By Ken Alltucker
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Two Cincinnati City Council committees Thursday warned the city will cut off all money and cooperation with the city's housing authority if it pushes ahead with a plan to bulldoze the English Woods housing complex.

Despite that threat - and protests from English Woods residents - it appears the city has little ability to stop the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority's effort to demolish the World War II-era public housing complex in North Fairmount.

CMHA Executive Director Donald Troendle said the 700-unit complex is obsolete and must be demolished because of structural, plumbing and other problems. The agency is seeking a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to pay for the demolition

"English Woods no longer offers safe, quality housing," Mr. Troendle said.

The housing authority seems determined to follow through on its plans even after City Council members and neighborhood leaders from Northside to Price Hill spoke out against the project.

Several English Woods residents blasted the plan at a joint session of council's Law and Public Safety and Finance committees, saying they feared losing their homes. Neighborhood leaders from Northside to West Price Hill say low-income housing, absentee landlords and crime will take over their neighborhoods if English Woods is destroyed.

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

CMHA changed its plans to just demolish the apartment buildings when it learned requirements for federal Hope VI grants are too stringent for the English Woods site. It hasn't said what it wants to do with the cleared land, although it does plan to keep two more modern additions - 118 units built four decades ago and the 138-unit Marquette Manor high-rise for the elderly and disabled.

Mr. Troendle contends that the housing authority is doing its job of spreading low-income housing outside the city. It's launched two plans that would add 550 low-income units in Hamilton County suburbs.

City Council members say city neighborhoods are quickly deteriorating with increased crime and low homeownership rates caused in part by a rapid increase in CMHA-issued Section 8 vouchers.

"You have to figure out how to deal with these issues," said Councilman Pat DeWine, who pushed through a motion stating that it will be the city's policy to no longer cooperate or help fund CMHA.

Mr. DeWine said the housing authority should examine its policies, including how much it pays private landlords who accept Section 8 tenants. Landlords who agree to rent to low-income residents can fetch as much as $745 per month for a two-bedroom apartment in College Hill. That creates a strong incentive for landlords to gobble up single-family houses and rent them to low-income residents.

Councilman John Cranley called the housing authority hypocritical because it approves Section 8 vouchers for many city neighborhoods but doesn't accept them at its City West project in the West End.

Mr. Cranley said the city may sue to force the housing authority to cap the number of low-income units it approves in each city neighborhood.

CMHA Board Chairman Chip Gerhardt suggested that the city and housing authority form a committee to discuss the complex housing issues.

"If all we do is sit and point to someone else, we're never going to get anything done," Mr. Gerhardt said.

Yet he also warned that the housing authority is prepared to defend its position if the city pursues a lawsuit.

"If you sue us, bring it on," Mr. Gerhardt said.

E-mail kalltucker@enquirer.com