The Fair Housing Assessment Cites About 40,000 Area residents Living in Unsafe, Unaffordable Spaces

"Local governments should pledge up to $10 million a year to create and maintain affordable housing in Greater Cincinnati.

That’s a key recommendation of a new assessment of the region’s housing options for lower-income people.

The just-released “Fair Housing Assessment” was done by Xavier University’s Community Building Institute for the city of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. The Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development requires political jurisdictions to conduct an assessment every five years to determine the ability of people in lower income levels to find adequate housing.

The new report praised the urban revitalization of Cincinnati, saying “Midwestern cities across the country are looking to Cincinnati as a model for harnessing the trend towards urban living and maximizing its economic benefit.”

However, it pointed out that those gains have resulted in a loss of affordable housing in some neighborhoods, citing another recent study that found there were more than 40,000 Hamilton County households living in housing that was not affordable to them.

Not only is there not enough affordable housing, much of the existing stock is in bad shape, the report found. That should be a wake-up call to local governments to step up enforcement of housing standards, says Liz Blume, executive director of the Community Building Institute.

“One of the things that stuck out to me was the really poor condition that so many people are living in and how important code enforcement is,” she said.

The lack of affordable housing is linked to people living in poor conditions, Blume says. “People put up with terrible housing if there isn’t any other place to go.”..."

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