This story was created as part of Ideastream Public Media's “Sound of Us” audio storytelling workshop, in collaboration with the Julia de Burgos Cultural Center. We are featuring stories about identity. Each of our community storytellers explores aspects of their identity they find important. Tell your own story!
Jeff Ivey’s house has been in his family for generations.
But being a Black homeowner in a gentrifying neighborhood hasn’t been easy. Ivey’s battle to hold onto his house has received a lot of local news coverage since he was jailed last year for not keeping up on repairs. His situation drew the support of his neighbors and some high-profile leaders on Cleveland’s East Side.
I’ve been friends with Ivey for years. I visited him at his historic home in Glenville, near the Cleveland Cultural Gardens, to hear more about the house’s story and where things stand now.
Ivey’s house is a two-family Colonial with three floors and a huge basement. It’s one of the biggest houses on East Boulevard. Ivey’s grandparents purchased the house in 1942, when his grandfather worked at a steel plant. But back then, Ivey said a Black family owning a home made some waves.
“This was a predominantly white neighborhood,” Ivey said. “My grandparents were the first people to move into this area who were Black.”
Ivey, who’s in his 60s now, has fond memories of when his grandmother owned this house. He shows me his kitchen, surrounded by beautiful plants. He said he used to water his grandmother’s plants when he was a child.
“My grandmother's sweet potato pie or iced tea, and a cheeseburger was usually payment enough,” Ivey said. “But she would always give me a few bucks for doing that, like here’s a few dollars to put in your pocket, grandson.”
Ivey inherited the house after his grandmother passed. She had put the house in trust, which meant she could designate who got it when she died. He said that several families in the area, Black families in particular, got that advice from lawyers as a way to protect their property.
Ivey is proud of his family’s history of Black homeownership. But now, the future of the house is uncertain. He’s had to replace a lot of piping and wiring in his historic home. That’s because thieves broke in and stole his copper pipes.
In a separate incident, five expensive stained glass windows were stolen. Ivey tracked down three of the windows at an antique dealer, but police never identified the thieves or made any arrest.
“I heard nothing back from any of the police when I filed the reports,” he said.
Then Ivey was cited for his front and back garage collapsing. With other repairs and property taxes piling up, time and money to fix his home got tight. The house was condemned and he was sentenced to 90 days in jail for failing to make repairs on time.
“You know, I'm not super in debt,” Ivey said. “I'm not super neglectful of my house. There are other houses around here that are far worse than mine.”
Caught in a system
Ivey desperately wants to hold onto his home, but he admits he’s frustrated with the courts and the threat of more jail time as he struggles to make ends meet. He feels like he’s caught in a system that has denied loans and assistance to Black homeowners for years.
“The legal system criminalizes Black existence,” Ivey said. “No one can believe the fact that I have to go to court every month. No one can believe these things when I tell them these things are happening.”
We reached out to Cleveland Housing Court, which said it would not comment on individual cases.
Meanwhile, Ivey continues to make incremental repairs, like re-establishing the water line and furnace, thanks to a GoFundMe and support from the community. One local company even donated windows after hearing his story on the news. Jeff plans to keep fighting. He wants to keep his historic home in the family for generations to come.
