CINCINNATI — Two high-profile murders in Over-the-Rhine this June had ties to one of Cincinnati’s largest low-income housing providers.
That nonprofit, Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH), is now under scrutiny as neighbors and tenants say their buildings are plagued with rats, raw sewage and violent criminals while pleas for help are being ignored.
“I’ve reached out to city council to no avail — completely ignored the issue, didn’t even respond. No one has ever reached out to me,” said Sherri Barber, who lives with her three young children in a West End home next to a POAH multi-family building with apparent raw sewage in the backyard.
WATCH: Two high-profile murders in Over-the-Rhine had ties to one of Cincinnati’s largest low-income housing providers. We look into them.
The WCPO 9 I-Team spoke to neighbors and tenants across the West End, Over-the-Rhine and Pendleton who complained about neglected properties with broken locks, doors, windows, gates, fire escapes and fencing that allows criminals easy access to POAH buildings.
“POAH is notorious for leaving their buildings unsecured, and that’s a problem,” said John Donaldson, a longtime Over-the-Rhine resident who frequently complains about problems at POAH buildings.
Two months before Mordecia Black was accused of stabbing well-known gym owner Patrick Heringer in his Over-the-Rhine home, he was staying at a POAH multi-family home at 1713 and 1715 Vine Street with his girlfriend.
Surveillance video shows a man who is believed to be Black leaving that Vine Street building after 4 a.m. on June 4, and carrying a knife, minutes before an intruder stabbed Patrick Heringer inside his nearby home.
“I don’t know how he got in that building. Somebody let him in. He’s not a tenant there,” Donaldson said. “That building, 1713-1715 Vine, as long as I’ve been here, 20 years, has been unsecured. The homeless … they go back there, they OD, they fence goods, whatever. Everything goes there.”
Two weeks later, 16-year-old Rasheed Mills was shot in the chest inside a POAH apartment in the 1300 block of Vine Street. Cincinnati police charged a 14-year-old boy with murder.
“They’re asleep at the wheel while kids get murdered, Patrick gets murdered,” said West End Community Council vice president Noah O’Brien. “We have to do something. POAH won’t fix it. City council definitely won’t fix it. So the only real hope for the community is a lawsuit.”
They accuse city leaders of using federal money to over-concentrate low-income housing into the poorest, Black neighborhoods instead of spreading it out, as the Fair Housing Act requires.
“What happens with nonprofits, the POAHs of the world, is they don’t have the financial wherewithal to actually maintain these properties,” O’Brien said. “Other developers, they’ll have a security service come and drive by properties. There is nobody checking on the security when there are open-air drug sales and lots of violent crime and things happening in front of and inside of these (POAH) buildings.”
The I-Team spent two months investigating POAH after receiving numerous and repeated complaints from the public.
While the city has sued private companies such as VineBrook Homes for creating a public nuisance, it has not taken the same action in this case, which involves a nonprofit that provides low-income housing.
‘It’s a feeding frenzy’
POAH is a national nonprofit that operates in 13 states. In Cincinnati, it owns 148 buildings that contain 969 apartments.
POAH acquired many historic buildings from The Model Group in 2018 throughout the Over-the-Rhine, Pendleton and the West End, with help from the city and the Ohio Housing Finance Agency.
“We have to beg and beg to get timely help,” said one tenant who lives at a POAH property on Vine Street. WCPO shielded the tenant’s identity for fear of eviction.
“When I first moved in, it was nice, but there has been wear and tear throughout the years,” the tenant said. “They won’t come out and fix things in a timely manner.”
The tenant’s apartment has ceiling lights out, electrical issues and hasn’t been repainted in 14 years.
“We have rats. We need rat traps … they’re big,” the tenant said. “If a garbage can doesn’t have a lid, then it’s a feeding frenzy.”
On its website, POAH boasts that its Vine Street apartments have hardwood floors, ceramic tile baths and kitchens, double-hung windows, pedestal vanities, new wood cabinets and wainscoting chair-rails in hallways.
‘We don’t enforce’
The I-Team reviewed complaints and code violations at two buildings, 1713/1715 Vine Street and 1704 Vine Street, and discovered several issues.
