Controversy Continues Over Proposed Metropole Project

CINCINNATI --  Cincinnati city council approved a plan Wednesday to convert low-income housing into a new hotel downtown.

City leaders voted to give the owner of the Metropole apartments on Walnut Street more than $7 million in grants and loans to redevelop the building.

Protesters call the project discriminatory.

The developer and the city have until November to find new low-income housing units for 170 residents who would displaced.

"Tenants have said that they want to be downtown, they want to stay downtown,” said Josh Spring, of the Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. “We all want to choose where we live, it's a common human thing. And 3CDC and the downtown residents' council says we value diversity in the city, so they need to show it."

"We've relocated about 48 people already. Obviously there are issues,” said Stephen Leeper, president and CEO of 3CDC. “We need to make sure we're doing as much as we can to help them, but I think we're making progress."

Metropole residents are meeting Saturday to discuss the next move, which may include legal action.