The Centers, formerly the Cleveland Christian Home for Children, is located on Cleveland’s far west side.
Tribune News Service
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cuyahoga County is moving forward with its plan to find better housing for youth involved in the county’s Division of Children and Family Services.
County Executive Chris Ronayne announced Wednesday the county has selected Cleveland Christian Home as the location for its planned Child Wellness Campus. The west-side home, near the intersection of 114th St. and Lorain Avenue, has been around since 1900 and is operated by The Centers. The plan is to expand the emergency childcare center so it can offer physical, mental and behavioral health services for youth who are involved with the county DCFS.
Ronayne also announced Wednesday his plan to seek $450,000 in county money to help The Centers hire the staff needed to get the campus up and running. The expenditure will require formal approval from the county’s board of control.
The county already has a $10.8-million contract with The Centers to reserve eight emergency beds at its wing of the Cleveland Christian Home for kids with high-level behavioral or mental health needs. But that has not been enough to meet demand, cleveland.com reported previously.
County officials hope to have its Child Wellness Campus open sometime in 2024, said Jacqueline Fletcher, the county DCFS director. In capital costs alone, the wellness campus will cost an estimated $8 million.
“The $450,000 is really to recruit the staff we need to get the doors open,” Fletcher said. “We’re going to be pushing. We recognize the urgency.”
The county’s choice to establish its campus at Cleveland Christian Home is a reversal from its prior plan of renovating the Metzenbaum Center into a 16-bed housing unit for DCFS youth. The Centers was selected following a competitive bidding process.
The Child Wellness Campus is an attempt to solve the “crisis” of DCF youth sleeping in the Jane Edna Hunter Social Services Building – a county office building – while they await placement with a family. Every month, roughly 45 children stay at Jane Edna Hunter for “extended” periods of time, cleveland.com reported previously.
The Jane Edna Hunter Building was not meant to house children, many of whom are free to come and go as they please. The conditions at the building have led to allegations of children being sexually abused and workers and children alike being assaulted, cleveland.com reported previously.
Ronayne acknowledged Wednesday the county has “struggled” to provide adequate housing and social services for children in its care, describing the problem as a “crisis of placement.” This campus, he said, aims to reverse that.
“We need to be working toward holistic wellness for our kids,” Ronayne said.
