In the aftermath of the shooting death of a 14-year-old in Price Hill, some City Council members are calling for changes to how the city handles quality of life concerns.
Council heard an update Wednesday on the city’s lawsuit against Second Avenue, a Florida-based institutional investor that owns about a hundred homes in Cincinnati. It was outside one of those homes in Price Hill that Rakeem Blair Jr. was shot on Aug. 18. Our news partner WCPO says witnesses reported Blair was throwing rocks at the house when someone exited and shot him in the head. A 16-year-old has been arrested and charged with murder.
Representatives for Second Avenue told Cincinnati City Council's Public Safety and Quality of Life Committee Wednesday the company had been in an eviction process when the shooting took place. Court records show a magistrate granted that eviction in early July, but Second Avenue did not execute it until August 31, almost two weeks after the shooting.
City Attorney Mark Manning says a Cincinnati Police officer had visited the property just four days before the shooting in response to a community complaint and observed squatters inside, but legal options to respond were limited.
"Because we did not have a vacate order, and there was a pending eviction, there was no ability to enforce trespass at that time," Manning said.
Issues regarding "quality of life" could fall under one or more city department depending on the specific problem and the severity; that could include the Cincinnati Police Department, the Law Department's Quality of Life Division, the Health Department, the Fire Department, and the Department of Buildings and Inspections. Manning says these agencies have "pretty constant" communication and meet on a regular basis.
Some Council members say the city should have one point of contact for quality of life, who can coordinate collaboration between departments and be held accountable.
"I think that's something that we need to work towards as a solution," said Jeff Cramerding. "I know it's complex, and I've had some conversations with the [city] manager, but I think something like that has got to be our end goal."
Anna Albi suggested the Council may need to put more resources into Buildings and Inspections and the Law Department's Quality of Life Division.
"Please, when we come through budget season, make these asks explicit because I think all of us sitting here never want to see something like this happen again," Albi told Manning.
Second Avenue lawsuits
Last August, a group of tenants filed a lawsuit against Second Avenue, which owned more than 200 homes in Greater Cincinnati at the time. They alleged the company did not maintain homes in a habitable condition, charged late fees exceeded city limits, and had lease terms that violated Ohio law.
Last October, Second Avenue responded by denying wrongdoing but revising its lease agreements and issuing refunds to some tenants. The lawsuit ended in a private settlement earlier this year; the details of that settlement are not public.
The city of Cincinnati filed its own public nuisance lawsuit last August, alleging an intentional investment practice "of acquiring distressed properties and failing to maintain them or maximize their productive use." It also claimed Second Avenue owed the city about $137,000 in past-due civil fines related to building and health code violations, plus about $2,200 to Greater Cincinnati Water Works for unpaid services.
In November, Second Avenue was granted more time to respond to the complaint, with no other documents filed since; a status conference is scheduled for Oct. 15. Manning told Council on Wednesday that the city is working with Second Avenue "through the course of the broader litigation towards, hopefully, an agreed resolution." The city has a policy to not comment to reporters on pending litigation; attorneys for Second Avenue declined to answer reporters' questions Wednesday.
City attorneys said the lawsuit prompted Second Avenue's inclusion in the city's Residential Rental Inspection Program, part of the city's Buildings and Inspections Department. The program started as a pilot in 2021 in Avondale, CUF, and East Price Hill; it allows the city to conduct regular inspections of properties that meet certain criteria, like a high number of code violations in a short period of time. City Council expanded the program in 2023.
Second Avenue Cincinnati field agent David Stewart appeared at Council's Public Safety and Quality of Life Committee on Wednesday morning, alongside two attorneys representing Second Avenue.
As of Sept. 2, Second Avenue had scheduled inspections for 42 properties, with 64 remaining, including 3752 Warsaw.
Stewart said all their houses in the city of Cincinnati are occupied by tenants, except for 3752 Warsaw.
"So it needs to be scheduled with [tenants], and myself, and the inspector," he said.
Second Avenue owns houses in the area that are outside of the city, and not subject to the city's inspection program. As of last August, Second Avenue owned an estimated 200+ homes in the area.
The house on Warsaw did not qualify for the city's programs to monitor vacant buildings because it had been vacant only a few months. Under the city's program, a building must be vacant for 180 days to be qualify.
Timeline of intervention at Price Hill home
An affiliate of Second Avenue purchased 3752 Warsaw Ave. in 2023, according to Hamilton County Auditor records.
Stewart said the home on Warsaw was occupied by a legal tenant until May 2026 and was listed for rent in June.
"It was in beautiful condition," he said, until squatters moved in. "We had to evict twice. I got a court [eviction] and that's not a quick process — it doesn't happen that day, that week. It takes a long time. So by August, they had destroyed the place."
Court records show attorneys for Second Avenue filed June 5 for eviction of "unknown occupants" at 3752 Warsaw. The complaint says notice was posted on the door on May 30. A magistrate granted the eviction at a hearing on July 1; the writ of execution was signed on July 9.
At that point, it is the landlord's responsibility to schedule time with the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office to coordinate the removal of people and their property from the building. That can happen as soon as eight days after the writ of execution, which was July 17.
City Attorney Manning says a community complaint prompted a visit from a Cincinnati Police officer on Aug. 14.
"An officer went out in person to conduct, basically, a site visit to figure out what was happening, [and] found that the property appeared to be unsecured and there were people coming and going from it," Manning said. "As a result of that officer's inspection, we reached out to Second Avenue to kind of get a status update as to what was going on ... and found out from Second Avenue that this property was supposed to be vacant, that they had previously secured it on June 20 earlier this year, and that there was a pending eviction."
Manning says the city did not know the interior conditions of the property, only the complaints about litter and other exterior problems. He said the city had no legal basis to remove anyone from the property because of the ongoing eviction proceeding.
Rakeem Blair Jr. was shot on Aug. 18; he later died of his injuries.
Manning says the city contacted Second Avenue again and met a representative at the site on Aug. 19 to do a full inspection.
"As a result of that inspection, the building department issued a vacate order, which meant that the city is now ordering that this property is not habitable, not safe for human occupancy, which allows the city then to do enforcement about the property if it's found to be illegally occupied," Manning said.
A WVXU reporter visited the property on Aug. 20 and found the property was not secured; a back door and window were wide open.
Manning says CPD responded to the house on Aug. 21 and found trespassers; other city representatives visited on Aug. 25 and 26 to "barricade the property again" but CPD discovered trespassers there again on Aug. 28.
On Aug. 31, Second Avenue executed the eviction that had been granted six weeks prior, court records show.
"Going forward, we're going to be working with the police to get people like this out, instead of the courts, is what we're being told," Stewart told City Council.
WVXU's Nick Swartsell contributed to this report.
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