Cincinnati has a new process for neighborhood development projects to seek financial help from the city.
"This is about streamlining processes to deepen investment in Cincinnati while making better use of our collective resources available to support development," said City Manager Sheryl Long in a statement. "Developers should be able to bring us a project and its financing needs without first having to determine which of several different programs or applications they need to navigate."
Deputy Director for Strategic Growth tells WVXU the new Neighborhood Development Fund consolidates several existing programs under one application.
"There might have been one program for acquisition, one program for stabilization or pre-development work, one program for housing development ... if you were a nonprofit or private developer navigating these programs, it could be really difficult [and] add a lot of time and money to your project," Rudd says.
Projects could include things like rental housing or homeownership, improving access to public transit, reducing vacancy and blight, or strengthening a neighborhood business district.
The fund can offer grants, forgivable loans, or repayable loans. $13.5 million is available for this fiscal year, double the amount allocated for that purpose in recent years. Awards are expected quarterly with the first round announced at the end of 2026.
"We're going to try to get that money out the door as fast as we possibly can — faster than ever before," Rudd says.
The city is working with two partners to administer the new program: the Cincinnati Development Fund is a Community Development Financial Institution that already manages the city's affordable housing funds, as well as funding from Hamilton County and private sources, in the Affordable Housing Leverage fund. HomeBase Cincinnati is a nonprofit that supports Community Development Corporations.
The Neighborhood Development Fund is now part of the city's "one pipeline" system, where projects can also be connected to funding from the Affordable Housing Leverage Fund, Tax Increment Financing grants, and tax abatements. For projects that include income-restricted affordable housing, the awards will not have to go through City Council for approval (thanks to Council previously authorizing administrative approval for such developments).
Rudd says some smaller neighborhood-led projects, like gateway signs and façade improvements, that don’t otherwise fit the eligibility criteria may be redirected to a forthcoming program so that they don’t compete with larger developments. He says more funding will be available for those types of projects than there has been in previous years.
You can learn more about the Neighborhood Development Fund on the city website, in the flier below, and in a Q&A with Rudd after:
Q&A with Brandon Rudd
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
What do we mean when we talk about "neighborhood development?"
We're talking about a lot of different things. We're talking about affordable housing, market-rate housing, the kinds of improvements that are made to neighborhoods that make them a better place to live. They could be public infrastructure projects. They could be acquiring a site to get it under control for the community development corporation in the neighborhood, so that they can redevelop it later. It could also be stabilizing a building in the business district that already exists, so that building will exist for years to come and can be redeveloped later.
Can you give me a couple of examples of specific projects, and a sense of the range in type and size?
I'll give you some examples from my neighborhood, Northside. I'm a proud Northsider, very committed to the neighborhood. Before I worked at the city, I was on the community council in Northside. I have seen several projects come through our programs where this new process will kind of streamline things.
There are projects like John Arthur Flats and Vandalia Point, which are larger LIHTC projects — they are affordable housing in the neighborhood that would be eligible for this type of funding. There's also smaller projects like the renovation of the building on Hamilton Avenue, where Dean's Mediterranean has located their restaurant, that would be eligible for the Neighborhood Development Fund as well. And then there are things that I would call strategic neighborhood investments, like the acquisition of the former White Castle property at Knowlton's Corner. When that property went up for sale, Nest, the local CDC, was able to acquire that property using city funding. They would follow this process now, and it would be eligible for neighborhood development funding or TIF district funds to get that property under control for the neighborhood. So then they can move forward and potentially align it with a good development project that the neighborhood wants to see.
That is a distinction here in this fund is that this fund is for private developers as well as community development corporations and community-based organizations, but for a private developer, but for a private developer to receive funding, we are requiring them to have a fully baked, fully thought-out development plan with an actual development for a community development corporation. We would fund a project that maybe just brought a property under community control, or potentially did stabilization of a neighborhood business district building. Those types of things are not eligible uses for a private developer, but for a CDC, we would fund them so they can potentially come up with a good plan for that property or building with the neighborhood and move a project forward in the future.
