Fair Housing Center for Rights & Research
2728 Euclid Avenue, Suite 200, Cleveland, OH 44115
Phone: (216) 361-9240
FOR RELEASE: May 28, 2021
Contact: Michael Lepley Phone: 216-306-2540 Email: mlepley@thehousingcenter.org
Cleveland, Ohio — Zoning perpetuates racial segregation in Cuyahoga County and reduces housing choice for people with disabilities. The Fair Housing Center for Rights & Research’s newest report, Exclusionary Zoning in Cuyahoga County, Part II: School Districts and Group Homes analyzes the municipal zoning codes for every school district in the County and shows that exclusive, single-family residential use districts dominate the geography of Cuyahoga County. These districts are predominantly white enclaves that maintain the privilege of homeownership and access to quality public education for the white middle and upper classes by using zoning as a tool for exclusion. Fifty-eight percent of all land in Cuyahoga County is zoned to allow single-family homes as an exclusive residential use. Exclusive single-family use districts strengthen zoning’s relationship to racial exclusion by codifying racially segregated living patterns. Use districts that permit multifamily housing correspond to the presence of people of color in Cuyahoga County because Black and Latinx residents are far more likely to rent their homes than white residents. Multifamily housing and people of color are concentrated in the City of Cleveland and eastside suburbs.
Zoning creates a power dynamic in which the zoned-for majority, white homeowners, influence local policy to exclude people they do not wish to live around (renters as a proxy for people of color and lower-income households). Municipal zoning and the public provision of primary and secondary education are intricately related. Municipalities regulate the property tax base as well as household access to school districts by controlling what types of homes can exist in a district. Zoning is an integral part of the structure of racism that maintains and enforces racial segregation and racial inequality in Cuyahoga County. Cuyahoga County has thirty-two public school districts, many of which overlap part of or all of multiple municipalities. The municipalities of two school districts (Independence Local Schools and Bay Village City School) nearly entirely exclude multifamily housing (less than 1% of land in these districts is zoned for multifamily housing). The municipalities of most outer-ring school districts in Cuyahoga County zoned less than 5% of land for multifamily housing (Brecksville-Broadview Heights City School District, Chagrin Falls Exempted Village Schools, Mayfield City School District, Orange City School District, Richmond Heights Local Schools, Solon City School District, and Strongsville City Schools).
Additionally, fourteen municipalities in Cuyahoga County use their zoning codes to limit residential choice for people with disabilities by restricting group home density by setting minimum distance requirements between group homes or excluding group homes from certain residential districts. Group homes are a type of housing occupied by groups of unrelated individuals with disabilities. Seemingly small distance requirements can compound to reduce site availability for people who chose to live in group homes.
The Fair Housing Center recommends that municipalities voluntarily eliminate zoning regulations that ban
multifamily housing and that municipalities with group home density restrictions repeal them.
The work that provided the basis for this publication was supported by funding under a grant with the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development. The substance and findings of the work are dedicated to the public. The author and publisher are solely responsible for the accuracy of the statements and interpretations contained in this publication.
The report is available at: https://www.thehousingcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Zoning-Report-Part-2-Final.pdf
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