A group of Cincinnati seniors who recently learned their rent is doubling could get city help after strong words from the mayor and City Council members Wednesday.
Developer Kingsley and Company finished Victory Vistas in Paddock Hills last year using a $1 million city incentive as well as federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits. The company was founded by former Cincinnati Bengal Chinedum Ndukwe.
Victory Vistas resident Gwen Smith told WVXU she thought her unit would stay affordable based on her income. Then she got notice in September her rent would increase dramatically.
"I gave you all my tax papers, I gave you all my bank accounts and all this, and now you're not living up to your part of it," Smith says. "It's really frustrating and it has a lot of us having anxiety."
Some seniors facing the rent increases took those worries to City Hall for Council's public comment session Wednesday. Mayor Aftab Pureval recalled being at the building's ribbon-cutting and said the rent increases made him "furious."
"I personally am committing to every single one of you that whatever I and this city can do to right this wrong, we will," he said.
Council echoed Pureval's frustration. Council member Seth Walsh suggested the city should carefully reconsider its relationship with Kingsley.
"This developer should never be allowed to work with the city of Cincinnati again and we should do everything in our power to repeal what has been given to them," Walsh said.
Under the federal tax credits, Kingsley is required to keep 10 units of the building affordable to people making 30% of the Area Median Income. That's $23,500 a year. The rest of the units in the building must remain affordable to someone making 60% of the Area Median Income. That amounts to $47,000, or roughly the $1,200 a month the 10 residents are suddenly being asked to pay.
Kingsley says it hasn't done anything to violate its end of the tax credit deal or its city incentives. The developer points out it's worked with residents to find temporary rental assistance and will help them with finding other units if necessary.
"We acknowledge the recent rate adjustments and are actively collaborating with each impacted resident to explore available assistance options," a statement from the company reads. "No resident has been evicted or displaced as a result of the changes, and no eviction notices have been issued. Victory Vistas is operating in strict accordance with the guidelines and regulations of the Ohio Housing Finance Agency."
It's possible there will still be 10 units in the building at 30% AMI even after the rent hikes.
But Legal Aid of Greater Cincinnati Staff Attorney Phil Rich argues the sudden increases effectively represent non-renewal of the tenants' leases. A landlord of a LIHTC building must have a viable reason to do that, he says. Legal Aid is currently representing the residents.
"It's between 82% and 102% of our 10 clients' income," Rich told WVXU of the new rents. "No one can make that work."
Pureval pledged the city would meet with residents and their attorneys and said the city's law department is also looking into the situation.
"This is wrong, plain wrong," he said. "It is unjust and potentially predatory."
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