Photo credit: The Plain Dealer

How does a family choose a rental home?

That's what healthy homes advocates want to know.

Understanding the experiences of families who rent in Cleveland is the next step to learning how to provide renters with useful information on issues like asthma and lead poisoning that are overwhelmingly linked to substandard housing, according to Kim Foreman of the non-profit Environmental Health Watch.

The Healthy Homes Data Collaborative in September received a two-year, $250,000 grant from the national BUILD Health Challenge to figure out how to better use and make accessible data that could improve overall housing conditions in Cleveland, one of the poorest cities in the country.

That money, along with matching funds from University Hospitals and MetroHealth Medical Center, will pay for pilot efforts in the Glenville and Clark-Fulton neighborhoods. Those areas have some of the highest lead poisoning rates in the city, as well as other health challenges, 

One of the ways the groups are gathering information is at three dinners for those who recently, in the past five years, have looked for rental housing.

The dinners, which will be facilitated by another non-profit partner, Digital C, will be at the following dates and locations in Cleveland:

• Nov. 30, 5:30-8 p.m.
• Location: Neighborhood Connections, 5000 Euclid Ave., Suite 310.
• Childcare available: Yes

• Dec. 5*, 5:30-8 p.m.
• Location: Hispanic Alliance, 3110 W. 25th St.
• Childcare available: No
• *Facilitated in Spanish and English

• Dec. 7, 5:30-8 p.m.
• Location: Calvary Hill Church, 2765 Woodhill Rd.
• Childcare available: Yes