CHN Housing Partners plans to build 65 single-family homes on Cleveland's West Side, targeting the Clark-Fulton and Stockyards neighborhoods with a mix of rental and lease-to-own units aimed at residents earning at or below 60% of the area median income. The development, called Near West Side Homes, will include 57 three-bedroom, two-story homes alongside eight three-bedroom, one-story accessible homes, all built on vacant lots formerly held by Cleveland's Land Bank.
According to Cleveland.com, CHN Housing Partners will serve as general contractor on the project, with City Architecture designing the homes. The nonprofit received tax credit awards from the Ohio Housing Finance Agency to help finance construction, and per NEOtrans, that funding combines a state Ohio Low Income Housing Tax Credit award with a 4% federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit allocation — a layered subsidy structure typical of large-scale affordable housing deals in the state.
The project has already changed shape once. NEOtrans reports Near West Side Homes was originally envisioned as a smaller, 35-unit, $13 million infill development spread across Ohio City, Tremont, and Clark-Fulton, before CHN refocused and expanded it to 65 units concentrated in Clark-Fulton and Stockyards — lower-income neighborhoods where the need is more acute.
A Rent-to-Own Path Built on a Track Record
CHN Housing Partners operates a 15-year lease-purchase program that combines financial coaching and education with affordable rent, giving tenants a structured runway toward buying the home they live in. The nonprofit says the model has helped more than 1,800 families purchase homes to date.
Independent data backs up the program's staying power. The Housing Partnership Network reports CHN maintains an 80% transition rate converting low-income tenants into home buyers by the end of the 15-year lease-purchase period, with a 99% retention rate among families who complete their title transfers.
Kevin Nowak, quoted in the Cleveland.com report, said homeownership is one of the biggest ways for families to increase generational wealth and leverage equity into future investments, like education. Ward 14 Councilwoman Jasmin Santana, who represents part of the project area, said the development aligns with her goal to increase homeownership opportunities for residents.
Why Clark-Fulton and Stockyards
The demographic case for concentrating the project in Clark-Fulton is stark. According to a 2024 fact sheet from the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission, roughly 60% of Clark-Fulton residents are renters, and only 47.5% of those renters live in housing considered affordable to them, based on spending 30% or less of their income on rent.
CHN already has a foothold in the area. The nonprofit broke ground in October 2025 on Cleveland West Veterans Housing, a $21.6 million, 62-unit supportive complex at 3311 W. 73rd St. in Stockyards designed for veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness, as FreshWater Cleveland reported at the time.
Near West Side Homes also extends a model CHN has already proven on Cleveland's East Side. NEOtrans notes the project follows similar scattered-site infill developments including Parkside Homes, a 55-home project, and Hope Homes — an approach that builds individual homes on dispersed vacant lots rather than concentrating new construction on a single large site, limiting displacement risk along the way.
Financing and Land Bank Hurdles Ahead
The affordable housing shortage driving projects like this one extends well beyond Cleveland. Ohio Housing Finance Agency data cited in a statement from Mayor Bibb's office shows a statewide deficit of more than 202,000 rental units that are both affordable and available to very-low-income households.
Locally, financing tools have been growing to help close that gap. Hoodline previously reported that the Cleveland Housing Investment Fund topped $43 million in early 2026 following a $5 million investment from Fifth Third Bank, providing flexible financing for local affordable housing developments including CHN's lease-purchase projects. That same fund previously supplied loan financing for CHN's 55-home Parkside project on the East Side.
One wrinkle could affect the project's timeline: the City of Cleveland's Land Reutilization Program, better known as the Land Bank, temporarily paused accepting new public property purchase applications in 2026 to update its inventory database and streamline disposition procedures. Since Near West Side Homes sits entirely on vacant lots formerly held by the Land Bank, how quickly that pause resolves could shape the project's pre-development staging.
Construction on Near West Side Homes is expected to begin in fall 2027.
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