CINCINNATI — Ten different buildings housing 15 different units on the east side will get a renovation thanks to a $2 million grant awarded from the Economic Development Initiative to the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority, according to CMHA.
CMHA is a public housing agency that provides several programs, including housing choice vouchers and asset management, to help link families to affordable housing options within Cincinnati.
The Economic Development Initiative is part of the 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act and contains nearly $3 billion in grant funding for community projects.
CMHA said it submitted a grant application to Congressman Brad Wenstrup, who then nominated the project to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD announced CMHA's project was granted the $2 million grant on March 2.
CMHA said the grant funding will be used to fully renovate 15 different affordable housing units on the eastern side of Hamilton County. Those units are comprised of seven single-family homes and three apartment buildings.
Of the 10 different buildings, seven are located in Anderson, two in Mt. Washington and one in Newtown.
The units that will receive renovations are:
- A single-family home on Azure Court in Anderson
- A single-family home on Verdale Drive in Anderson
- A single-family home on Pinebluff Lane in Anderson
- A four-unit apartment building on Beacon Street in Mt. Washington
- A single-family home on Barnsdale Court in Anderson
- A two-unit apartment building on Beechmont Avenue in Mt. Washington
- A two-unit apartment building on Sherman Avenue in Anderson
- A single-family home on Monongahela Drive in Newtown
- A single-family home on Linderwood Lane in Anderson
- A single-family home on Rosetree Lane in Anderson
CMHA owns and manages homes throughout Hamilton County, including multi-family homes, apartments and senior housing. The agency provides "quality, affordable housing for low- to moderate-income families," according to Hamilton County.
The agency serves more than 13,800 residents; CMHA's Housing Choice Voucher Program has provided housing for 7,100 families, according to a page on Hamilton County's website.
Still, the agency hasn't had a perfect track record in keeping its affordable housing units' quality intact in recent years. Several complaints in 2021 and 2022 alone about units in disrepair, unfulfilled repair requests and a lack of heat or air conditioning during extreme weather.
In the summer of 2021, a Northside resident said she had to put up a fight with CMHA to be moved out of a home she called "nearly unlivable." Cynthia Hill had lived in her home for around a decade, but over time the inside of the building became plagued with leaks and water damage she said wasn't completely addressed by CMHA.
One month later, residents living in Marianna Terrace, a 74-unit public housing community in Lincoln Heights, were left in the dark on when planned renovations to the property would force them to temporarily relocate. Plans for the renovations were announced in 2017 and the work planned was to be so extensive that it would be unsafe for residents to stay during construction, so CMHA promised to relocate people into temporary housing — but residents said the 30-day notice CMHA also promised them wasn't acceptable.
That same August, seniors living in The Redding, a senior housing complex in Avondale run by CMHA, lived with a broken air-conditioning system for weeks in the midst of a heat wave with historically high temperatures. A resident living in The Redding described living in the building as being "like you're in an oven." During that incident, CMHA worked to perform spot-fixes until the main air-conditioning system could be repaired, installing window units in apartments and ordering temporary replacement parts for the central system.
A similar situation happened to residents at the Pinecrest Community Center, a 190-unit apartment building in West Price Hill, in December of 2022; residents living there reported the building was without heat and hot water for five days. According to CMHA, heat in the building failed first, during a string of extremely cold weather — then the pipes broke.
CMHA's press release didn't lay out a timeline for when the 15 units slated for renovation will be transformed, or what the agency's plan will be for any residents living within those walls while construction happens.
"Once all renovations are completed, the bold transformation will mean more than $1 billion has been invested in Hamilton County," read the press release from CMHA.
CMHA is a result of a 1933 provision of the Ohio Housing Authority Law and has been a source of housing in Hamilton County since.
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