Housing a priority for both Cincinnati and Dayton going into 2025
Thousands of people in Cincinnati and Dayton either can’t find a home they can afford or can’t afford the one they live in. Both cities are taking steps to address the housing crisis. What are they doing and is it enough?
Cincinnati
Mayor Aftab Pureval says Cincinnati is “continuing to increase our commitments to….affordable housing.”
In November’s State of the City address, He pointed to developments like the Barrister, which Brick by Brick profiled in April. It’s the first affordable apartment building (to residents making 60-percent or less than the area median income) in the downtown business district in thirty years.
Pureval highlights rental assistance and free legal representation to 542 households, including same-day legal representation, which began in September.
He says, “In its first month, 83-percent of represented tenants had their evictions dismissed. These are tenants approaching lawyers outside of eviction court on the day of their hearing.”
The Mayor also praises the new data analytics program in the city. It identifies tenants who could be facing a future eviction and offers up help before it happens. Brick by Brick profiled the partners involved in this solution and how it works.
In the State of the City Pureval credits zoning changes. (Connected Communities) “They have provided an important and ambitious blueprint for Cincinnati to not just survive but thrive.”
Dayton
Dayton’s State of the City address happens in February.
In the 2024 speech, Mayor Jeffrey Mims outlines plans to tear down 1,100 blighted houses, saying each house torn down creates about five jobs (demolition, asbestos removal, site clearing, trash removal, construction).
Plans are in place, he says, for people who want to buy the lots and redevelop them.
Mims says housing is a big issue, “We started working on a housing policy that we passed last year, about three years ago, and that housing policy has given us a lot of ideas…and you will see some of the dollars to support that in the new Issue 6.”
In March 2024, Dayton voters extended a quarter percent income tax renewal (Issue 6) which will bring in an estimated $650,000 per year for eight years for the city to invest in housing.
Other ideas are in the works to create affordable housing, including creating a Housing Trust Fund and designating Community Reinvestment Areas (CRAs). The CRAs would give tax abatements to new and rehabbed construction projects to spur economic growth.
The Conversation
Dayton City Commissioner Shenise Turner-Sloss told Brick by Brick it’s “Conversations such as this,” when asked what gives her hope that we can begin to solve the housing crisis.
She sat down with Cincinnati Councilmember Jeff Cramerding in the Brick by Brick studios to have a candid discussion about housing challenges facing the two cities and what programs are helping to make a difference.
On the challenges
Turner-Sloss: “We are still recovering from the economic downturn. In 2008 we were hit very hard by predatory lending, the foreclosure crisis as well as a lot of manufacturing jobs that left the Dayton Area….it has been exasperated by COVID-19…a number of tornadoes that blew through….all the while dealing with a number of dilapidated abandoned properties.”
Cramerding: “We are growing, which is a good thing……But with that comes associated problems. When people want to move into a neighborhood, it means rising housing values and rising rents, which are also good things. But it does create issues of displacement and people no longer being able to afford to live in their neighborhood.”
On new money for housing
Cramerding: “So putting $10.5M in, (into the housing fund, administered by the Cincinnati Development Fund) we’ve got a number of housing projects in the pipeline. So, over the next year, we hope to see a number of really new market rate housing communities with retail underneath. So, we’re creating housing and we’re also creating catalytic investment in the neighborhoods that need it.”
Turner-Sloss: “So very excited to add that additional bucket, as we call it, to housing, the $650,000… I think the percent was like 71-percent of voters supported this income tax levy [Issue 6]. And we are using that as a model, in fact, to leverage the dollars that our land bank was able to receive from the Ohio Department of Development.”
The Montgomery County Land Bank received $7 million from the state, as Brick by Brick reported, to buy, rehabilitate or build properties for income-eligible residents.
Turner-Sloss is also championing a housing trust fund. She says, “I’ve been working very diligently to bring that forth. My hope is that I’ll have the support of the rest of the members so that we can get something passed.”
On zoning
Cramerding: “We passed our Connected Communities initiative last year, which makes building housing in Cincinnati easier, especially along our main thoroughfares or major corridors. So, that makes development easier. And then providing the cash to make some of these connected communities happen is going to be very exciting….Things are going very well in the City of Cincinnati and other urban areas, but it is still harder, and it still needs an incentive….we put $10.5M in during our carryover process. That’ll be a bridge.”
Cincinnati now has a new dashboard to track how Connected Communities is working.
Turner-Sloss: “Our zoning code is outdated for about 20 years…the staff is very committed…to updating the zoning code.” When asked about density and stabilization she said, “We are looking at more of our economic distress and challenging areas. For instance, we have just expanded our community reinvestment areas to those more distressed areas to entice and increase development.”
