(Plain Press July 2024) Daniel Kerr, associate professor of history at American University and author of Derelict Paradise: Homelessness and Urban Development in Cleveland, Ohio, gave the keynote address at the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH) Housing Justice Summit on June 8^th. He also was interviewed by Axios reporter Sam Allard the day before that at the City Club of Cleveland.

   At the NEOCH Housing Justice Summit, Kerr spoke of thinking about history as a process of building our communities. He said it was critical “to discuss history to learn about how to change things today.”

   At both venues, Kerr spoke about how development plans promoted by Cleveland’s elite have eliminated low-income neighborhoods, shanty towns, encampments, rooming houses, and other dwellings that once served as affordable places for Clevelanders to live. Kerr discovered through his interactions and interviews with homeless Clevelanders and his research into Cleveland’s past that homelessness is not due to illness or personal failings of the homeless themselves, but rather to social policies and development plans that have eliminated places where low-income people can afford to live. This continues today, he said noting the removal of a trailer park at Euclid Beach to make way for park expansion.

   Kerr spoke of historical patterns in Cleveland that continue today. Development and plans of the elite wipe out low-income living quarters while the business elite fund charitable organizations that cordon off the homeless into shelters, and then promoting the idea that homelessness was a result of personal failure.

   Kerr, who grew up in Cleveland Heights, spent some time in New York City where he became involved with the squatters’ movement. The squatters’ movement in the 1980s and 1990s in New York City involved squatters taking over and occupying empty City owned buildings. The participants promoted a culture of art, music and fun and used various tactics to avoid eviction. With an invitation from the Cleveland Tenant’s Organization and the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, Kerr participated in a workshop in Cleveland in the 1990s on how to do squatting. In 1995 he started a chapter of Food Not Bombs in Cleveland, and the group began to bring food to Public Square to share with people.

   While sharing food at Public Square, Kerr began to interview people, asking them to share their experiences with homelessness. He soon began to bring a video camera and a recorder to do the interviews. Kerr said he began to show the videos on Public Square so those being interviewed were not just telling their stories to him, but also to their peers who gathered at the Square.

   When asking the homeless individuals what they thought were causes of homelessness, Kerr said their responses concerned changes that had occurred in Cleveland, not the failings of individuals. The discussion centered around topics such as the transformation of the downtown business district which led to the loss of rooming houses; transition of neighborhoods which included arson, demolition and gentrification on the Near West Side; rise of the criminal justice system and its impact on people’s lives and their ability to get jobs and housing; and the day labor industry which charged various fees to workers so they ended up with very little in income after a day’s work.

   Kerr said Urban Renewal in Cleveland was used in the 1950s to implement the 1949 General Plan for Cleveland which largely targeted African American neighborhoods. Initially, neighborhoods were torn down and replacement housing was built. Later urban renewal was used to clear the way for developments like Cleveland State University and Cleveland Clinic. In 1974 the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) was passed. The federal CDBG money could be used to demolish housing and put the vacant lot into a land bank where it could be held until it could be developed. Kerr said in some ways this was worse than Urban Renewal because there was no requirement to rehouse people.

   In sharing food and talking with homeless people, Kerr said the discussion centered around the poor quality of homeless shelters and exploitation of the homeless by the day labor industry.

   In the 1990s, Kerr said Mayor Michael White started to arrest people who were homeless to remove them from the streets during the holiday season when people were coming downtown to see the holiday lights. An encampment was created at Public Square in response, with signs urging the City to not arrest homeless people and calling upon the City to respect the rights of people to exist outside if they didn’t have a place to live.

   Other concerns included the poor quality of shelters run by the Salvation Army and the fact that the homeless wanted to run the shelters themselves. They shared stories of the degrading conditions in the shelters and referred to the shelters as an extension of the prison system. Kerr said concerns about the poor treatment of people in the shelters led to discussion of what the issues were and then to organizing efforts to make changes. While the goal of the homeless running the shelters themselves did not happen, they were able to change the administration of the shelters from Salvation Army to Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry.

   They also talked about the exploitation that happened at the day labor agencies where many of the homeless worked. Kerr said at the time many of the day labor jobs were as punch press operators. Day laborers shared stories of fees charged for transportation to the job site and other costs paid by workers. When calculating travel time and the various fees charged to day laborers, Kerr said the discussion group figured that the amount workers received for working at a punch press for a day was about $2 per hour. The day laborers began to organize in hopes of getting living wages and benefits. They were up against employers who wanted cheap labor and didn’t want organized workers.

   The organizing effort led to the City of Cleveland working with the United Labor Agency to create a hiring hall for day laborers. The community hiring hall lasted only a short time. The Frank Jackson administration ended up contracting it out to a private corporation due to a bid that was $1 less than the City’s projected cost.

   At the NEOCH Housing Justice Summit Kerr shared some of his experience in New York City and his involvement in the squatters’ movement. He said Cleveland is full of properties that could be reclaimed. He said, first and foremost “don’t assume the property is empty – there may be people living there.” Next, he said it is important for squatters to take steps to alleviate tensions with homeowners and renters that are adjacent to the property they are squatting on. For example, in New York City, squatters created a neighborhood bike shop where they repaired bikes for neighborhood children. He advised squatters “to treat one another with respect and build relationships with neighbors.”

   Kerr spoke of some of the Not In My Backyard attitudes that resulted from efforts to create space for the homeless or low-income individuals. He recalled the opposition in Tremont to the creation of a Women’s shelter at St. Augustine Church to replace a downtown shelter that was in terrible condition. He said that at one meeting someone from Civilization coffee shop said they did not want drug addicts and prostitutes in the neighborhood. Someone in the audience said there were drug sales happening at Civilization and further said, “I know that because I was buying drugs there.”

   In another case, people complained that the low-cost housing at the Jay Hotel would bring undesirable people to the neighborhood. Advocates for the low-cost housing noted that City Council members held fundraisers across W. 25ht Street at the MODA night club which was a known drug dealing location. They also noted that people who work in the sex trade worked in downtown hotels, not at the Jay Hotel.

   Kerr said people who own homes are going to continue to fight tooth and nail to protect their property values. He urged the homeless and their advocates to continue to speak out about their experiences.

   Kerr commented on the new legislation passed by Cleveland City Council that increased the amount that an individual can contribute to a City Council campaign from $1,500 a year to $3,000 per year. He noted that the median family income in Cleveland is about $30,000, meaning that half the population of Cleveland makes less than $30,000 a year. Few people can afford to donate $3,000 to a Council campaign and garner the attention that major campaign contributors receive.

   Kerr urged people from different groups to come together and not look down at other groups or become divided by concerns of other needy people competing for jobs. Instead, he said, “we need to move past that, recognizing who are the real people we need to address.”