CLEVELAND — Even if you’ve never heard the term “Middle Neighborhood,” you’re probably familiar with what they are.

“They’re the places where, generally speaking, things have appeared stable for a while,” Jeffrey Verespej, Chief Operating Officer at Cleveland Neighborhood Progress (CNP), said. “But if you start to look under the hood, you start to realize that these are places that actually need investment and they’re slowly slipping towards the edge of decline.”

In Cleveland, these are areas like Old Brooklyn, West Park, North Collinwood and Lee-Harvard — neither the strongest neighborhoods in the city, nor the most distressed.

Verespej said Middle Neighborhoods rightfully don’t get as much attention or support as more disinvested areas. But his team believes a little intervention now can keep these neighborhoods on the right path.

“So, we developed what we consider to be the largest middle neighborhoods intervention in the country,” he said.

CNP is working in partnership with state, local and philanthropic leaders to stabilize the housing markets and commercial districts in six of Cleveland’s Middle Neighborhoods.

Verespej said they’ve now acquired about $12 million to rehabilitate around 200 homes and provide storefront renovation funding to business owners over the next four years.

“The idea is to shift these markets from a place of fragility and decline to stability and reinvestment,” he said.

Devin Cotten is currently working to launch a Universal Basic Employment, or UBE, pilot program in Cleveland, which he believes could also benefit middle neighborhoods.

The idea is to guarantee residents who work can earn $50-thousand dollars a year and get benefits. 

UBE would pay the worker’s wages and the businesses would be responsible for benefits. 

“UBE is being able to subsidize the workforce, so that amazing businesses like Docks on Harvard, Angie’s Soul Food, different places that are found in our Lee-Harvard community, have the ability to serve as a neighborhood anchor institution,” Cotten said.

While Verespej agrees that UBE would lift up neighborhoods across the city, he also knows it will take time to see those results. 

So for now, his team is continuing their work to invest in main and residential streets in hopes of some stabilization soon. 

“These are things we can do with more with a quicker time frame and fewer resources,” he said. “So that is the goal, so that more homebuyers are interested in these neighborhoods. More existing homeowners have the confidence to repaint their porch or get a home equity line of credit, and more businesses want to join along Main Street.”.”