CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland City Councilmen Joe Cimperman and Matt Zone say they fully support a plan to create housing on Lorain Avenue to support homeless men who are fighting addiction.

The Cleveland Housing Network has an option to purchase the property, a closed-down Hollywood Video store, and has submitted an application to the Ohio Housing Finance Authority for funding for the project.

"It's just smart housing, smart public policy," said Zone.

"But you have certain people who say Ohio City has been the dumping ground of too much social service agencies serving vulnerable populations," he said. "This gets right to the root of NIMBYism. [NIMBY is an acronym for Not In My Backyard.] People want to talk out of both sides of their mouth."

The project is termed "permanent supportive housing," but not everyone is supportive of the idea.

Architect David Ellison, a former Green Party candidate for Cuyahoga County executive and an Ohio City resident, sees shady intent in a secretive deal that smacks of "machine" politics. Upset that the members of the Ohio City Development Corp.'s board voted to support the project in a meeting opponents weren't invited to attend, he posted their names and personal information on an Ohio City Yahoo board.

The information was public record, but Cimperman said Ellison crossed the line, and so the councilman wrote a letter to the board to alert them and sent an email to police saying, "I have grown more concerned by the tenor and underlying tone of violence on this Web site."

He said later that such information can be dangerous: "If you run for office, you're public. I get that. But, really? Did you have to put someone is pregnant or not? When their terms are up? That's intimidation."

Zone added: "When you profile people, when you put where they live, that is dangerous."

Ellison said that's nonsense: "As a body ostensibly voting on behalf of the community, we have the right to know who the board members are, where they live, how they voted and what was said in the proceeding. A hidden vote by individuals who themselves are hidden is not something that should be happening in this community or this country."

Excerpt from:
Ohio City homeless housing plan stirs heated debate: Michael K. McIntryre's Tipoff