CINCINNATI — The City of Cincinnati is cracking down on bad landlords and criminal hangouts like illegal hookah bars, using public nuisance laws to clean up problem properties.
“Even just a vacant property can really drive down an entire block,” said assistant city solicitor Mark Manning, who leads the law department’s quality of life division. “It can attract squatters. It can attract crime and vandalism.”
Manning’s office filed 67 civil and criminal public nuisance cases in 2023, including several against illegal hookah bars that were criminal hangouts, and landlords who are accused of exposing thousands of tenants to roach infestations, lack of heat, flooding, unfair evictions and illegal fees.
Over the past decade, the city has expanded its nuisance enforcement and increased its legal staff. Last year, Manning assigned lawyers to specific city districts where they work closely with police, fire and health and building inspectors on problem properties in neighborhoods.
“Really what we’re trying to do is focus on the worst bad actors, strategically across the entire city," Manning said. “It’s not all of Avondale that’s a problem, or all of Northside that’s a problem, it’s just this one bar that’s ripping apart the entire street. Once you get rid of that bar, the crime rate reduces, and people have much more satisfaction in their neighborhood.”
In the past year, city lawyers have filed public nuisance lawsuits against three hookah bars that were allegedly attracting criminals: Red Room Hookah in Carthage, Hookah on the Rhine in Over-the-Rhine and 125 Lounge on Calhoun Street in CUF, which was shut down a year ago.
“Since at least February 2023, social media has advertised the Red Room Café as an ‘after-hours’ club open to the public where alcohol may be purchased and/or consumed. Serious violent crime has occurred in the Carthage area because of the Red Room Café,” according to the city’s lawsuit, which lists 51 incidents of criminal activity since July 2022, including patrons who were shooting at each other in nearby streets.
Owner and operator, Jim Kelley, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of allowing the sale of alcohol without a permit on Jan. 29. A judge granted a preliminary injunction against Red Room last October, closing the business until the case with the city is resolved.
City attorneys also targeted the corner of Vine and Green streets in Over-the-Rhine, near Republic Street, as a particularly violent spot where criminals congregate inside and outside of buildings that are supposed to be vacant and securely closed up.
“Hookah on the Rhine is an illegal and unlicensed bar which supports and concentrates a significant amount of crime, violence and disorder … the Cincinnati Police Department’s statistics rate (it) and its immediate surroundings in the 99th percentile for violent crime,” according to the city’s lawsuit filed in October 2023.
Six people had been shot near Hookah on the Rhine in the first 10 months of 2023, before police executed a search warrant on Oct. 19, 2023. Police found liquor, beer, marijuana, crack cocaine, scales, baggies, cigars, multiple hookahs, a loaded Glock 9mm handgun and a loaded MAC 10 semi-automatic pistol, according to the lawsuit.
Police charged the alleged owner of the business, Nathan Weathers, with illegally selling alcohol and possession of a gun by a convicted felon. He is awaiting trial in late February.
An attorney for Hookah on the Rhine, which is located at 7301 Vine Street, and some defendants, said they were trying to reach a resolution with the city.
“The hope is that it starts to make things better down there. That is one of the most violent areas in the city that intersection down there,” Manning said. “Really that entire block has some sort of litigation pending.”
City attorneys targeted the owners of nearby 12 Green Street with a public nuisance lawsuit on Jan. 10. A hearing in the case is set for April.
“The criminal activity invited by the defendants’ neglect of 12 Green contributes to Republic and Green’s status as one of the most violent locations in the city. Since 2021, the Cincinnati Police Department has received approximately 54 calls for service … including six calls for gunshots. On March 8, 2022, a man was shot in the leg at Republic and Green. On Nov. 21, 2023, a man was found shot to death across from 12 Green,’” according to the lawsuit.
City attorneys are also using public nuisance complaints against major landlords to force them to improve housing for thousands of residents.
The city sued Williamsburg Apartments and Town Homes in Hartwell on Jan. 10, 2023, weeks after burst pipes flooded dozens of units at Christmastime. The lawsuit described widespread deferred maintenance on the 976 units including water leaks, collapsed ceilings, sewage backups, lack of hot water or functioning toilets, mold, electrical hazards and rodent and insect infestations.
“It looks like a bombed-out property that you would expect a war-torn country would look like, because there was broken glass everywhere, everything is overgrown,” said Manning, who walked the outside of the Williamsburg complex. “It just felt like a place that no one paid any attention to.”
