Investor Ownership of Homes has Tripled in Cuyahoga County Undermining Housing Markets and Neighborhood Stability. Why is it Happening? What Can Be Done About It?
On Wednesday March 9th the result of a year-long analysis of investor activity will be presented by the Vacant and Abandoned Property Action Council (VAPAC). The VAPAC study, based on ground-breaking research done by Dr. Timothy Kobie at the Cleveland Building and Housing Department, found that investors purchasing 1-3 family homes, and typically converting them to rental properties, tripled from 2004 to 2020. The study also found that negative outcomes associated with investor home purchases disproportionately impact African American communities in the East Side of Cleveland and the East Inner Suburbs. The new report, titled The Impact of Real Estate Investor Activity on the Cuyahoga County, Ohio Housing Market 2004 -2020, found “Investors are frequently making a calculated, but risky, assumption that they can purchase a property, make illegal repairs without permits, and/or move tenants in without making any repairs or without complying with local building and housing ordinances or State law.”
This forum will shed light on the impacts of this trend and the market conditions that have led up to it. More importantly, the forum will present specific actions that can be taken at the municipal, county, state and federal level to rein in investor activity that both threatens homeowner equity and undermines the health and safety of renters.
The forum will also include a national perspective provided by Heather Vogell, a reporter with ProPublica who has investigated real estate investor activity nationally.
The forum will be moderated by Molly Schnoke, Project Manager at the Center for Community Planning and Development, Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University.
Panelists include:
- Tim Kobie, Business Process Analyst with the Cleveland Building and Housing Department.
- Sally Martin, Director, Cleveland Building and Housing Department.
- Zach Germaniuk, Legal Counsel and Director of Neighborhood Stabilization for Slavic Village Development.
- Jayme Lucas-Bauer, Neighborhood Development Project Manager for Old Brooklyn Development Corporation.
- Heather Vogell, reporter with ProPublica.
Read the Study
News Resources
Click the links below to read the news stories on the study.
Molly Schnoke – Project Manager at Center for Community Planning and Development, Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University
Prior to joining the College Molly was the Assistant Director of Research at the Center for Regional Economic Issues (REI) at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Molly earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from The Ohio State University and received her Master of Arts from The University of Akron.
Tim Kobie – Business Process Analyst, City of Cleveland Building and Housing Department
Sally Martin – Director, City of Cleveland Building and Housing
Sally Martin was appointed as the City of Cleveland’s Director of Building and Housing in February 2022, where she oversees code enforcement activities and construction permitting. She served as the Housing Director for the City of South Euclid from 2008 until 2022, where she led housing programs and housing code enforcement for the city, and was one of the founders of the city’s affiliate non-profit community development corporation, One South Euclid. In addition, she serves on various housing policy groups including the Cuyahoga Housing Stakeholders, the Cuyahoga County Reinvestment Advisory Subcommittee, and the Key Bank Great Lakes Advisory Board. For many years, Sally has served on the Executive Committee for the Vacant and Abandoned Property Action Council and is the co-chair of VAPAC’s Delinquent Tax Working Group, and a founding member of the Greater Cleveland Reinvestment Coalition. Sally is a graduate of the University Florida.
Zach Germaniuk – Legal Counsel, Director, Neighborhood Stabilization for Salvic Village Development
Zachariah Germaniuk is a 2009 honors graduate of Ohio State University (B.A., English cum laude) and 2012 graduate of Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He credits the school’s Urban Development Law Clinic, under the supervision of Professors Kermit Lind and Carole Heyward, with kickstarting his career in urban development law. While still a student, Germaniuk obtained his legal intern certificate from the Ohio Supreme Court and began practicing under supervision at the organization now known as MetroWest during his final year of law school.
Since 2013, Zach has served as Director of Neighborhood Stabilization for Slavic Village Development (SVD). At SVD, Zach’s work centers on improving neighborhood housing conditions and eliminating distressed properties through a variety of methods and legal strategies. Coordinating with both SVD Housing and Outreach teams, their combined work has led to a reduction in vacant residential properties in the Broadway-Slavic Village from a 2008 Recession high of nearly 20% to under 7%.
Additional coordination with outreach and housing redevelopment activities has led to a rise not only in general property conditions but increased neighborhood residency as well. In 2018 Zach accepted an additional position, serving as an Adjunct Professor at Cleveland-Marshall’s Community Advocacy Clinic. He also co-chairs the VAPAC Investor’s Working Group and was a co-author of the recent study “The Impact of Real Estate Investor Activity On the Cuyahoga County, Ohio Housing Market 2004 – 2020”.
Jayme Lucas-Bauer – Neighborhood Development Project Manager, Old Brooklyn Development Corporation
Jayme Lucas-Bauer is the Neighborhood Development Project Manager for Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation (OBCDC). She oversees home rehabs, bringing vacant homes to life for owner occupant families, helps small businesses locate and expand in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood, and conducts deep dive research in the local and regional housing markets, including tracking the increasingly troubling bulk buying trends.
Ms. Lucas-Bauer has been part of the OBCDC team for over 10 years, and during that time has managed fundraisers, community events, and assisted hundreds of homeowners with home repair programs. She transitioned to helping small businesses in the Old Brooklyn community over the past 3 years, and has been particularly focused on helping small business owners navigate the rough pandemic waters this year.
Ms. Lucas-Bauer has a Master’s Degree in Urban Planning, Development and Design from the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University. She was awarded the 2020 Ohio CDC Staff Member of the year from the Ohio CDC Association on October 16, 2020.
Heather Vogell – Reporter, ProPublica
Heather Vogell is a reporter at ProPublica. She is currently investigating the rental market.
She has previously investigated President Trump’s business entanglements and collaborated with reporters at WNYC on the podcast, “Trump, Inc.” Her 2019 stories on discrepancies between what Trump Org told city property tax officials and what it reported on loan documents won an award from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing.
She has also exposed abuse at group homes for the developmentally disabled and high schools that push out low-achievers to goose their graduation rates. Previously, she was a reporter at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where her work on test cheating in the public school system resulted in the indictments of the superintendent and 34 others.
A series she co-authored, “Cheating Our Children,” examined suspicious test scores in public schools across the nation, becoming a 2013 finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting. She has also received a Sigma Delta Chi award for Non-Deadline Reporting, the Hillman Prize and multiple Education Writers Association awards for her investigative work.
Before the Journal-Constitution, she worked at The Charlotte Observer, The Chicago Tribune, and The Day, in New London, Connecticut.