While appointments are encouraged, vendors and visitors will be permitted at HQ or any EDEN site. Please call our main line 216-961-9690 for scheduling.
Visitors and vendors must adhere to all social distancing and COVID-19 requirements, including wearing a face covering. | Questions? Emailedeninfo@EDENcle.organd we will respond.

Housing is Our Foundation

SUPPORT OUR MISSION

Ruth Gillett Honored at Harper's Pointe

EDEN and its Housing First Initiative Partners — FrontLine Service, CHN Housing Partners, Enterprise Community Partners, and Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland — were honored to dedicate the Community Room at Harper’s Pointe to Ruth Gillett, who recently retired from her position as Director of Cuyahoga County’s Office of Homeless Services.

Ruth’s tremendous leadership and unwavering dedication has enabled the Housing First Initiative to reach an incredible milestone in its efforts to eradicate chronic homelessness in our community. Harper's Pointe is the most recent Housing First Permanent Supportive Housing Building; it contains 71 units for tenants with very low income and a disability who were previously homeless.

The beautiful artwork outside the room was unveiled, today, and the partners were thrilled to show it to Ruth and the Office of Homeless Services staff in person. Everyone felt this was a fitting tribute for Ruth's legacy of providing a safe place to call home for our most vulnerable community members!

The dedication plaque reads:

Housing First extends its deep gratitude and admiration to Ruth Gillett
A tireless public servant, Ruth has worked with the Cuyahoga County Office of Homeless Services since its creation in 1993 and served as director from 1998 to 2020. As a founding partner of Housing First, Ruth played a crucial role in securing initial community support and provided ongoing leadership for more than 20 years. This room is named in her honor, as this building represents a significant milestone in the effort to end chronic homelessness in Cuyahoga County.

Dedication of Harper's Pointe Community Room

EDEN Celebrates 30 Years of Providing Housing Solutions

Celebrate with us! Make an impact by donating $30

On December 12, 1990, Emerald Development and Economic Network, Inc. (EDEN, Inc.) filed its Articles of Incorporation with the Ohio Secretary of State. Its primary goals were providing, operating, and advocating for affordable housing opportunities for low-income persons living with disabilities and may be experiencing homelessness.

What began as one property on West St. James Avenue has grown exponentially over the past 30 years. EDEN now owns and manages more than 200 units of scattered-site housing for individuals and families who have a member with a mental illness, owns and manages 738 units of Permanent Supportive Housing for chronically homeless individuals, and is currently developing an additional 62 units in Lorain County. The agency also owns Norma Herr Women's Center, which is the primary shelter in Cuyahoga County for single adult women.

EDEN administers rental assistance for more than 3,000 households per month, focusing mainly on persons with disabilities and those who are homeless. This includes single individuals, families, and citizens re-entering our community from institutions. Additionally, EDEN is the primary provider of the Rapid Re-Housing Program (time-limited rental assistance) in Cuyahoga County.

In 2020, EDEN served more than 4,500 households — the highest total in its history — with permanent supportive housing, rental assistance, homeless prevention services, and more.

Partner with EDEN to help alleviate homelessness and housing insecurities in northeast Ohio:

We are running a social media campaign on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter encouraging visitors to donate $30 in honor of EDEN's 30th anniversary. .

You can help by

(1) donating $30 (make a greater impact by making it a recurring donation the 30th of every month);

(2) liking and following our pages; and

(3) sharing and re-tweeting our posts on your own social media to extend our reach.

EDEN will be celebrating its 30th Anniversary on September 11th at the Madison in downtown Cleveland from 6:00 to 10:00 pm. EDEN's 30th Year Anniversary Garden Party Celebration will commemorate EDEN's service to the northeast Ohio community and raise funds for its next 30 years.

Make this a celebration to remember by asking your company to become a sponsor of the event. We expect more than 200 community leaders, stakeholders, and EDEN supporters to attend, and you can use this opportunity to make an impact. Sponsors enjoy special recognition during the event, ads in our program booklet, social media attention, and more. (Click here to view all the sponsor benefits for each level.)

Thank you for 30 years of supporting our mission: providing housing solutions to people facing the challenges of housing insecurities and homelessness.

Questions? Contact Jacquie Skrzypiec (216-462-0967).

Our Shared Priority: End Homelessness for Young Adults

Youth Data confirms that homelessness is a condition that impacts people of color and other minorities a a much higher rate than their representation in the population. Working towards racial equity is an essential part of the mission and values of EDEN and our organization strives to promote racial equity, both among staff and among those we serve.

