A painful budget season for Cuyahoga County is coming to a close, crystallizing a set of cuts to the area’s historically generous social safety net. 

County council members voted Tuesday night to pass a two-year budget that cuts about $16.5 million from the health and human services fund in 2026 and about $20.5 million from the fund in 2027. The decision brings to a close what several council members characterized as the “worst” or “most challenging” budget cycle they had experienced. 

The cuts couldn’t be avoided, county officials said, because Cuyahoga County isn’t bringing in enough money to pay for the programs. Health and human services are largely funded with property taxes, which residents are increasingly failing to pay.

The cuts are less than initially proposed by Executive Chris Ronayne earlier this fall. In November, county council members reversed course on a handful of the funding decisions. Most notably, the county fully restored the annual subsidy it gives to MetroHealth, the county hospital. 

The decision to lighten the cuts, even just for a couple of agencies, has significant financial consequences, officials said. The county will have to pull dollars from reserves – essentially, a government savings account – to afford this. That means the health and human services budget is “slightly out of balance,” said county council president Dale Miller.  

The decision to walk back even a few of the cuts came as a boon to the organizations that will receive more dollars than initially expected over the next two years: MetroHealth, Canopy Child Advocacy Center, a scholarship fund and a mentorship program for high schoolers. Throughout the past several months, leaders of each organization had asked the county council to restore their funding.  

Other agencies, though, will face the full scale of cuts the county initially proposed. That includes the county’s board overseeing mental health and addiction work, which will see a $4 million cut next year. Services for people experiencing homelessness and child care programs will also take hits in 2026 and 2027. 

Miller described the cuts as “very serious” but “not catastrophic.”

“This budget provides as much as we could fund under the circumstances, plus a little bit of a stretch,” Miller said during Tuesday night’s meeting. 

MetroHealth, child advocacy center see some funding restored

Four programs saw some degree of funding restored by the county council. 

The largest reversal was to the subsidy the county provides MetroHealth, which helps cover the cost of health care that residents aren’t able to afford themselves. 

Under the initial budget, MetroHealth would’ve seen a $3 million cut to this subsidy next year. In a county budget meeting earlier this fall, the hospital’s CEO, Dr. Christine Alexander-Rager, said the cut would mean roughly 1,000 fewer people could get reduced cost or free health care or prescriptions. She also said that she believed the hospital would be able to survive despite the cut. 

The county council restored the hospital’s funding to the same level it received in 2025, citing MetroHealth’s significant financial difficulties. The hospital operated at a loss last year and this year and is projected to do so again in 2026. It’s simultaneously bracing for federal Medicaid cuts. 

“We reinforced MetroHealth at a decisive moment, recognizing that its stability is essential to the well-being of families across this county,” said council member Meredith Turner during the meeting. 

The Canopy Child Advocacy Center, which coordinates efforts to support children and families after child abuse is reported, also initially faced a $1 million cut over the next two years. The funding was to be used for a child protection team – a group of medical experts and child welfare services who respond when there’s suspicion that a child experienced severe physical abuse or neglect. 

Canopy’s CEO, Jennifer Johnson, had told council members multiple times that the cuts would mean fewer services and slower response times for traumatized children. 

The county council restored half of the funding that was initially cut after council members recognized its importance, Miller said. He called the child protection team “basic safety and health for children.”  

The county also restored about $250,000 worth of funding for scholarships that Greater Cleveland Works provides to county residents seeking technical training, like in health care or information technology. And it added back $125,000 to a mentorship program aimed at increasing graduation rates of Black youth.

Many county social services will see cuts in 2026, 2027

The county’s final budget still cuts a broad array of social service programs. 

One of the most significant is a $4 million funding reduction to the county’s board of Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS). The board disburses money to agencies around the county that provide addiction and mental health care. Between the county’s cuts and federal and state funding changes, the ADAMHS board said it had to reduce funding for each of its programs by about 20% in 2026. 

That means many of the county’s mental health and addiction services will feel the funding squeeze. Y-Haven, which offers residential treatment for residents with substance use disorders, told Signal Cleveland in November that the cuts may mean fewer people can be served. (To read more about what providers expect a 20% cut to mean for the clients they work with, click here.)  

Non-profits that support child care, senior citizens, housing and homelessness are also facing cutbacks due to the county’s budget decision. A transitional housing facility downtown for working people and young people moving out of homelessness lost all its funding in the county’s first proposal and never regained it. The facility, North Point, is currently closed. The nonprofit that operated it had hoped to reopen North Point in a new building if they could secure funding. 

Some groups are already working to find creative ways to weather the cuts. Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries, which runs the largest homeless shelter in Cleveland, faces a loss of $241,000. Michael Sering, the nonprofit’s chief program officer, said that it worked with the county to identify federal funding to fill that gap. Shelter services are unlikely to be interrupted, he added.  

The council’s vote also delivers many cuts to the county government itself. It scales back the universal pre-kindergarten program Cuyahoga County runs by about $840,000, an amount that went unspent in the pre-K budget last year, a county official told council members earlier this fall at a budget meeting. 

Cuyahoga County’s Office of Reentry – which assists people leaving jail or prison – and its Job and Family Services Division will also get less funding. About 20 part-time customer service positions will be removed from the Job and Family Services Division, which helps residents sign up for Medicaid and SNAP.

Miller said he worries the cuts — in combination with new federal rules regarding SNAP and Medicaid — will make it more difficult for residents to get help from the department. This year, the office cut down the length of time residents had to wait on the phone to speak with an associate.

“We’re worried about losing that progress and going back to where we were, which would be a huge loss,” Miller said.

The county is also reducing funding to pay for housing and care for foster children by $2 million. Officials with the county’s Division of Children and Family Services said in county meetings earlier this year that the department is seeing fewer children who need the service. But Miller said in a budget meeting this fall that he thinks that money will be necessary.