LMHA to move to Broadway

Move requires HUD approval

Near the end of 2024, the Lorain Metropolitan Housing Association will make Broadway in downtown Lorain its home, according to CEO Judy Carlin.

The housing association’s offices will relocate from 1600 and 1604 Kansas Ave. to the Northwest Bank Building, 457 Broadway.

The move still is in the early stages, Carlin said, but the housing association confirmed that it will take place.

“We are looking to purchase the Northwest Bank Building, and relocating our central office operations from the two sites we have on Kansas,” Carlin said. “(The Kansas Ave.) building is a converted grocery store … it is not ADA accessible.”

According to Carlin, the current building on Kansas Avenue would require about $1 million in repairs to be fully updated and compliant with the housing association’s needs.

Additionally, the current floor plan does not have enough space to house all of the agency’s employees, she said.

“The building itself is small; we’ve outgrown it (and) we don’t have sufficient space for all our staff,” Carlin said. “We want to bring everybody under one roof.

“But perhaps the largest and most important reason is that this area is not as accessible for our residents and the community as we could be.”

Carlin said the Kansas Avenue location is rather secluded for some of Lorain’s residents who rely on the housing association for help.

The Broadway building’s central location will be a huge help, Carlin said.

“We will be within three tenths of a mile from Social Security, City Hall, Lorain County

Community Action Agency and United Way,” she said. “We are going to be right there (for our residents), and we’ll also be a stimulator for downtown.”

Gale Sayers Proby, chief operating officer for the housing association, said the agency’s staff currently is split between the two Kansas Avenue sites, which can make working together and inter-building communication difficult.

The process will be smooth for residents as the housing association makes its move near the end of the year, Sayers Proby said.

“We’ll communicate with our residents (about the move),” Sayers Proby said. “We just transitioned to online applications for residents and landlords.

“But, this is something we had to put in our annual plan that we share with our community. We’ve already communicated that we’re planning to do this, now it’s happening.”

Carlin said the move is closer to the start of the process than the end, but once final approval is given, the switch will happen very quickly.

She said she expects to have full approval from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development within the next nine months.

“We’re at the beginning of the process … there’s due diligence that we must do to comply,” Carlin said. “We are in the process of completing due diligence.

“I would hope for maybe a year, year and a half.”

The Lorain Metropolitan Housing Association is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.