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Our mission is to preserve and expand the supply of safe, decent, fair, affordable and accessible rental housing in Greater Cleveland by:

Informing citizens of their rights and duties in rental housing;
Representing tenants and the interest of tenants in the preservation and promotion of rental housing rights;
Empowering tenants individually and collectively to represent themselves and their interests;
Advocating for the needs of low and moderate income tenants;
Resolving disputes between landlords and tenants;
Preventing homelessness; and
Combating discrimination in housing based on race, religion, color, gender, handicap, familial status, social/economic class, and sexual orientation.

CTO has a staff of 10 persons and is governed by a 21 person Board of Trustees representing a broad spectrum of the community. CTO has approximately 400 individual members and over 1,000 affiliate members who belong to local tenant organizations which are affiliated with CTO.

Mike Piepsny is the Executive Director of the organization and Ruby Nelson is the President of the Board of Trustees.

Cleveland Tenants Organization February 2008 Newsletter

CTO'S Winter Newsletter is now available online. You can download a copy by clicking on the link below (PDF file).

Download Newsletter

2007 Cleveland Tenants Organization Annual Report

CTO'S 2007 Annual Report is now available online. You can download a copy by clicking on the link below (PDF file).

Download Report

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HousingCleveland.org

Looking for Affordable Rental Housing... Go to http://www.housingcleveland.org/ This is the new data base created by a whole host of non-profit and governmental organizations to put in one place as comprehensible a list of for rent, affordable vacancies in Cuyahoga County.

Be a part of the effort to eliminate homelessness by supporting

the Heading Home initiative...

Heading Home was convened in April 2005 in order to make recommendations in two areas: preventing homelessness, and increasing the supply of affordable rental housing for households with incomes at or below 30 percent of the area median income. Following the release of the report in late 2006, an implementation process was initiated, and a plan released in early 2007. It will take the effort and commitment of our elected officials, community advocates, service providers, stakeholders, and community partners to implement this initiative. To learn more about getting involved and/or endorsing the plan, CLICK ON THE LOGO ABOVE to visit our partner agency, the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH).

On March 10^th, The Cleveland Tenants Organization and the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the

Homeless played host to over forty advocates, city/county planners, and local policymakers in order to brief them on the progress made in implementing the recommendations of the Heading Home report.

For the past year, a number of community advocates, and organizations have been working on the plan to end our region’s affordable housing and homelessness issues. These efforts have focused on two initiatives:

· The Heading Home Implementation Plan

· The County Housing Trust Fund

The intent of the meeting was to bring interested parties up to date on the progress thus far, the goals of the implementation plan, and to ask for their support and effort in implementing these important initiatives. Representatives from Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, as well as State Representative Mike Foley attended the event.

The day after the update, a smaller group met with County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones to discuss the County Trust Fund. The Commissioner was very receptive to the idea and clearly recognized the need for the Housing Trust Fund.

Efforts are now being made to arrange for presentation to the County Commissioners.

If you are interested in joing the effort to increase affordable housing and eliminate homelessness, or in serving on one of the sub-committees, call CTO’s Executvie Director, Mike Piepsny at (216) 432-0617!

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Donate to CTO

You can help keep CTO moving forward and providing the important information about landlord tenant laws, affordable housing information and environmental health issues, by donating to CTO. By doing so, we will also put you on our quarterly mailing list.

Become a Member Today!
You can become a member of the Cleveland Tenants Organization TODAY for only $12.00 per year! For more information, email our Executive Director, Mike Piepsny HERE. Membership entitles you to instantaneous email responses, the "Insider's Hotline" phone service, our quarterly Newsletter, as well as special invitations to our events! BECOME A MEMBER TODAY!

Rental Rights Workshops
Every Wednesday from 5:30 - 7:30 pm, Cheryl Boyer is at Lakewood Christian Service Center, 1412 Marlowe Ave, Lakewood, Ohio, to answer individual questions about landlord - tenant rights and responsibilities.

Out of Reach Study Released
The National Low Income Housing Coalition has published its annual study on the state of affordable housing in America. Go to the http://www.nlihc.org/ for details.

Cleveland Lead Ordinance passed

Cleveland City Council recently amended the lead ordinance, originally passed in August 2004. The ordinance requires landlords to disclose their knowledge of lead based paint hazards on their property to new tenants. The ordinance mirrors the Federal Statute which has been in effect since 1994. The ordinance allows local enforcement of the law, rather than having to rely on Federal actors. For more information about the ordinance, call Juanalicia Duran at CTO. 432-0617

To view a copy of the ordinance go to the site of our partner, Environmental Health Watch at http://www.ehw.org/ and look under lead paint information.

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