Pleas from Cincinnati administrators, some city council members, a volunteer advisory board and dozens of residents won't stop Councilman John Cranley today from pushing a plan to limit low-income housing in the city.

        And he might have enough support among City Council members to get it approved.

        “The issue has been out there for several months,” he said Tuesday about attempts to hold off a decision. “I happen to believe the status quo in this city is unacceptable.”

        The plan — emphasized in one of Mr. Cranley's campaign ads — would prohibit any new low-income housing projects in the city's poorest neighborhoods while supporting them outside the city.

        But city officials said Tuesday that the plan significantly changes the way the city spends federal housing funds and needs to go through a rigid public-hearing process.

        “We're making decisions like we have all of the information. We don't,” Councilwoman Minette Cooper said at Tuesday's neighborhoods committee meeting. “Not only don't we have it, we haven't asked for it.”

        She accused Mr. Cranley of trying to use the issue for political reasons and questioned why he would try to force a vote when it is not on the council's agenda.

        Neighborhood and Public Services Director Peg Moertl, who oversees city-funded housing projects, said the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development considers the plan a departure for the city and recommends holding the public hearings.

        The volunteer Community Development Advisory Board also said Mr. Cranley's proposal substantially changes the city's plan.

        Councilman Pat DeWine, who supports Mr. Cranley's proposal, has criticized council members for attempting to delay action until after the November election.

        “I'd like to vote,” he said. “It is a fairly basic issue.”

        The plan would limit how the city uses $25 million it receives annually in federal housing funds by:

        • Supporting low-income projects.

        • Reducing concentrations of poverty in specific neighborhoods.

        • Rehabilitating existing buildings and preserving existing low-income projects.

        • Expanding affordable housing outside the city.

        • Opposing construction on publicly assisted low-income projects unless they reduce the concentration of poverty or are built for the elderly.

        Karla Irvine, executive director of Housing Opportunities Made Equal, said she supports the plan because it helps developers who want to build new low-income projects. “We just don't like to see it concentrated in one place,” she said.

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