On Capital A affordable housing
Turner-Sloss: “From the state tax credit, we are seeing a change in the scoring and the focus where it is more difficult in the urban core. And so, we won’t have that ability to utilize with the Ohio Housing Financing Agency. We won’t have that ability to tap into the LIHTC, the Low Income Housing Tax Credits any longer because they’re changing the formula… so that is something that we’re going to have to pivot… and find other ways and mechanisms how we’re going to address this issue and providing those incentives to our developers in having the various use of mixed income units across the various communities.”
Cramerding: “Yeah, it is a huge challenge. I agree with the challenges that our federal partners provide. We’re going to have to work with them, lobby them, lobby for more flexibility, use some local tools for more flexibility. So, that’s part of it. And in Cincinnati, we just need to keep in mind that the more housing we build, the more the housing crisis will relax.”
On eviction protection
As Brick by Brick reported, Dayton is piloting Right to Counsel, as evictions continue to increase throughout the region. Right to counsel is the right to be represented by an attorney from start to finish in an eviction case.
Turner-Sloss: “It’s going very well….the list goes on and on in terms of who are all part of it… and now we’re at a stage where they are conducting a cost benefit analysis. There will 125 (families in Northwest Dayton). It sounds very minute at this state in the game, but again, it’s a pilot… that area was identified… with the review of the data and the eviction heat map.”
Cramerding: “We are putting more money into our eviction prevention every month. Every month our capacity grows, including with our partners at UC law. So, it’s a tremendous program. My colleague, Meeka Owens has been leading on it and will continue to lead on it.”
Councilmember Meeka Owens released the Tenants’ Guide March 21, 2025. It includes information on where to find rent and utility assistance, how to get legal information, what condition homes are required to be in , an explanation of rent escrow and more.
Cincinnati recently began same-day legal representation for those who need it in eviction court. That’s legal representation for that day and not the entire case. There is also the data analytics program underway to identify people who might face a future eviction.
On which cities Cincinnati and Dayton are looking to for solutions
Turner-Sloss: “Pittsburgh. They have a number of models. I would say we cannot talk about housing if we’re not talking about equity, wealth distribution. And we talk about the history of redlining and when you are looking at the black and brown community….and so (the State of) Washington is doing something magnificent in terms of creating a fund, a covenant program they call it, so they can have low interest loans to assist with down payment assistance, as well as the purchase price of the home itself……Cleveland is doing some innovative things, Cincinnati is doing some great things.”
Cramderding: Minneapolis was a big model and we were looking at Connected Communities that Minneapolis showed that the changes in zoning can produce new housing. So that was a success. We were looking at other cities too, trying to decrease regulation and see who’s growing faster than us and why.”
On the future
Turner-Sloss: “It’s going to take work. It’s going to take out of the box thinking and the old way is not necessarily going to be the new way of addressing the issues that we are facing today. There are a number of issues, as we mentioned through this conversation, from mental health, from wage gap that we’re experiencing, labor shortages, the housing voucher program, the shortages that we’re seeing with that and just people just don’t necessarily have the means to maintain a home…you have to have the ability to have these conversations and problem solve, right? You can’t just have conversation and pass legislation…you have got to have the programming and funding to go along with it.”
Cramerding: “People are moving back into the city, which is a good thing. And I think we, as cities, have not taken the moment to celebrate that and say, we are turning things around. People are moving back to the city but that has created a number of consequences. Housing and rents have gone up, home prices have gone up – good and bad. So, with good things, there are bad things that we’re grappling with. We are dealing with these effects, but overall, we are living in a very fortunate time when people are moving back to the city and we’re dealing with the side effects as opposed to trying to turn around cities that were dying.”
What do you think about the steps Cincinnati and Dayton are taking to help end the housing crisis? We want to build community around context and solutions in our cities. Your feedback is very important to the effort, as we continue to dig deeper into the responses to some of our most pressing social issues, including the housing crisis. Click on the green button below to take a short survey to help reinforce and refine our work. Thank you.
Ann Thompson – Host, Producer
Over the last thirty years in Cincinnati, Ann Thompson has brought a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her reporting. She has reported and anchored for WVXU, WKRC, WCKY, WHIO-TV and Metro Networks and freelanced for NPR, CBS and ABC Radio. Her work has been recognized by the Associated Press and she has won awards from the Association of Women in Communications and the Alliance for Women in Media. She is a former News Director and Operations Manager. Ann has reported from India, Japan, South Korea, Germany and Belgium as part of fellowships. Ann thinks of the Brick by Brick project as “journalism for good.” She serves as host and producer. Ann lives in Anderson Township with her husband Scott. They have two boys. Jake graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2022 and Kurt attends West Point.
