Residents at an apartment building in Mount Auburn are protesting after they were notified that they would need to relocate in 30 days.
CityBeat first covered the situation at 2341 Burnet Ave. in this story last month. That building is next door to a hotel being constructed by Kingsley and Company, a development company owned by former Cincinnati Bengal Chinedum Ndukwe.
An affiliate LLC owned by Ndukwe and other investors, including Columbus-based investor Michael Schiff, purchased the building on Burnet and two others next door gradually last year. The other buildings were vacated over the summer. Residents at 2341 Burnet were given notice in late December to leave by Jan. 31.
At least eight, however, say they have struggled to find other affordable apartments and fear they may experience homelessness if they are not given more time to move. Housing advocacy groups have been working with the residents in the past week.
Social media posts are circulating showing a letter by a group calling itself the “Stand Strong on Burnet Ave. Tenants’ Association” posted on the door of the downtown office building where Kingsley and Company is located.
CityBeat reached out to residents of the building, and one confirmed that they did indeed place the letter there. That resident also confirmed that no eviction notices have been issued by the company yet. The resident declined to go into further detail. CityBeat has reached out to Ndukwe for comment and will update this story when we hear back from him.
In previous interviews, Ndukwe and Schiff have pointed out that the building is in poor condition and needs to be renovated, possibly for workforce housing affordable to middle-income renters. They have insisted that they are not displacing residents from the building because their 30-day notices are in compliance with housing law. Ndukwe also said in an email interview that nonprofits are available to help residents relocate. Schiff said that one resident who had been in the hospital was given financial relocation assistance.
The letter posted on Facebook and Twitter was gone from the downtown office building when a CityBeat reporter looked for it Friday afternoon.
“We came to your office today to try and meet with you,” the letter visible on social media reads in part. “Previously, we demanded you not force us out of our homes. You refused. We offered you a proposal that we believe would prevent us from entering homelessness. We asked for time to save money and to find a home we can afford, and coverage of moving expenses and related fees. Taking our homes away will cost us money we do not have. Without these funds, we believe that some of us will end up experiencing homelessness.”
The letter also includes quotes from residents of the building about their situations and their need for affordable housing. Those living in the building were paying between $300 and $400 a month before its former owner, Original Luster LLC, sold it late last year.
Kingsley’s hotel project received a city tax abatement worth roughly $2 million. Schiff, an investor in the group that purchased the apartment buildings next door, is also looking to develop a number of high-profile properties in downtown and Over-the-Rhine.
This story will be updated.
This article appears in Feb 5-18, 2020.