Before this change, what has been the previous process for these neighborhood development projects trying to get some city financial assistance?
Over the years, the city — and this is pretty typical of local government — added many different programs to kind of fund activities in neighborhood development. There might have been one program for acquisition, one program for stabilization or pre-development work, one program for housing development, and it became what I call an alphabet soup of different programs. And if you were a nonprofit or private developer navigating these programs, it could be really difficult. It could add a lot of time and money to your project. So [these] well-meaning programs really were helpful, but they also introduced their own problems.
What we've done is we've kind of combined all of those programs into one larger program, the Neighborhood Development Fund. City Manager Sheryl Long has really been committed to economic development and really committed to how can we be innovative. And this is one way that I think the city of Cincinnati is being innovative. It can cut a lot of time from the process and cut a lot of costs for neighborhood developers and for-profit developers alike.
How much money is available and what are the funding sources?
We have about $13.5 million this year, which is more than twice as much money as we've spent on neighborhood development in the past. [The funding] came from this year's capital budget. So we were looking at basically combining all of the old programs into this new fund. The old programs added up to about $5 million or $6 million on an annual basis, so that is folded into the fund. Those are programs like Neighborhood Business District Improvement Program, Quick Strike, several others that will no longer exist going forward.
The big change that this council and mayor made was that they were able to find additional money in the capital budget to direct toward this work, and so we have over twice as much money this year. We're going to try to get that money out the door as fast as we possibly can, faster than ever before. It is a goal of my team to make sure that we spend that money this fiscal year, as much as possible.
What goals are you trying to accomplish with this new Neighborhood Developmenet Fund?
The goals are pretty simple. There was a study out of UC Berkeley in 2025 that said for each public source you added to affordable housing projects, it added around $20,000 in costs per unit. And so a lot of these affordable housing developers, market rate developers, other community development corporations, et cetera, they're coming to the city, they're coming to the Cincinnati Development Fund, they're trying to compile a ton of different sources to build out their capital stack, and what that does is it adds that cost. That study also showed that each additional source could add four months to the timeline, which means construction costs go up. It means that projects could be put at risk because the macroeconomic environment changes.
What we're trying to do is cut that time, cut that cost. Now you submit one application, and the team at the Cincinnati Development Fund and at the city of Cincinnati and Homebase Cincinnati, when a community development corporation is involved, will review it together, figure out if you need additional technical assistance to get the project over the finish line, or if it's ready to go. And really, all you need is to close your financial gap, and then we can align all of the resources we have to try to close that gap together.
What is the Cincinnati Development Fund and how is it involved in this new program?
The Cincinnati Development Fund is a local CDFI, community development financial institution. We already have a great relationship with them because they are administering our Affordable Housing Trust Fund, so they've been a great partner for the last few years. Now they will help us administer the neighborhood development fund as well.
They also offer lending in a way that traditional banks often don't offer lending. So a private developer for a market rate project could potentially go to, you know, a bank out there — Fifth Third, PNC, etc. But for some of these riskier neighborhood projects, affordable housing projects, etc., a CDFI can step in and provide lending where they might not get it otherwise. So you combine the power of that with the administration of the city funds, and you create an ecosystem where the city, Homebase, and CDF are working together. So it makes it so much simpler for affordable housing developers and for neighborhood development corporations.
This new fund can be used for affordable housing projects. So what's the relationship between the new Neighborhood Development Fund and the existing Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which CDF also administers?
Housing is an eligible use for both funds. They are two separate funding sources, but they will both be accessed through this one application.
