of numbers of clients served.

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Cuyahoga County Early Childhood Initiative Evaluation and Research Project Interim Report
November 2001

Synopsis:

Investing in the well-being of its youngest children has become a top priority in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. As a result of a community-wide, multifaceted three-year initiative directed at children from birth to age 5 and the individuals who care for these children, an understanding about the critical importance of the early childhood years has been created at the highest levels of public and civic leadership in Cuyahoga County. The political will has been forged to meet the need for a universal and comprehensive approach for supporting families and young children.

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