By Chris Bull

August 2024

A Cleveland resident moves her belongings out of the Woodhill Homes apartment where she lived for 45 years.

In Cleveland, Ohio, a city once thought immune to gentrification, a new and troubling form of displacement is unfolding. As the Cleveland Clinic expands—now the city’s largest employer, with more than 50,000 workers—it’s reshaping neighborhoods, pushing low-income residents out, and leaving vacant lots and abandoned homes in its wake. This ‘mechanical’ displacement, driven by corporate growth, is disproportionately affecting the city’s most vulnerable populations, further entrenching Cleveland’s status as the poorest major city in the United States.

Cleveland’s legacy of deindustrialization left a scar, with one-third of the city living in poverty by 1980 due to fleeing jobs, moving manufacturing overseas, and much of the population leaving the city. While some recovery has occurred, the poverty rate remains high—31% overall, and 46% among children—making Cleveland the poorest major U.S. city for children under 18 in cities with populations over 300,000. As poverty leads to negative health outcomes, Cleveland also has the highest infant mortality rate of any major city in the country, higher than many lesser developed nations, and with an apparent racial disparity (15.4 deaths per 1000 births among black babies vs. 6.9 deaths per 1000 births among white babies). The city is also home to one of the largest food deserts in the country with over 50% of the population living in areas that lack access to affordable, healthy food options.

                  On the surface, the Cleveland Clinic’s expansion promises revitalization—new construction, convenient roads, fresh markets, and job opportunities. However, the reality of this transformation is far more complicated, with different outcomes depending on who you are…

                  As of March 2024, 60% of households are renter-occupied in the city of Cleveland, and the neighborhoods surrounding the Cleveland Clinic are between 60-80% renter-occupied. Most renters are low-income and have no bargaining power or capital—leaving them with little recourse when the Cleveland Clinic arrives with an offer to buy their homes, demanding they vacate within a set time. This is complicated by the fact that there are very few regulations for landlords to abide by and that approximately 9,000 properties in Cleveland are owned by out-of-state landlords (only 7.7% of which are considered to be in excellent condition according to a recent survey done by the city of Cleveland and the Western Reserve Land Conservancy). When an out-of-state owner receives an offer from the Cleveland Clinic to buy a poorly maintained property, everyone profits—but the renters are left behind. To make matters worse, owing to tax abatement and tax break benefits, the Cleveland Clinic buys properties just to tear them down even if there is no immediate plan or construction taking place solely because owning more land means to pay less taxes, and they’ll ultimately expand into those areas eventually, anyways.

                  For owners, when a large corporation buys and tears down homes on all sides of their houses leaving nothing but abandoned lots and uncared for fields, the property value of the their homes decreases. Because of the involvement and expansion of the Cleveland Clinic in areas nearby, property tax significantly increases simultaneously. This leaves owners backed into a corner and this is exactly when the Cleveland Clinic shows up to make an offer to purchase their home and remove them from the place they’ve always known.

                  The east side of Cleveland is in a major transition period. Many businesses, corner stores, banks, small restaurants, barbershops, etc., as well as residents’ homes have been purchased by the Cleveland Clinic but are not yet replaced or directly involved in any plan or reconstruction; this leaves even more empty buildings that contribute to the desolation and lack of resources in many east side Cleveland neighborhoods. In other areas, entire buildings and project housing communities have been torn down to give way to new construction. And in some areas, not yet in place of but nearest to the old—at times historical—yet expiring essence, new construction mockingly appears as if its sole purpose is to foreshadow what is inevitably to come. While the Cleveland Clinic’s development projects—such as the Opportunity Corridor—are billed as a way to improve the city, they also contribute to the destabilization of existing communities.

                  Opportunity Corridor—a 331 million dollar improvement project managed by the City of Cleveland and Ohio Department of Transportation––is a newly built 3.6 mile road that stretches from East 55th Street to East 105th Street, ultimately connecting downtown to the Cleveland Clinic to make it more convenient for employees to live in ideal areas of Cleveland and have a convenient commute to work. Some parts of the corridor are walled off so that local neighborhoods are out of view, yet the city's marketing promises that the road will boost traffic and local economic growth. While the Opportunity Corridor is marketed as an economic boon, it more often serves to physically—and metaphorically—cut off these already marginalized communities, leaving them disconnected from the promise of prosperity. In fact, with the disappearance of local businesses on top of already being an economically disadvantaged area, locals are wondering where anyone would spend their money even if they wanted to. The City of Cleveland states, “The area between I-490 and University Circle has become known as the ‘Forgotten Triangle’ due to the lack of economic activity. Outside of the transportation benefits it could bring to the Cleveland area, this effort opens the potential for new economic development, new jobs and a new identity for the community.” However, locals argue that the promise of economic growth rings hollow, as the project has yet to deliver tangible benefits to the neighborhoods it affect and that the city of Cleveland could have used the money to more directly benefit their neighborhoods.

                  Although the Cleveland Clinic stretches into multiple neighborhoods, Fairfax is the neighborhood that houses the main campus. The average Fairfax home sold for approximately $120,000 in 2024, a 68% increase from the previous year, and the average rent is now $1,700 monthly. So, where does a local resident go when they’ve lost their home or the place they rent? Because of the sharp increase in housing and renting costs due to the influx of high paying healthcare-related jobs coupled with the decrease in low-cost options due to the Cleveland Clinic buying and flipping properties, it’s not as easy as finding a different home nearby. This modern form of displacement—often referred to as 'redlining by proxy'—forces residents out of Cleveland’s core and shifts economic inequality outward, perpetuating a cycle of disinvestment that threatens to leave both the city and its suburbs desolate and unequal. As Cleveland continues to transform under the influence of its largest employer, the question remains: who benefits from this so-called revitalization? While the Cleveland Clinic may be reshaping the city’s skyline, its expansion is displacing the very people who call these neighborhoods home. If this trend continues, Cleveland risks becoming a city further divided—not just by wealth, but by access to opportunity, health, and stability.