By Steve Kemme
The Cincinnati Enquirer

HAMILTON - The embattled Butler Metropolitan Housing Authority, which has been accused of mismanagement by local and federal authorities during the past year, has been sued in federal court in Cincinnati for closing a 141-unit apartment complex in Hamilton two years ago.

The lawsuit, filed this week by three former tenants and one current tenant of the housing authority's largely vacant Bambo Harris complex, says the agency violated federal law by shutting down the complex in 2001.

The four plaintiffs say the agency, which provides subsidized housing for low-income people, ordered tenants of Bambo Harris to vacate their apartments on a temporary basis so they could be renovated. All but a handful of families moved out. But the renovation has never occurred, and the residents were never allowed to move back in.

The lawsuit accuses the housing authority of violating federal laws that prohibit subsidized housing developments from being closed without the permission of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and that require displaced residents to be moved to housing at least equal in quality to the former housing.

The lawsuit asks the court to order the housing authority to repair and resume renting the Bambo Harris apartments and to promptly replace the buildings in the complex that need to be demolished.

"There is a shortage of affordable housing in Butler County," said Thomas Seel, senior attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati, who filed the lawsuit.

The housing authority's waiting list for its program that allows people to rent subsidized housing from private landlords has been closed for a year, he said.

The housing authority's director, Leonard M. "Tony" Blaine, attorney Joan Tumblison and board president Vincent Sanzone did not immediately return phone calls Tuesday.

In the past, housing authority officials have said they asked Bambo Harris residents to move out because of the presence of lead and asbestos in the buildings, and because the buildings were not worth renovating.

The three former Bambo Harris residents who filed the lawsuit - Shirley Givens, Laronda Ray and Amy Finkbine - were moved into nearby Riverside Homes, a subsidized housing development that they describe as dangerous and crime-infested.

The fourth plaintiff, Mary Clemons, still lives in a Bambo Harris apartment with her blind, frail father, Marvin Clemons. She and her father have refused to move out.

Frances Thompson, another resident who declined to move out but isn't involved in the lawsuit, said she hopes the vacant apartments are renovated and rented. She has pieces of cloth covering gaping holes in the screens on her front and back doors. She said the housing authority told her about two weeks ago they would replace the screens.

"I like it here," the elderly woman said.

"Nobody bothers me, and I have a yard for my grandchildren to play in."

Only a few apartments in the Bambo Harris housing development, located between Front Street and Neilan Boulevard just south of downtown Hamilton, are still occupied. Many windows in the buildings are either broken or boarded up.

In a report issued earlier this year, HUD criticized the housing authority's finances, reporting and tracking, and questioned the qualifications of Blaine and board members.

The federal agency said the housing authority was wrong to vacate the Bambo Harris complex without having a renovation or replacement plan in place.

Butler County commissioners also have publicly criticized the housing authority for the Bambo Harris closing and other decisions.

E-mail skemme@enquirer.com