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Midtown Brews discussion about urban disinvestment and the county landbank with Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis.

Donation: $5.00 and your favorite six-pack of brew.

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The ongoing foreclosure crisis, shifting demographics that include more single-parent households, an aging population and the associated cross-generational living, and growing interest in alternative housing options all combine to make cohousing an increasingly compelling housing choice. Cohousing has been developed successfully in many states in recent years but not yet in Ohio.

Mr. Charles Durrett, author of Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves, and a pioneer in the field of cohousing development, will be the lead speaker at the forum. He has been involved in over fifty cohousing development projects.

Other panelists include:

• Robert N. Brown, Director of the Cleveland City Planning Commission
• Lillian Kuri, Director of Special Projects, The Cleveland Foundation
• William A. Gould, Founder of ArtSpace Cleveland
• Jay Gardner, Affordable Housing Director, Fairfax Renaissance Development Corporation
• Keith Burgess, Senior VP of Community Development Lending, Charter One Bank

To RSVP, please contact Kim Scott at 664-3803, kscott@city.cleveland.oh.us

Cohousing is a form of cooperative housing that engages residents in the design and management of their community. Cohousing encourages community interaction, consensus in decision making, and shared common spaces. By sharing facilities and helping each other, residents of cohousing communities can often lead more sustainable lives.

The ongoing foreclosure crisis, shifting demographics that include more single-parent households, an aging population and the associated cross-generational living, and growing interest in alternative housing options all combine to make cohousing an increasingly compelling housing choice.

Cohousing has been developed successfully in many states in recent years, but there are few opportunities in Ohio. However, there is growing interest in developing a cohousing community in Cleveland. The Cleveland City Planning Commission is organizing meetings on cohousing. For more information contact Kim Scott at 216-664-3803 (kscott@city.cleveland.oh.us), or Trevor Hunt at 216-664-2212, (thunt@city.cleveland.oh.us).

Resources
Cohousing Association
Cohousing books

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For owners, managers and contractors working in HUD subsidized properties

Presenter: Tom Neltner, J.D., Director of Training and Education, National Center for Health Housing.

Sponsored by Environmental Health Watch & Cleveland Tenants organizations - Tenants for Healthy Housing Project

Approved by the Ohio Department of Agriculture for 1.5 Recertification Credits

For more information, call the Cleveland Tenants Organization at 216-432-0617

• A carbon tax has reduced Denmark’s emissions by 15% largely because revenues are in a lock box that only industrial polluters can touch for research and investment in alternative energy sources, Monica Prasad, author of “The Politics of Free Markets” writes in The New York Times. With a carbon tax gaining bipartisan support in the U.S. we should “prevent policy makers from turning the tax into a cash cow (or we’ll) raise revenue but do little to curb pollution.”
• Local food cooperatives are less revolution, more Kiwanas Club here in Northeast Ohio, Mike Gill writes in this week's Free Times, but their growth has been tremendous. Lakewood alone went from zero to 250 households who bought produce last year from local farm coops known as Community Supported Agriculture (or CSA). The city’s new mayor, Ed FitzGerald, is even helping groups find and use vacant properties for community gardens.
• It doesn’t get any more eco-friendly than Bike & Build, a nonprofit group that organizes teams of 30 young adults who cycle across the country, stopping in cities long enough to raise awareness and provide manual labor for local affordable housing groups like Habitat for Humanity. Cleveland native and tri-athlete Andrew Sheridan is raising donations so that he can lead a group from Virginia Beach to Cannon Beach, OR this summer.
  
  

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Breakfast to introduce recent grantees of the Civic Innovation Lab.

Free, but you must register by sending an email with "Register for Breakfast" in the subject line to info@civicinnovationlab.org and include your name and company.

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Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Cleveland’s 31st Annual Luncheon, with guest speakers Sandra Pianalto, president of the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank, and Kenneth D. Wade, president and CEO of NeighborWorks America.

Ticket information.

Organize! Ohio and Bromley & Associates are sponsoring a one day fair lending conference: “Foreclosure Crisis--Shaping the Consumer Response." The conference will feature national and regional experts presenting strategies to combat predatory lending and payday lending. Among the speakers will include Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, Ohio Rep. William Batchelder, Stephen Dane, nationally recognized attorney in fair housing and mortgage lending, and Marty Gelfand, counsel from Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s office who organized a series of public hearings related to sub prime lending and foreclosures. An overview of Governor Strickland’s Foreclosure Task Force will be also presented.

Registration information.

A panel consisting of local officials and Michael Sering, director of housing and shelter at Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries, will discuss topics ranging from what is being done to provide housing and services for homeless individuals, day to day life in homeless shelters, the distinction between homeless and panhandling, and the balancing of civil rights and safety. Joe Frolik of the PD will moderate.

Join us for next week's Midtown Brews...with Habitat for Humanity and Meet The Bloggers

Map link

Habitat for Humanity's dynamic leader, Jeffrey Bowen, will join us for an open conversation about ReStore, GCHFH's program to REuse, REcycle and REsell functional building materials and tools with proceeds to benefit Habitat's mission to eliminate poverty housing throughout our community. Program info.

Learn more:

Building Global Partners 2007

Gulf Coast Rebuilding

Habitat for Humanity Fact Sheet

Stewardship