Cincinnati City Council's vote to spend $50,000 to help relocate about 650 families from the soon-to-be-closed Huntington Meadows apartment complex in Bond Hill didn't mollify many of the residents protesting to council Wednesday.

Residents of Huntington Meadows apartment complained to city council Wednesday. (Greg Ruffing photo) | ZOOM |

        The $50,000 subsidy would give each family about $77. Even when added to the relocation money from the complex's court-appointed receiver — $500 plus the last month's rent free — families face few options on such short notice, residents said.

        Council's only meeting of the summer turned into a public hearing on the Huntington Meadows foreclosure, which will force residents of the half-vacant complex to move by Sept. 3. The tenants' leases will expire the end of this month.

        A court-appointed receiver, Maryland-based Habitat America, is losing about $150,000 a month, and has gotten permission from Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Thomas Crush to close.

        Even without that order, the Cincinnati Health Department has found 69 violations at the site and would likely order the property vacated.

        For residents looking for an affordable place to live in Bond Hill, there are few alternatives.

        Minnie Black, a resident who lives on a disability pension, has been at the complex for two years.

DARE GETS BOOT

By a 6-3 vote, Cincinnati City Council cut the city's Drug Abuse Resistance Education program Wednesday.    Councilman James Tarbell said the move would free up $351,000 and seven police officers.    “We want to send a signal that the public doesn't believe that the street strength is what it should be,” Mr. Tarbell said.    Voting against were Paul Booth Minette Cooper and Alicia Reece. Mr. Booth said he had “rethought the value of the program and its interaction with young people, which is extremely important.” But other council members said DARE's national track record in preventing drug abuse was less than optimal.

        “I don't have any way to get to and from any place I'm trying to rent,” she said. “Every place I call, they have no vacancies. And it's hard.”

        Many residents complained that Cincinnati is prepared to offer $7.5 million in relocation expenses to WCPO-TV (Channel 9) for the expansion of the Albert B. Sabin Cincinnati Convention Center, but only $50,000 for more than 600 families at Huntington Meadows.

        City and county officials are trying to figure out what went wrong. The city and county approved financing and grants for the complex of more than $20 million as recently as 1999.

        Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune, making a rare appearance at City Council, asked council for three things:

        A complete audit of city and county money spent to subsidize the project.

        A long-term plan for the property that includes assurances it will remain as affordable housing.

        A stay of the court order extending the Sept. 3 deadline for residents to move from the complex.

        Without more time, tenants will be forced to move — or stay at their own risk. Habitat America would likely withdraw as a receiver, said Gary Pieples, the Legal Aid Society lawyer representing some tenants.

        “You'd have a property without a manager. Utilities would be cut off, and basically you'd have city orders to vacate because it would be unlivable,” he said.

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