Along with our partners, YWCA of Greater Cleveland and FrontLine Service (FLS), we have youth been developing strategies to understand and address inequities that exist in our work. Our shared goal is to reduce the over-representation of young adults of color in the homeless system and end their homelessness by the end of 2021. We invite you to assist us in this worthy goal.

Learn more ...

KEEPING EVERYONE SAFE
COVID-19 Update

At EDEN, we're continually monitoring developing news of the spread of COVID-19, so that we can make necessary adjustments to our activities. Our top priority is the health and safety of our clients, staff, and partners.

While appointments are encouraged, vendors and visitors will be permitted at HQ or any EDEN site. Please call our main line 216-961-9690 for scheduling. If there is no answer, please leave a message and we will respond as quickly as possible.

Visitors are required to follow standard protective protocols: wear a mask, engage in social distancing, and wash hands frequently.

Click here for more information about how EDEN is responding to the pandemic and how you can keep you and your family safe and healthy.

Have you been fully vaccinated? Register at Ohio's Vax-A-Million for a chance to win $1,000,000 (adults) or a full-ride college scholarship (teens).

Households

Young Adult Households

Family Households

30th Anniversary Annual Appeal

Annual Highlights:
2020 by the Numbers

During 2020, 4,522 households were served by EDEN, representing the highest total in EDEN's history.
Despite the challenges presented due to COVID-19, our staff fielded an average of 2,500 calls per week.
Close to 1,000 women were provided with emergency shelter at Norma Herr Women's Center.
EDEN opened Harper's Pointe in October, its 12th Permanent Supportive Housing building serving the chronically homeless. The building contains 71 one-bedroom apartments, including eight ADA handicap accessible units and two units with accessible features for residents with hearing and vision impairments, in the Brooklyn Centre Neighborhood.
The agency provided 967 households with Rapid-Rehousing throughout the year.
Our Information Systems Department equipped 100 new users for remote working and deployed 70 total new workstations (a 400% increase over normal years).
EDEN provided nearly 900 households with Homeless Prevention emergency support during 2020.

A Letter from EDEN's Executive Director

Dear Friends of EDEN:

Elaine Gimmel I hope this finds you well during this incredibly difficult time.

As I reflect upon the year in order to draft this annual message, January of 2020 seems like a lifetime ago.

Beginning in March, EDEN's daily operations underwent a whirlwind of change, from workplace locations, to staff responsibilities, to COVID protocols, to methods of service delivery, but through it all, our staff has risen to each challenge with ingenuity, resilience, fortitude, and unwavering dedication to EDEN's mission, and for that I am deeply grateful. These unprecedented times have required adaptability and flexibility from each and every member of the EDEN team, and I am beyond proud to work with so many incredible people, and tremendously thankful for their willingness to take everything in stride. EDEN staff have truly been unsung heroes in our region's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Throughout the year, we have been and will continue making diligent, informed decisions around COVID-19, maintaining constant contact with our participants, community partners, and funders in the process.

Sudden changes in our society due to the global pandemic have made many more people vulnerable than ever before. Amid an unprecedented public health and economic crisis, EDEN has increased the housing options and related supports for Cuyahoga County's at-risk populations, and we have delivered these vital services to the greatest number of households in the history of our agency. Like health care workers, first responders, grocery workers, and more, EDEN staff are essential workers during COVID-19 and beyond. Housing is always essential.

But while EDEN has stepped up to address a massive surge in demand for safety net services, meeting this challenge has resulted in unexpected costs and revenue reduction. For example, we could not celebrate the critically-important work we do with you at our Annual Event, this year, which raises vital operating support for our programs and services.

Your support of this year's Annual Fund Appeal will enable us to continue to maintain and innovate our operations, and buffer against some of the most serious health, economic, and social consequences of the pandemic for our community through the foundational provision of a place to call home for our neighbors in need.

As EDEN embarks upon its 30th Anniversary Year, I can affirm that EDEN is uniquely prepared to help our community navigate through both the immediate response to COVID-19 and the long-term rebuilding process that will follow.

While we may not know the depth of the challenges in front of us, I know that we are at our best when working together. We would be honored and grateful to partner with you in the essential work of providing housing--and achieving a healthier, stronger, and more equitable community for all.

Please accept my wishes for a peaceful and healthy season, and brighter days in 2021, for you and your loved ones.

Sincerely,

Elaine Gimmel
Executive Director

SUPPORT OUR MISSION