It’s been more than a year and a half since a local nonprofit won approval from the Cleveland Board of Zoning Appeals to begin work on a new drop-in center for homeless youth in Cleveland’s Ohio City, but ongoing legal disputes have delayed its opening.
The legal battle is between some residents who live nearby and Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry. Some neighbors had filed an appeal of the board's decision in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court in March 2023.
Marcella Brown, a spokesperson for Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry, said if it had not been for the neighbors’ legal challenge, the drop-in center would have been operational by now.
“The delay has also increased the projected construction costs by over 10%, which will require us to raise additional funding to launch the program,” Brown said.
Ron O’Leary, who lives adjacent to the site and filed the suit on behalf of the group of concerned neighbors, has contended in case filings that the drop-in center will result in a significant increase in crime, noise, litter and traffic. O’Leary is a former Cleveland Housing Court judge.
The latest filing in the case this summer concerns Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry’s request to modify the court order preventing work from beginning, to allow it to do some more immediate work on the property it owns on Franklin Avenue which is slated for the youth drop-in center.
“Specifically, LMM requests the Court to allow LMM to install a washer and dryer, repair and resurface the Property’s parking lot, add fencing along the property line, provide computer access to clients, and install a stove, refrigerator, and freezer for client use,” the filing reads.
The court issued an order in July 2023 to allow A Place 4 Me, Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry’s partner nonprofit which aids young people experiencing homelessness, to provide those services at the Franklin Avenue site. Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries said at the time since, they had “not received any reports of increased noise, traffic, or crime related to LMM’s use of the Property.”
O’Leary in an opposing motion disputed that, alleging that Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry was failing to control nuisance behavior on the property, including people staying after hours and causing issues for neighbors.
“People urinate and defecate on the Property,” the response reads. “Three people attempted a carjacking at gunpoint in front of O’Leary’s house where one of the carjackers hid behind the brick wall in front of the Property. A man who slept behind the front wall on-and-off for years has repeatedly screamed threats and profanities at O’Leary, his family, and other neighbors. This included yelling profanities during the Cleveland Marathon and exposing himself to multiple people mid-afternoon on a weekend in early June 2024.”
The nonprofit in its response to O’Leary’s filing noted none of the individuals allegedly involved in those activities are Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry or A Place 4 Me clients, nor has it received any notices or citations from the city of Cleveland regarding any code violations.
“The reality is that O’Leary purchased a property in an urban environment that is located steps away from St. Herman House men’s homeless shelter (4410 Franklin Blvd.) and the food pantry provided at St. Paul’s Community Church (4427 Franklin Blvd.),” the filing reads. “The activities of those entities and the conduct of their clients are irrelevant to LMM’s request for a modification of the Stay in this matter."
O’Leary also argued in the suit that delays to the drop-in center project are not the fault of the lawsuit but of the organization itself. He wrote that Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry could have chosen any other site in the city where the zoning matched the proposed use of the property.
Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry has argued a variance from city code should not have been required in the first place because it already owns the building and was not technically changing its charitable use.
The drop-in center as originally proposed would provide young people ages 16-24 who are unhoused with showers, clothes and other basic necessities. Support staff would also be available to help clients through challenges they're facing on the path to goals like a job or housing stability.
The group of concerned neighbors have previously said they're not opposed to that mission; they just don't want the center on their street.