“I live in a four-unit apartment building. There is constantly human waste in the apartment buildings' common areas. The landlord sends someone to clean the common areas about once or twice a month. I've brought this up with the landlord multiple times, but the strategy has not changed,” one resident wrote to city enforcement officials in February 2024.
City inspectors began asking POAH to improve the conditions at 1713 Vine Street 16 months ago, by replacing broken windows, fixing or removing dilapidated fencing, replacing worn and broken flooring, and exterminating insects and rodents.
After the I-Team asked about the status of these repairs last week, city officials added new abatement fees, bringing the total owed to $233.
Inspectors also repeatedly asked POAH to repair two fire escapes at 1704 Vine Street, which had open cases for nearly two years.
Surveillance video obtained by the I-Team shows two people pulling down a fire escape and climbing up to an unlocked window, where they entered 1704 Vine on July 13.
“We don’t enforce. If you don’t enforce, you can’t expect the behaviors to change,” Donaldson said. “Everything down here is solvable and not very hard, but it goes against the politics in city council. They don’t want to clamp down on this. POAH could really be held accountable for a lot of this stuff.”
City officials declined an interview but issued this statement: “City leaders have heard from residents about issues at various properties and are meeting with POAH to discuss collaborative solutions. The city has been clear with POAH that problems need to be addressed and will work closely with them to see issues resolved, in addition to ongoing enforcement action from buildings & inspections and other city departments.”
POAH leadership also declined an interview but gave a written response to questions from WCPO.
“We understand concerns about code violations and want to emphasize that we focus on addressing root causes, not just paying fines. While fines have occasionally been paid when immediate compliance wasn’t feasible, we have since made significant repairs. Our goal is always to resolve issues promptly and consistently,” according to a POAH statement.
POAH’s spokesperson said it has installed new gate locks, adjusted entry points to reduce unauthorized visitors, and is adding more security cameras at certain locations.
The nonprofit is also planning monthly resident meetings and introductory letters to help residents get to know their property management and maintenance teams.
“Broken windows are secured immediately upon discovery, with replacements ordered promptly … We are committed to ongoing site improvements and address sewage issues immediately upon notification,” according to a POAH spokesperson.
‘Scared to talk’
When the I-Team visited Barber at her West End home, we witnessed what looked and smelled like raw sewage coming from a pipe in the backyard of the POAH property next door.
“I’ve reached out to POAH multiple times. I’ve been given the runaround because they actually have no people in the city that manage their properties,” Barber said. “You can never get a hold of anyone. You call a dispatch center, and they’re like, 'Someone will get back to you,' but they never will. It’s been over a year and a half.”
Sewage also backed up into a tenant’s kitchen sink, according to a photo provided to the I-Team.
“It’s very evident that they have a sewer line breakage, and that’s tens of thousands of dollars to fix,” Barber said. “Toilet paper and excrement and things are now being pumped out … It’s just a horrible living condition and situation for everyone.”
In Pendleton, Neighborhood Council president Shirley Rosenzweig is upset about overflowing trash cans outside POAH apartment buildings, where residents dump food and trash out their windows. It has led to a major rat problem.
“You cannot have this issue affecting everyone. It cannot be this way,” Rosenzweig said.
She repeatedly reports the problems and city inspectors issue citations, “And they clean up, but the next day it is again full of trash … if they pay their citation, there is not much the city can do.”
It is the same problem that Donaldson said he deals with daily in Over-the-Rhine outside POAH buildings.
“They need to manage their properties. Their properties are unmanaged, they don’t have enough people and they don’t take the problems seriously enough,” Donaldson said. “Everybody deserves clean and safe housing, and that’s not just the tenants who live in there, but it’s also the neighborhood.”
Critics say that neglect creates an environment where crime and violence can flourish.
“Five or six weeks ago, one of the tenants threatened to kill me. He said you talk to me again, I will come over here and blow your brains out,” Barber said.
Residents and neighbors are afraid to speak out, O’Brien said.
“People are scared to talk about the POAH buildings. They don’t want retaliation from people who live in the POAH buildings who break the law,” O’Brien said. “I’m going to be honest with you, my wife isn’t happy that I’m talking to you right now. There’s a risk. There’s a real risk.”
