Crain’s Cleveland Business: Local nonprofit receives grant to develop east side’s first LGBTQ+ transitional housing

Local nonprofit Haus of Transcendent (HOT) received a grant from the North Carolina-based Sandra Hoskins Legacy Foundation (SHLF) to create accessible and affordable housing on Cleveland’s East Side for members of the LBGQT+ community.

The $829,467 grant will go towards the HOT Hausing project that will create accessible and affordable housing for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning and Two-Spirit (LGBTQI2S+) people and allies with transitional housing needs, Bree Morgan, director of advancement at HOT, wrote in an email. This will be the first project of its kind on the East Side. 

HOT, which provides support to LGBTQI+ adults, applied for the grant through SHLF and were one of about a dozen chosen for grants this year “because Cleveland has a big need for accessible and affordable housing,” Morgan wrote.

SHLF “supports solutions to the affordable housing crisis” in the greater Cleveland, Fort Lauderdale and Raleigh areas “with particular interest in supportive housing for adults with profound autism/intellectual disabilities and LGBTQ+ teens and young adults,” the website states.

Representatives for SHLF didn’t reply to a request for additional comment.

With this grant, the HOT Hausing project has raised a total of $851,042 as of Thursday, Dec. 5. The total amount needed will be determined by the “direction our project takes after we hear input from the community, and our feasibility assessment is complete,” Morgan wrote. 

Morgan said the goal of this project is “creating more accessible and affordable housing to improve housing options for LGBTQI2s+ people and allies in Cleveland.”

The October 2024 Greater Cleveland LGBTQ+ Community Needs Assessment stated that of the 1,561 responses, 7% of those are currently experiencing housing insecurity and 24% have experienced housing insecurity in the past.

Of those currently experiencing housing insecurity, 24% of respondents said they experience it almost every month, 36% some months but not every month, 8% one or two months and 31% responded that they did not know.

The survey found that 88% of 1,476 respondents said the most important factor when choosing a home or apartment is “cost I can afford” with liking the neighborhood following at 62% and having an LGBTQ+-friendly atmosphere in third with 57%.

HOT is in the process of acquiring a building and land on E. 60th Street, including an 8,630-square-foot mixed-use building and three undeveloped lots. Details regarding the future use of the undeveloped lots or an exact address aren’t yet available. The project website does state that it will be used for housing, community space and wraparound services.

While there is a building currently on the property, Morgan said they are “doing a feasibility study in order to determine whether we will renovate the existing building, or build a brand new building(s).”

The grant money will be used to create four units of transitional housing, Morgan wrote, but that is their “very conservative estimate for the initial project” as the results of the feasibility assessment will determine the amount of units they can build and how many people they can serve.  

“We want to maximize the potential of the building and land with both the present and future in mind so that we are able to serve the most people possible (as quickly as possible),” Morgan wrote. 

The Buckeye Flame was the first to report about the grant.