>Colerain voices fear in swell of subsidized housing
>By Gregory Korte
>
>Colerain Township residents, led by all three township trustees, came to
>the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority meeting Tuesday night to
>express alarm over the dramatic increase in Section 8 housing in their
>community - 131 units in the past year alone.
>
>
>The housing authority's response: Tell it to the feds.
>
>Colerain officials say the increase in Section 8 housing has contributed
>to increased crime, more blight and lowered property values in
>neighborhoods already battered by the foreclosure crisis.
>
>It's a burden not shared equally around the county. About 96 percent of
>all Section 8 properties in Hamilton County are west of Interstate
>71. Trustee Bernie Fiedeldey questioned whether that pattern was some sort
>of "concerted effort" on the part of housing authority.
>
>But the authority says it has little influence over where Section 8
>voucher holders go - that's a contract between the landlord and the
>tenant. What it can control is what CMHA owns - 58 of about 530 subsidized
>housing units in Colerain.
>
>"We are not, ourselves, purchasing property in the western part or
>northwestern part of the county," said CMHA board Chairman Donald
>Driehaus. "We are looking to expand our presence on the East Side."
>
>CMHA purchased 26 units in Hyde Park earlier this year.
>
>Though the Colerain contingent came with "constructive intent," the
>discussion led to occasional sharp exchanges - as when Township Trustee
>Jeff Ritter led off by telling the board: "To be perfectly frank, I've
>never been a big fan of your product line at CMHA."
>
>Housing commissioner Lamont Taylor asked Ritter what he meant by
>that. "I've never been a fan of subsidized housing as I've seen it
>dispersed on the West Side during my lifetime," Ritter said. "It's my
>opinion based on what I see now - with the crime and blight - as opposed
>to what I saw growing up in the '70s."
>
>Taylor said low-income housing may have played "some small role" in the
>West Side's decline. But he said too much of the debate was based on
>perception.
>
>Still, housing officials said federal regulations limit what they can do
>to the actual tenants - as long as they pay their share of the rent and
>don't commit a crime. "Whether or not they're a good neighbor, whether or
>not they take care of the property, that's not something that we
>do. That's something the owner is supposed to monitor. That's just the way
>the federal program is written," said executive director Richard Rust. "If
>we are to be more aggressive, there's going to have to be a change in the
>way the program is written."
>
>That wasn't good enough for residents like Judy Hinterlong.
>
>"I'm all for giving people a hand up. I know people make mistakes. But
>we're rewarding bad behavior," said Hinterlong, a 41-year Colerain
>resident.
>
>She brought pictures she took of Section 8 properties. "Those are Direct
>TV satellite dishes. How is it that if you're so poor that you need
>assisted housing, how can you afford a satellite dish?"
>
>Responded Taylor, "If you drive by a Section 8 property and you see a new
>Cadillac Escalade with shiny new rims, there's nothing we can do about
>that."
>
>http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20080820/NEWS0108/80820...