10/06/2026
By Thomas Jewell, special to cleveland.com
CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- When it comes to infill housing opportunities in the Caledonia neighborhood, no one has been more patient than Rev. Jimmie Hicks Jr. and the Start Right Community Development Corp.
City Council approved the sale of three vacant residential lots to Start Right Monday night, with Hicks hoping for many more to come, based on a new grant application to the Welcome Home Ohio program.
Start Right received a $500,000 grant earlier this year through the state program to build or rehabilitate five homes in the city and already has two lots they are working on.
Up to then, it had been a slow go especially early on with the previous city administration.
“We’ve been doing rehab in the Noble community since 2012 -- at that time totally reactive to receiving homes from the city and banks,” after the mortgage crisis, Hicks told council Monday (Oct. 5).
Since 2020, Start Right has become proactive and the city more cooperative, especially after Hicks stepped in to help resurrect the council-rejected $15 million Noble Station development.
As its local partner to obtain state housing credits, Hicks and Start Right assisted in the transformation to Nobility Court, a 52-unit complex, with a ribbon-cutting set for Oct. 14.
“But in seven years, we had only been able to get one home built,” Hicks said.
Their fortunes continued to shift, with Start Right receiving its first loan to build a home from the ground up this year.
In addition to the half-million dollar state grant, the nonprofit just received a $500,000 line of credit from Farmers National Bank, requiring that all the work be done in Cleveland Heights