Cincinnati City Council approved an ordinance Wednesday to limit low-income housing in the city's poorest neighborhoods.

        The move came over the objections of federal housing officials, advocates for the poor, the city's law department and other City Council members — all of whom say the city is breaking its own policies by rushing a vote.

        But Councilman Chris Monzel said the city has to act immediately to stop population loss and encourage ownership in neighborhoods severely affected by low-income housing.

        “The patient is dying,” he said. “The city is bleeding out.”

        The 5-4 vote marks a significant change in the decades-old practice of concentrating the poor in specific neighborhoods, most notably Over-the-Rhine.

        Federal and city administrators, however, say implementing the plan without going through a lengthy public hearing process could jeopardize $25 million in federal funds going to the city.

        But the majority of council, at the urging of Councilman John Cranley, who wrote the ordinance, say they can approve it now and hold the hearings later.

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

        The plan is opposed by low-income housing advocates, many of whom receive money through the city for their housing operations.

        “The process that John Cranley has outlined in his impaction ordinance will promote mixed income development on the backs of the poor and homeless,” said Alicia Beck, director of the Coalition for the Homeless.

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