A judge appointed a receiver to repair the Williamsburg complex. While Manning admits the repairs have been slower than tenants want, progress is being made. The receiver is improving living conditions, addressing outstanding code violations and making it safer by installing security cameras and hiring off-duty police officers.
“Property can be listed for sale in the summer of 2024, with the goal of identifying a buyer and closing on a sale by the fall of 2024,” according to the most recent receivership report filed with the court in January.
Williamsburg’s owner, Boruch "Barry" Drillman, pleaded guilty last December to an extensive multi-year conspiracy to fraudulently obtain over $165 million in loans and to fraudulently acquire multifamily and commercial properties.
“All of us in the division are really motivated I think to try to make people’s lives better — that people are enjoying where they live, they don’t fear for their safety at a bear minimum anymore, that they have safe, sanitary housing. That’s very personally fulfilling,” Manning said.
But the biggest case for Manning’s team will be later this year when the public nuisance lawsuit against Hamilton County’s largest out-of-town landlord, VineBrook Homes, goes to trial.
The city sued Texas-based VineBrook in January 2023, accusing it of breaching a 2021 court settlement that required it to fix problems at its roughly 900 city properties and stop its eviction practices.
The property company, the largest of several institutional investors acquiring single-family homes in Cincinnati, owns roughly 2,300 other properties around the Tri-State region. The area is VineBrook's largest geographic market, representing more than 10% of the total value in its 24,153 homes nationwide.
Out of property owners in the Greater Cincinnati area, VineBrook also ranks first in Hamilton County's eviction filings.
“One of the primary issues that we have is that they’re doing a lot work without permits so we’re really not sure what the condition of the interiors of all of these properties are,” Manning said.
VineBrook cost the city more than $47,000 in code enforcement inspector man hours, plus likely tens of thousands more for failure to get permits, police and city attorneys’ time and decreased property values.
“I know the VineBrook case that’s set for trial at the end of 2024 will be a major focus for us,” Manning said. “They have a lot of resources and a lot of attorneys so it will be a section-wide effort to get that case to trial.”
Attorneys for VineBrook did not respond to a request for comment. But in court filings, they have denied the city's allegations.
City attorneys also have a nuisance lawsuit pending against H&E Enterprise LLC and Avi Ohad. A judge entered a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction forcing action on Jan. 5, after city attorneys said tenants were lacking heat and hot water.
“The city has identified fifteen open Health Department orders and ninety-two open Building Department cases subject to the Court’s order," according to a Jan. 12 court filing which details 80 pages of violations such as no heat or water, hazardous wiring, defective plumbing and gas, mold, roach infestations, and water leaks.
A criminal judge gave Ohad a suspended sentence of 180 days in jail, a fine and probation after he pleaded no contest in January 2023 to failing to provide heat to tenants at a West Price Hill property a year earlier.
"That people are enjoying where they live, they don’t fear for their safety at a bare minimum anymore, that they have safe, sanitary housing. That’s very personally fulfilling to accomplish something for somebody else like that," Manning said.
One of the most gratifying cases of Manning's career was the city's work on The Alms in Walnut Hills, and several other low-income apartment complexes that resulted in their sale to new owners, who made much-needed repairs, and a long-term relationship with HUD on improving conditions for city residents.
The city filed a public nuisance lawsuit against the former owners of several low-income apartments in 2015 after years of complaints from residents about poor living conditions such as faulty electrical wiring, damaged locks, peeling paint and plaster, leaking roofs and lack of maintenance.
"After fighting for five years, there was new ownership, there was millions of dollars invested in the property by those new owners," Manning said. "Over the last decade of doing this work, that there’s probably been almost a thousand units of lower affordable housing that have been redeveloped through our case work. That’s housing that could potentially not exist any longer."
He also points to the city's work in closing down the former Sycamore Hotel in Roselawn more than a decade ago.
"There were double-digit reductions in violent crime and crime in general in the entire Roselawn community because of that," Manning said. "What made it so interesting is that we took out the entire network all at once without really realizing it. ... because you close this entire hotel down where all these things are happening, and that’s what produced this total change in the neighborhood."
"I think that case served as the springboard for the police department in particular to thinking about how to influence crime in particular places in a different way," Manning said.
Public nuisance properties can be reported to Cincinnati officials through 311cincy.com, the 311Cincy app or by calling 3-1-1 if you are located within the city. City residents can also call 513-765-1212 regardless of where the caller is located.