CINCINNATI — Former Bengals safety Chinedum Ndukwe, owner of Kingsley+ Co. and Victory Vistas, is partnering with nonprofit Serving Older Adults Through Changing Times (SO-ACT) to subsidize rent increases for 11 elderly residents at his Paddock Hills affordable housing complex after announcing rent hikes.
Residents told WCPO in some cases, the new rent amounts are a 134% increase that sparked outrage from tenants.
"Our goal is not to displace any resident. Our goal is not to evict any resident," Ndukwe told us Monday.
We first spoke to residents earlier this month who told us they were shocked by the rent increases.
"It was a surprise to all of us. They claim that they did not know until ... about two, three weeks before they even told us," said Sandra Roberts, a Victory Vistas resident.
Ndukwe said the now former property management company, Sundance Property Management Company, made a mistake by renting too many units at 30% AMI or "area median income," a measure that classifies qualified renters as "extremely low-income."
We asked Ndukwe if the company was trying to rectify over-renting that type of apartment.
"Just to be crystal clear, we do have a fiduciary responsibility to meet certain debt coverage ratios. I mean that's part of any construction development, whether it's a market-rate deal or an affordable housing project. And it's clear we haven't been charging the correct rents," Ndukwe said.
Some city leaders said they were not familiar with the situation when it became public during a Dec. 3 city council meeting.
"I am not currently, as I sit here, familiar with the alleged loophole being exploited," said Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval. "But I promise you the city's attorney's office is already on this."
Ndukwe said he's been talking with the city about this issue for months.
"I can't control what gets communicated to the mayor," he said. "I just know that we've been in consistent conversations with the city about this issue since October, before any of the media attention."
WATCH: The developer of the complex answers questions directly about the reason for the rent increase
After a review, the Ohio Housing Finance Agency told WCPO in a statement:
"When the Ohio Housing Finance Agency learned of the rent increases for residents at Victory Vistas in Cincinnati, we reached out to Kingsley & Co. for information about the situation. Kingsley has been, and continues to be, very responsive and cooperative as we gather the information about rent increases. While the rent increases for residents at Victory Vistas are significant, our review of the information Kingsley provided found the amount of rent being charged by Kingsley per unit is within the maximum amount allowed by HUD for a Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) property. Therefore, Kingsley is compliant with the LIHTC program rent guidelines. LIHTC property owners can increase rents as they see fit to maintain the long-term financial stability of the property. However, they cannot charge residents more than the LIHTC rent limits set by HUD. Again, the rent that Kingsley will charge its residents are within the maximum allowed by HUD. OHFA has been working closely with Kingsley & Co to review the rent information and appreciates its responsiveness to our information requests. We met with representatives of the company Monday [Dec. 8] to further discuss rent information and to develop a path forward for the residents. We also reviewed best practices for managing LIHTC properties with them."
Legal Aid attorney Phil Rich, who is representing some of the concerned tenants, said residents still have the right to pay the rents they "were promised".
In his full statement on Monday, Rich said,
"Legal Aid and the Victory Vistas residents maintain that they have the legal right to live at Victory Vistas under their 30% AMI leases, paying the rents that were promised to them when they moved in. The OHFA investigation does not speak to whether Victory Vistas has the legal obligation to honor those individual promises. We want to be very clear that this is not a solution, that the residents still face the threat of homelessness in just over two months, and that the residents will continue to fight for the affordable housing they were promised."
"We have made progress," Ndukwe said. "We're not there yet in terms of a long-term solution that we're looking for."
Ndukwe said the ideal long-term solution is getting CMHA vouchers for those 11 residents facing these increases. The subsidized parentership with SO-ACT is temporary, lasting until March 1, 2026.
We have reached out to city leaders for comment and have not heard back.