So the process is basically that you would submit an intake form that the City of Cincinnati, CDF, and Homebase will review together, and we will match you to the funding source that is most appropriate for your project, and that could include a combination of our Affordable Housing Trust Fund, it could include the Neighborhood Development Fund, it could include our TIF district dollars. It could also include city incentives like commercial tax abatements. So we would be looking to help get that project going in whatever way possible using all of those tools. Which is different from before because as the applicant, you do not really need to know the names of the funds that you're applying for, all you need to know is that you submitted one application to Cincinnati Development Fund and to the city of Cincinnati, and we are going to figure it out on the back end for you.
What will the funding cycle look like? How often will awards be made, and when will decisions be subject to City Council approval?
The funding cycle is a big change because it will operate more like the Affordable Housing Trust Fund has than like some of our other programs have.
In the past, you would apply for different programs at different times of the year. We would have a notice of funding availability or a program that would release, and you would need to have your project ready to go, or at least your application ready to go at that time. Now the funding cycle is more of a rolling cycle, so you can submit your one intake form at any time in the year, and we will align the resources that we have to the project.
For the neighborhood development fund specifically, we're looking to make those awards at least quarterly, so we will have the first awards by the end of this calendar year, and there will be additional awards going forward throughout the fiscal year into June of next year. For the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, it'll continue to be a rolling basis as it has been, and for our TIF district dollars, that'll continue to be a rolling basis as well.
One unique aspect of the Neighborhood Development Fund, Affordable Housing Trust Fund, and some of our other funding sources, are that Council has kind of said, 'We trust you to make these decisions, and you can fund these projects so they don't have to go through the entire council process.' That saves a lot of time and energy on the applicant's end as well, in some other cases, depending on the funding source, those projects will still go through city council. So it really just depends on the alignment of the funding source.
How does this change fit into the city's broader goals for development and growth?
Earlier this year, the city of Cincinnati, City Manager Sheryl Long, and this council and mayor decided to reorganize the way we do economic development. Some of the changes that we have made have come out of the Cincinnati Futures Commission report and other suggestions looking at peer cities and what they do, and we realized that we could learn from others. We reorganized economic development, doubled down on our commitment to it, and became very focused, creating a new Office of Strategic Growth that focuses on real estate development and job creation.
My team, who we've had in place since earlier this year, is really committed to that work. We are working with CDF, we're working with Homebase, we're working with our entire ecosystem to really move forward and be able to fund projects more quickly than ever before, to be able to fund projects with more capital dollars than we've had in the past. It really is a double down across the board, from a reorganization of the departments to the creation of the new fund to this new system and process, where we are aligned perfectly with our partners and making the process easier for everyone who's applying.
Is there anything else you'd like to add?
If you look at the commitment that the city manager has made to economic development, it really is kind of crazy how quickly we've been able to move by any standard, but especially by the public sector standard. Earlier this year, it was announced that we were going to do this reorganization. Then we announced that we were going to create the neighborhood development fund and the one pipeline process. It's October now, and we have an entire new department up and running, we have an entire new system in place, we have new funding opportunities. These are the types of things that people don't believe government can do quickly, and so it's pretty amazing.
Also, I want to emphasize the policy priorities that this council has set that I think are really important to this process and are specifically named in the neighborhood development fund. That is access to transit, which is so important because of our bus rapid transit routes that we're working on getting built here in the city of Cincinnati. It is also home ownership because we want to improve access to home ownership for everyone, folks in disinvested communities, folks that haven't had an opportunity before to have home ownership, it is housing supply generally, whether that be rental or home ownership, as mentioned. Also, whether it be market rate or affordable housing — we know that we need all of the above to solve this problem. It also includes a commitment to our neighborhood business districts, and so that means rehabbing and revitalizing buildings that already exist, adding buildings to the neighborhood business district when there's an opportunity to do that.
So we can continue to increase our housing supply near our business districts to provide more customers for our local businesses, so we can bring more businesses into our business districts, so they're more vibrant and folks can potentially access their everyday needs, whether that be groceries, pharmacy, restaurants, everything that you could possibly need. We want you to be able to get those things in your neighborhood business district, if possible.
I think that really over the next few years we're going to see a lot of results from this new commitment.
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