By Ken Alltucker
The Cincinnati Enquirer

English Woods residents Marilyn Robinson (center); granddaughter Chanel Yancey, 3; and Jason Cooper (far right) attend the special community council meeting Tuesday. Joan Rourke (left) oversees community relations for CMHA. (Craig Ruttle photo) | ZOOM |

Residents of English Woods and their west-side neighbors agree on one thing: Neither group wants to see the 700-unit public housing complex demolished.

The public housing residents fear that they will be left without a home if the housing authority brings in the bulldozers next year. West-siders believe more and more low-income residents will end up in their back yard, carrying the social ills of crime and blight with them.

This delicate alliance was enough to persuade Cincinnati City Council members Tuesday to formally oppose the project and urge the federal government to withhold a grant needed for the demolition to proceed.

What's more, U.S. Rep Steve Chabot and Ohio state Rep. Steve Driehaus have vowed to pressure the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority until it relents on a plan to demolish about 700 apartments and relocate tenants to other subsidized housing.

"It would be a great service for the city to look at the accountability" of the housing authority, said Mr. Driehaus, who lives in Price Hill. "(CMHA executive director Donald) Troendle and the board of CMHA are not held accountable."

Mr. Driehaus suggested that the state legislature should spearhead an effort to create more oversight of the independent housing authority board.

Mr. Chabot, who lived in Westwood, recently penned a letter to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development urging Secretary Mel Martinez to kill any request made by the housing authority for demolition funds.

All this controversy stems from housing authority plans to remove 700 English Woods apartments it calls "nonviable" because of structural, plumbing and other problems. Housing authority executives were peppered with questions Tuesday from public housing tenants, residents of Price Hill and Westwood, and City Council's Neighborhood and Human Services Committee.

Tim Charles, who oversees maintenance for the housing authority, said it became clear about three years ago that the housing complex would be too expensive to renovate. He said it would cost about $130,000 per apartment to make all necessary upgrades for the World War II-era complex, including lead paint and asbestos abatement.

During a 2000 inspection commissioned by HUD, the English Woods complex "failed miserably," Mr. Charles said. At that time, the housing authority recommended that the units be deemed "nonviable," a designation needed before demolition is allowed.

The housing authority originally wanted to sell the land to a private developer to build a mix of 338 upscale and affordable homes offering sweeping downtown views, a project similar to its City West home and apartment development in West End at the site of the razed Lincoln Court and Laurel Homes public housing complexes.

But CMHA rejected those plans this year when it discovered the requirements for federal Hope VI grants are too stringent for the English Woods site.

CMHA is still pushing ahead with its plans to demolish the apartments, but it hasn't said what it wants to do with the cleared land.

Joan Rourke, who oversees community relations and the federal Section 8 voucher program for CMHA, said tenants won't be relocated before the end of the school year in June 2003 and demolition likely wouldn't start before 2004.

The housing authority must offer to sell the apartments to tenants before it can apply for a federal demolition grant.

If tenants are unwilling or financially unable to take ownership of the complex after two months, the housing authority may apply for a HUD demolition grant.

Another requirement of the grant application is that the city of Cincinnati include a "letter of acknowledgement" stating it's aware of the housing authority's plans.

City Council members, and their English Woods constituents, made it clear Tuesday that they want several more questions answered before the city writes such a letter.

Marsha Battle, vice president of the English Woods Civic Association/Resident Community Council, said residents feel as though the plan has been forced upon them.

"We have been shown too much disrespect," Ms. Battle said. "They've treated us as though we're ignorant just because we have financial issues."

Ms. Rourke said the housing authority has held numerous meetings over the past two years updating residents about the plans. The more than 200 vacant apartments at English Woods are evidence that public housing tenants are choosing to live in other, more modern communities, she said.

Following Tuesday's meeting, Ms. Rourke said the housing authority encountered similar resistance several years ago when it formulated plans to demolish more than 2,000 apartments in the West End.

Yet when the West End project was formulated, there was little uproar from west side communities such as East Price Hill, West Price Hill or Westwood. Those three neighborhoods now have more than 2,600 subsidized housing units, a dramatic increase from a few years ago.

And neighborhood leaders say that as a result, violent and serious crime has spiked.

Those subsidized apartments include public housing, elderly housing and Section 8 rent vouchers administered both by CMHA and Hamilton County.

Councilman John Cranley urged CMHA officials to guarantee that the housing authority won't approve any more subsidized units in the city's west-side neighborhoods.

E-mail kalltucker@enquirer.com