BY CAMERON McWHIRTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
City council members Wednesday blasted a Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority proposal to demolish Lincoln Court apartments, the city's largest public housing development, and replace it with a mix of high-, middle- and low-income town houses.
"We really need to know what's going on here . . . whether poor people really are not going to be pushed out," said Councilman Dwight Tillery, who submitted a resolution calling on council to condemn the proposed demolition. The resolution was referred to committee. "The whole thing has a kind of ugly feel to it."
The $48 million plan, first reported Wednesday in The Cincinnati Enquirer, calls for the demolition of all 53 buildings at the West End's Lincoln Court, replacing them with town houses and a single 54-unit building for frail elderly tenants.
The new town houses would be built for a mixed-income community and include 100 market rate rentals and 50 market rate homes. Two hundred housing units would be standard public housing while another 100 rentals and 50 owner-occupied homes would have some form of public subsidy.
About 2,000 residents would be displaced, at least temporarily, from the public housing development, which has been open since 1943. CMHA plans to submit an application to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on June 29, asking for $35 million in Hope VI urban renewal funds. The authority also plans to ask the city for between $5 million and $6 million in federal housing money given to the city for the project, CMHA Executive Director Donald Troendle told the Enquirer Tuesday. If the project is approved, demolition could begin by fall 1999.
Mr. Tillery and others on council complained they had been blind-sided by the proposal's publication.
"I knew nothing about the proposal," he said. "CMHA and its director really sprung this on us. . . . Mr. Troendle seems to be operating out there somewhere in never-never land."
While CMHA has two board members appointed by the city, the city has no authority over the organization or its operations.
Reached Wednesday evening, Mr. Troendle said, "Anytime you're dealing with people's housing, it's a sensitive issue."
But he said the majority of the residents at Lincoln Court supported the idea. He said he hoped the council would study the proposal carefully and come to realize it will help residents.
Councilman Charles Winburn, who submitted a motion for public hearings on the Lincoln Court proposal, said, "I have a problem with what looks like someone trying to build a name on the backs of poor people."
City Manager John Shirey said he also knew nothing about the proposal. He told council he had sent staff to CMHA Wednesday to find out about the proposal.
"We plan to come back to city council with a thorough report on the plan," he said.
But Mr. Troendle said Wednesday night that city officials have been meeting with CMHA about the proposal for months.
