Home Repair Resource Center to Hold Annual Meeting Tonight

For 40 years, cash-strapped Cleveland Heights families have depended on the Home Repair Resource Center to patch up their aging homes.

Now with federal cuts on the way to the Community Development Block Grant program, the nonprofit organization may have to dramatically scale back the programs it offers.

“We’re re-gearing ourselves up so that we can continue to do business in the future,” said HRRC Director Kathryn Lad. “How we’re going to look may be a little different, but that’s what you do after 40 years. You look at where you are and you see what makes you stay.”

The challenges the organization will face as it looks to provide local assistance into the future, as well as its past accomplishments, will be the topic of discussion at the HRRC’s annual meeting Wednesday. The meeting will be held from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the , and include talks from Lad, organization founder Diana Woodbridge, and Chuck Miller, architect from Doty & Miller Architects and chair of the Cleveland Heights Landmark Commission.

Lad said she expects as much as a 17 to 19 percent cut from the CDBG funds she receives. The federal government could cut as much as $300 million from the program nationwide. Some of the changes made to the organization in preparation for the cuts will be announced at the meeting.

The organization, in addition to funding repair projects and offering classes, provides education and counseling to prevent foreclosure and assist families who can't make their payments. 

“We’re trying to be proactive so that we can continue to do what we need to do to keep Cleveland Heights in good repair,” she said.