Cleveland’s newly renovated and expanded Norma Herr Women’s Center increased its capacity from 175 to 203 beds — all in private single or double rooms — while adding more than 26,000 square feet and amenities including lounge and computer areas, a warming kitchen, a dining room and an expanded courtyard.
City and county officials and homelessness service providers gathered Wednesday at the Payne Avenue shelter in downtown Cleveland as construction crews continued work and the smell of fresh paint lingered. The nearly $32 million project is nearing completion after years of planning and construction.
“This building has a long history, and getting to this day has been anything but easy,” said Elaine Gimmel, executive director of EDEN, Inc., the nonprofit housing provider that owns the building. YWCA Greater Cleveland manages the shelter.
The added beds are only part of the change, Gimmel said: “Numbers don’t tell the whole story.”
All 203 beds are in private single or double rooms, rather than the congregate sleeping spaces common in shelters. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of “non-congregate” sleeping arrangements, but feedback from residents who were suddenly afforded privacy and personal space showed its broader value.
“When we provide people with safety, privacy and respect … things change,” said LeVine Ross, director of the Cuyahoga County Office of Homeless Services. “Hope becomes tangible and goals become attainable. … You are not only transforming infrastructure, you are transforming lives.”
Renovation of the east side of the original building was completed in July, and work on the first floor of the new addition — which totals more than 26,000 square feet — wraps up this month. The second floor is scheduled to open in October. Other work will continue into next year.
Federal funding remains uncertain
No one at the event talked about the looming challenge to providing housing for people leaving shelters like Norma Herr.
Local officials have spent the past year preparing for new guidelines from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which distributes federal funds for homelessness services. HUD announced last year that it intended to shift its funding priorities away from the “housing first” model — long-term housing programs with optional services — to transitional housing with two-year maximums and service or work requirements.
The new guidelines are expected to cost Cuyahoga County about 400 beds in permanent supportive housing, which is for people who have experienced long-term or repeated homelessness, typically due to mental health or addiction struggles.
But the changes also created an opportunity. A Home For Every Neighbor, the City of Cleveland-funded program operating only in the city, applied for $1.5 million in HUD money to take its services countywide. A Home For Every Neighbor subsidizes rents for about a year, making it eligible for transitional housing funds.
The program would continue to serve people living unsheltered in Cleveland, said manager Liam Haggerty. ”But if we can expand, that would be great because there are lots of other folks who don’t fit into that category,” he said.
On Friday, a federal judge ordered HUD to scrap the new guidelines, at least temporarily, because the department had failed to offer a public comment period as required by law.
No one’s quite sure what happens next.
“The last 18 months have been filled with a lot of chaos, and the ball is absolutely in HUD’s court,” said Mary Frances Kenion, chief equity officer at the National Association to End Homelessness, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
A HUD spokesperson told Signal Cleveland via email that the department “will avail itself of all options under the law” but did not specify whether it would appeal the judge’s ruling. At a press conference on Tuesday, HUD Secretary Scott Turner said that he is “committed to the reforms included in our 2026 [funding guidelines] because the housing first model is a failed model.”
