NEWS

Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval talks to reporters on Jan. 18, with Cincinnati City Council member Reggie Harris in the background.

PHOTO: FACEBOOK.COM/ CITYOFCINCINNATI

Cincinnati Looks At New Equitable Housing Policy Reforms

A proposal could make it easier for smaller, more diverse developers to gain access to local and state incentives

The City of Cincinnati is looking to implement something that was at the heart of Mayor Aftab Pureval’s campaign promises — equity in housing.

During a Jan. 18 brie ng, Pureval announced that the city is putting together a package of reforms that aim to increase housing options and a ordability, particularly for residents in Cincinnati neighborhoods that traditionally have been left out of the city’s development and progress.

At press time, Pureval said that he would introduce a motion to Cincinnati City Council to conduct a comprehensive housing incentive and zoning review. e motion also would engage residents and remove housing barriers, Pureval said. e review and legislation that follows would guide Cincinnati’s future growth and boost mixed-income a ordable housing instead of concentrating incentives on projects and in neighborhoods that already have nancial advantages, he added.

Pureval said the council would vote on the motion during the week of Jan. 24. e mayor also said that the city will do more to hold out-of-town landlords accountable. New sta will be added to the city’s legal department to prosecute

landlords who “refuse to improve the safety and quality of properties,” Pureval said. e hiring process already is under way, he said.

Pureval said that Reggie Harris, council member and chair of the equitable growth and housing committee, is working to update zoning laws that currently deem certain multi-family units illegal. Harris also is looking to fund homelessness prevention programs.

“We’ve had sort of a piecemeal approach because working in a ordable housing development in a city that’s growing at the rate that Cincinnati is growing is di cult, but we are going to get there,” Harris said.

“And we cannot lose sight of equity. It’s very closely tied to thinking about our abatement policies,” he continued. “We are here to cut the red tape and to make sure that incentives are available and accessible to a ordable housing developers to do business in Cincinnati.”

Harris said that his team is working with the mayor’s administration to streamline the process for developers who apply for low-income housing tax credits. Right now, developers must have a letter of support from the city to submit with an application to the state. If approved, they then return to the city to ask for a tax abatement to make the project a ordable and confer with the state again. rough Harris’s revised process, those steps are combined and sped up. Harris says that now when the city provides the letter of support, it will also have vetted a project and granted a provisional abatement, which strengthens a developer’s application. When Ohio approves a project and grants tax credits, Harris said, the project can immediately begin. e new process increases the likelihood of state support, Harris said.

“ at might sound like a tedious policy decision, but it’s one of the most critical steps we can take to expedite creating a ordable housing development in Cincinnati and incentivizing developers to do that because of the city’s support,” Harris said. “Low-income housing tax credits are the lifeline for creating new a ordable units in the city.”

Harris said that a process with fewer barriers will “create the conditions” for a ordable housing and allow a more diverse array of developers to apply for and receive incentives.

“When you think about this ecosystem of people who can bring housing, when you have the conditions, when you have streamlined, e cient processes, that allows a lot of people to participate,” Harris said. “So when we talk about equity, when we talk about minority business inclusion, we are creating the conditions (in the) city for people to say hey, ‘I want to be a part of my neighborhood revitalization,’ and they’re not bogged down in bureaucracy.”

“We can amass all the money that we want in the pot, but if it’s hard (for developers) to use that money, then folks say, ‘Listen, I don’t want to come to Cincinnati because yeah, they have the money in the pot but it takes forever to access it,’ and it doesn’t really do us any favors’,” he added

Pureval said that the newly announced reforms are the rst of a number of ways Cincinnati will try to boost equitable housing.

“ ere is no one answer to our housing challenges, and speci cally our a ordable housing challenges, which is why what we’re announcing today is multi-faceted and a rst step toward a comprehensive approach,” Pureval said. “What are the barriers arti cially keeping our housing supply low? And when you arti cially keep your housing supply low, you are arti cially increasing property tax amounts and increasing rents.”

LGBTQ+ Marriage Pioneer, University of Cincinnati Grad Jim Obergefell Is Running for Ohio’s 89th District

BY ALLISON BABKA

e man who helped change the course of America’s marriage equality through law is now hoping to do something similar in the political arena.

Jim Obergefell, who attended the University of Cincinnati and was the lead plainti in the U.S. Supreme Court case Obergefell vs. Hodges, announced on Jan. 18 that he is running for Ohio’s 89th House district. e district includes portions of Erie and Ottawa counties along Lake Erie and is currently represented by Republican D.J. Swearingen. Obergefell will run as a Democrat.

“ is district in the past has had Democrats as the representative. It can again,” Obergefell said during a virtual press conference. “I think I’ve proven with my ght for marriage equality that I don’t mind being an underdog. I don’t mind ghting a very big ght when it’s the right thing to do.”

Obergefell became a household name in the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court case Obergefell vs. Hodges, which legalized marriage between members of the same sex throughout the country.

In 2013, Obergefell married longtime partner John Arthur, whom he met in Cincinnati, in Maryland after Arthur became very ill with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Because their home state of Ohio did not recognize same-sex marriages, Obergefell would not be able to be listed on Arthur’s death certi cate as the surviving spouse.

Obergefell later led suit in lower courts before the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, with all nine judges ultimately deciding that states could not discriminate between heterosexual and homosexual marriages and that legal marriages in one state must be recognized in other states.

Obergefell documented the journey in his book Love Wins: e Lovers and Lawyers who Fought the Landmark Case for Marriage Equality.

Obergefell was born in Sandusky and, after stints in Cincinnati, Washington, D.C., and Columbus, now lives there again near his siblings. In running for the Ohio House of Representatives, Obergefell said he plans to focus on equitable healthcare, well-paying jobs and improving schools.

He also will concentrate on Lake Erie as a driver of economy and tourism, he said, intending to form a bipartisan commission to invest in the projects and infrastructure around the lake as well as its protection.

“We live on Lake Erie, our area’s greatest natural resource. We rely on the lake for our drinking water, tourism, recreation and as one of the drivers of our local economy,” Obergefell said. “On day one, I’ll invite the governor to Ohio’s North Coast so they understand Lake Erie is an asset for the entire state.” (Former Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley is running for the Democratic nomination to take on Ohio’s incumbent governor Mike DeWine later this year.)

Bengals Advance to AFC Championship Round

BY ALLISON BABKA

e Cincinnati Bengals — the franchise that has been mocked for years of losing seasons — are heading to the AFC Championship bout for the rst time since 1988.

e Bengals beat the Tennessee Titans 19-16 on Jan. 22 with a magical walk-o kick that further enhanced the current squad’s legendary status.

As four seconds ticked down to nothing at the end of the fourth quarter, rookie Evan McPherson kicked a 52-yard eld goal to put the Bengals over the top. e movie-star ending happened even after quarterback Joe Burrow endured nine sacks throughout the game. e win against the Titans came just a week after the team’s can-youbelieve-it victory over the Las Vegas Raiders in the Wild Card round. e Bengals now advance to the AFC Championship round and will play the Kansas City Chiefs at 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 30, at Arrowhead Stadium.

If the Bengals win the AFC Championship, they will head to the Super Bowl on Sunday, Feb. 13.