by Ashley Robinson
As a Cincinnati native who is now an adult with responsibilities, there is one thing I have noticed about the city: rent is too high and it is only getting higher. Each year I have rented in the city, my rent has had large increases. According to an article by WCPO 9 Cincinnati’s Taylor Weiter, Cincinnati has one of the highest year-over- year rent increases in the United States at 7.9% (Weiter). I am not sure what exactly justifies the increase in rent as the city is the typical Midwestern city. In addition to the city’s Midwestern mediocrity, every attractive trait of the city can be negated by our very temperamental weather patterns.
The lack of affordability in housing options were put into perspective by Dr. Mark Mussman, Ph.D., and Ms. Melissa Mosby from the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition who were guest speakers in my Honors Intermediate Composition course. Many families live paycheck to paycheck and according to the Cincinnati Homeless Coalition, 1 in 3 people in Cincinnati cannot afford where they are currently living (Jordan). With the rent prices in Cincinnati steadily increasing, and housing becoming more unaffordable, I wanted to know what housing protections are in place for Cincinnati residents, and is the city currently developing new housing protections to address the growing unaffordability problem?
The first set of information I hoped to find is on the statistics of evictions in the city. The reasoning behind focusing on evictions first, is because getting kicked out of an apartment is the first thing that occurs when someone is not able to maintain paying an unaffordable rent. I went to The Eviction Lab website, which is a website run by Princeton University that keeps track of the eviction statistics in an area. According to The Eviction Lab data for March 2024, there are 143,075 renting households in Hamilton County, and the average rent is $906 per month. In the last month, there have been 1,280 eviction filings, which is 105% of the pre-pandemic average, and there have been a total of 13,061 filings in the last year which is 102% of the pre-pandemic average (The Eviction Lab).
Seeing the high eviction numbers, and that the average rent in the county (which is mostly made up of Cincinnati) is $906 a month really made me interested to know what steps the city was taking to increase housing protections.
I started my search by googling “Cincinnati housing protections”, and the first link that populated was for the Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME) “Housing Rights and Fair Housing Law” (“Housing Rights: Housing Opportunities”). The Fair Housing Act is a federal law that ensures housing is accessible to all and prevents discrimination based on the protected classes, which include race, color, religion, national origin, family status, mental and/or physical disability and gender/sex. The city of Cincinnati also expanded the Fair Housing Act protections to include marital status, sexual orientation, and Appalachian origin (“Housing Rights: Housing Opportunities”).
While the HOME website provided a great general understanding of housing protections, I wanted to know more about what the city of Cincinnati is doing to help protect it’s residents in the difficult rental market. I returned to my original google search page and found an article about a pilot program the city was considering. The Access to Counsel pilot program is a legal program that would use $1.25 million dollars to help fix the city’s eviction crisis (Hart). The program would send funds to United Way and the Legal Aid to provide those going through the eviction process with legal representation in hopes to prevent evictions. But in order to qualify for the legal assistance, the individual has to have an income less than 60% of the median income and show they can pay their rent in the future (Hart).
After reading the article about the Access to Council program, I still wanted to find out if there was more the city was doing. $1.25 million dollars is a lot of money to put toward the cause of slowing evictions, but would it be enough to help protect renters in the city? I wanted to find out what other measures the city government was taking to help renters, so I continued my google search.
I was able to find an article written by a decision maker in the city, City Council member Meeka Owens. Council member Owens is currently serving as the vice chair of the Equitable Growth and Housing Committee. In the article, council member Owens outlines the first three proposed policies and ordinances that will make up the Cincinnati Tenants Bills of Rights. The first policy council member Owens mentions is the “protections against illegal ‘self-help’ evictions”, which passed as an ordinance in September 2023. “Self-help” evictions are when landlords force out tenants without following the proper process. Tactics used by landlords for “self-help” evictions include things such as changing locks, removing personal property, and cutting off utilities. The city’s policy would codify the already existing Ohio state law on the city level, and create a $1000 minimum in civil damages for any tenants subject to the illegal eviction (Owen).
The second ordinance of the Tenants Bill of Rights mentioned by council member Owens, was to expand the Housing Advisory Board by two seats (which was passed in October 2023). The newly created seats will be filled by renters in the city and they will be appointed by the mayor. The goal of the ordinance is to ensure the perspectives and voices of renters are included as the board tackles issues such as zoning reform and affordable housing (Owens).
The last proposal mentioned in the article, was the formation of a Housing Rights Task Force. The goal of the task force is to bring together different stakeholders to advise on the housing rights structure (Owens).
The article written by council member Owens was published in December of 2023. I wanted to investigate if there had been any additional updates or progress toward the completion of the Cincinnati Tenants Bill of Rights protections. I started a new google search for “Cincinnati tenant bill of rights”, and no new articles populated. I decided to modify my google search to “Cincinnati city council tenant bill of rights” which produced a link to a City Council motion. The motion was filed by council members Meeka Owens and Reggie Harris, for the city to create a “Tenants’ Guide” as part of the Cincinnati Tenants Bill of Rights. The motion was passed by the council in June of 2023.
I decided to search for the Tenants guide to see what information was provided to renters. I clicked on a link to the city’s website and was taken to the general information page of homeowner/renter assistance page. The page did not include a “Tenants Guide”.
The Cincinnati Tenants Bill of Rights seems to be the overall newest initiative to be taken by the city to address housing. While there is not much information currently about what the legislation might entail, it will be interesting to see what impact the legislation will have in protecting Cincinnatians.
I hope the city continues to create new forms of housing protections to implement to keep people from losing their homes. It is important that the city keeps the people that live here in mind as the city continues to become attractive to developers and corporate landlords.
Works Cited
Eviction Lab. “Cincinnati, OH: Eviction Tracking System.” Eviction Lab, evictionlab.org/eviction-tracking/cincinnati-oh/. Accessed 2024.
Hart, Jessica. “Cincinnati Considers Pilot Program to Prevent More Evictions, Money Would Go to Legal Aid and United Way.” WCPO 9 Cincinnati, WCPO 9 Cincinnati, 6 Dec. 2023, www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/hamilton-county/cincinnati/cincinnati-considers-pilot-program-to-prevent-more-evictions-money-would-go-to-legal-aid-and-united-way.
Jordan, Felicia. “‘record Numbers’ Experiencing Homelessness, Living Outdoors in Greater Cincinnati, Organizations Say.” WCPO 9 Cincinnati, WCPO 9 Cincinnati, 29 Jan. 2024, www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/record-numbers-experiencing-homelessness-living-outdoors-in-greater-cincinnati-organizations-say.
“Housing Rights: Housing Opportunities.” HOME Greater Cincy, www.homecincy.org/housing-rights#:~:text=The%20Fair%20Housing%20Act%20prohibits,also%20known%20as%20protected%20classes. Accessed 2024.
Owens, Meeka. “‘tenants Bill or Rights’ Essential to Stabilizing Housing Landscape: Opinion.” The Enquirer, Cincinnati Enquirer, 15 Dec. 2023, www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/contributors/2023/12/15/tenants-bill-of-rights-pivotal-step-in-addressing-housing-crisis/71904352007/.
Weiter, Taylor. “Cincinnati Rent Is Increasing Faster than Any Other City in the US, Zillow Reports.” WCPO 9 Cincinnati, WCPO 9 Cincinnati, 16 June 2023, www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/hamilton-county/cincinnati/cincinnati-rent-is-increasing-faster-than-any-other-city-in-the-us-zillow-reports.