Cleveland officials are taking steps to close the racial wealth gap within the city.
A planning grant from the Cities for Financial Empowerment (CFE) Fund will help lay the groundwork to make that possible.
Cleveland joins seven other cities in the latest cohort of CFE’s CityStart program. The program, created eight years ago, assists cities in engaging community members about financial hardships facing minority groups.
“This is not just a Cleveland issue or a Northeast Ohio problem; this is across our country, we’re seeing a number of folks, especially in our communities of color, having this gap in wealth,” said Cleveland’s Neighborhood Investment Coordinator Aaron Kinney.
According to a 2023 report, about 6% of Cleveland’s population, which is majority non-white, are without a safe and affordable checking and savings account; on par with the national average.
“This is a resource to try to help decrease the racial wealth gap in the city of Cleveland and the surrounding areas,” Kinney said.
The city hopes to use some of the $75,000 grant to hire consultants to identify problems and propose solutions in a report due by the end of the year.
Kinney said housing will be a major focus.
“A true need in our minority communities is home ownership and beginning to create that wealth,” he said. “We want to start creating homeowners here in the city of Cleveland with families that care about the communities in which they live.”
The city will work with community groups to host roundtables, where residents can share “hurdles and pain points” when it comes to financial wellbeing.
Potential solutions include the creation of a financial empowerment center that could offer free one-on-one financial counseling to residents.
Cleveland’s CityStart program continues an already-existing relationship with CFE. The pair previously collaborated on the city’s BankOn campaign, which works to ensure access to affordable banking.
