Over the last 10 years, the Cuyahoga Land Bank has had a $1.43 million impact, according to a recent study. The Plain Dealer looks at the organization’s role in restoring property values by demolishing and rehabilitating distressed structures, returning properties to Cuyahoga County’s tax rolls, and bolstering the local economy with the money it has spent and private-sector investments it has spurred.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Chris Alvarado likes to joke that when he became executive director of Slavic Village Development, he thought the full name of the neighborhood was “Slavic Village: the Epicenter of the Foreclosure Crisis” because that is so often how people refer to the neighborhood.
“But it’s true,” Alvarado said. “We had the highest number of foreclosures of any zip code in the country, 44105, back in 2008, 2009.”
The neighborhood has come a long way since then. Housing sales are up. Home values are up, too, bringing a restoration of wealth to a predominantly African-American community that saw values plummet in the foreclosure crisis.