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Area leaders excited to convert former YDC campus into social-services hub
WRPA application for $500K in state funding moves to next phase
MINERAL RIDGE
For the past year and a half, the former Youngstown Developmental Center has sat unused, its sprawling 35-acre campus and 10 buildings well-maintained, but empty.
The state shuttered the facility – which provided housing and care to individuals with developmental disabilities – at 4891 E. County Line Road on June 30, 2017.
Now, Mahoning County officials and local nonprofits are moving closer to achieving an ambitious plan to breathe new life into the property and turn it into a hub that addresses the needs of the Mahoning Valley’s most vulnerable individuals.
The Western Reserve Port Authority, which will own and operate the property and is taking a leading role in developing it, recently learned its application for $500,000 in state funding that would help renovate the campus’s main building has been moved to the next phase in the application process.
Project leaders have also brought on board a slew of community partners who would lease space to provide services encompassing a range of needs, from respite care for caregivers of elderly or disabled individuals to residential housing for young adults who have aged out of the foster-care system but are not yet self-sufficient.
The Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities, citing decreases in the number of residents using state-run developmental centers, announced in February 2015 it would shutter two of the state’s developmental centers in 2017.
The closure of YDC affected more than 250 staff members and about 85 individuals with developmental disabilities who lived on the campus.
Then, in 2017, a new state budget approved the transfer of YDC to the Mahoning County Mental Health and Recovery Board, thanks to an amendment state Sen. Joe Schiavoni of Boardman, D-33rd, added to the budget legislation.
The board is in the process of preparing to accept the property, and has a June 2020 deadline to do so – but project leaders hope to move faster than that.
The mental health and recovery board has been working with partner agencies to bring to fruition its vision of a social-services hub serving vulnerable populations.
Anchoring the campus’s main building – a vast, 40,000-square-foot space – will be planned tenants Alta Care Group, a community behavioral health organization; and the YMCA. The state funding project leaders are seeking would go toward building renovations to prepare it for some of the planned programming.
The YMCA plans to bring a variety of programs and services to the campus, which will not be geared toward the public, but toward youths and others who use it. The main building is an ideal location for this, as it comes equipped with a full gymnasium and a therapeutic pool.
Some of the planned programs include a swim-and-gym program with Potential Development Academy, a summer day camp, and youth development programming, among others, according to information provided by the port authority. The YMCA and Alta also plan to work together on scheduled programs for caregivers.
Also using the main building, Alta plans to start a food-delivery service that will supply meals to numerous agencies in the area, thus eliminating the need for food to be delivered from Cleveland.
Easter Seals is looking at operating an adult day care there, which would provide respite for individuals who are the primary caregivers for elderly relatives or individuals with disabilities.
Another planned partner is Compass Family Services, which is looking at moving its administrative office there, as well as providing long-term assisted living for individuals with severe mental illnesses and shorter-term housing for senior citizens in need of assistance.
Homes for Kids is looking at the facility as an option for transitional housing for youth aging out of the foster-care system, and Potential Development is interested in using it for transitional housing for young adults with autism.
Other partners including the county commissioners, county prosecutor’s office, Austintown Township, Mahoning and Trumbull boards of developmental disabilities and Western Reserve Transit Authority, according to the funding application submitted to the state.
Those involved in the project are excited about the prospect of providing such a comprehensive range of services in one place.
“This facility is one-of-a-kind,” said Mahoning County Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti. “If this works, this is a model” for the rest of the state.
“We think this is something other communities are going to want to emulate,” said Sarah Lown, port authority public finance manager.
In all, project leaders estimate they need to raise about $2 million for capital improvements. Once it’s up and running, tenants will pay rent and maintain their portions of the campus.
“The model is a good, long-term lease, 10 years, and that enables [tenants] to leverage more financing off the lease of the building,” said Lown, who noted tenants will likely be able to secure space at prices below market rate.
Project leaders hope to finish renovating the campus by late 2019.