CINCINNATI — Tenants at Kirby Apartments in Mt. Airy are demanding action after months of neglected maintenance requests. Residents say they face serious safety concerns and flooding issues as the rainy season continues.
Many tell us they've been waiting months to see maintenance orders fixed. One tenant, Mamedy Doucoure, said that he's been living with a hole in the ceiling of his daughter's room since January.
"One day, somebody gonna be injured," Doucoure told us.
In a different part of the complex, Sabrina Timerding showed us how much water she has to deal with inside and outside her apartment.
"This is an every single day thing, like every day," Timerding said.
She also showed us water bleeding through the floorboards and what she described as fungus growing in the hallways.
This week's weather makes a major problem even worse.
"I feel sick to my stomach," Timerding said of the upcoming rain.
Take a closer look at the living conditions for these Mt. Airy residents:
We spoke with a representative from the Cincinnati Tenants Union, Brad Hirn, to ask why these tenants say they've been living in these conditions for months.
Hirn told us residents have said that the apartment complex's receiver is not fixing maintenance calls, citing what tenants have been told as a lack of funds.
"We're looking at a situation where we have rain earlier this week, heavy rain’s coming, and tenants are legitimately asking, like, where is, where is the basic maintenance that this receiver is obligated by the court to do?" Hirn said.
We first reported on the ongoing questions from residents whose apartments are now temporarily managed by Prodigy Properties on April 23.
The tenants originally lived in properties owned and managed by Vision & Beyond, a real estate investment firm. Last week, Prodigy Properties issued a statement saying in part, "Prodigy does not own these properties. Rather, it is an appointed officer that works for the Court."
The statement said most of the properties were "terribly mismanaged" by entities associated with Vision & Beyond and Stas Grinberg, who was arrested under fraud allegations.
"Prodigy has advanced approximately $20,000 of its own money to address urgent maintenance needs, but significantly more funds are needed," the statement says. "So long as the owners refuse to provide operating funds or to allow Prodigy to borrow such funds, Prodigy is concerned that tenant conditions will deteriorate further."
You can read Prodigy's full response here.
WCPO 9 reached out to the company again on May 1, and we are awaiting a response. We also reached out to the City of Cincinnati for further background on the situation. This is a list of information provided by a city spokesperson.
- The City initially filed litigation against V&B in October 2024 based on nuisance conditions in the Central Business District and Mt. Auburn/OTR. There are approximately 600 units in the V&B portfolio.
- The City filed litigation to prevent further deterioration of these properties.
- There are roughly 150 defendants, mostly comprising single asset LLCs, many of which are the subject of the allegations of fraud by V&B.
- The City subsequently learned that Wilmington Trust filed foreclosure actions against V&B in November 2024, and these cases were consolidated with the City nuisance litigation.
- In December 2024, Wilmington requests emergency appointment of a receiver, and a receiver was appointed for many but not all of the properties owned by V&B.
- Shortly thereafter, Wilmington requested termination of the receivership after identifying it too was allegedly defrauded; the Court granted this motion and a new receiver, Prodigy Properties, was installed in February 2025 at the request of the City.
- Prodigy Properties serves as receiver for the vast majority of V&B’s portfolio, and there are currently pending motions requesting that the Court permit Prodigy or other interested parties to borrow funds to maintain and manage the properties in receivership.
