While Over-the-Rhine makes weekly headlines with its redevelopment renaissance, the neighborhood remains the home base for thousands of residents, many of whom can’t afford to be patrons of new restaurants and businesses.
Over-the-Rhine Community Housing seeks to sustain an inclusive and diverse neighborhood, where longtime residents feel comfortable and confident that they will always have a home in OTR, even if their community continues to draw more and more people to the area.
Since 1960, the population of OTR has steadily decreased, falling from 30,000 to just shy of 5,000 residents. However, between the years of 2007 and 2010, the population increased by about 40 percent. That shift does more than fill apartments and condos. With a rising population comes higher property values and higher real estate taxes, all of which makes it more difficult to provide affordable housing to those who can’t afford market prices, says Mary Burke, executive director of OTRCH.
“Do we charge higher rent, or how do we close that even larger gap?” Burke asks. “So we want others—decision makers, power brokers—to work with us to figure that out. How do we maintain affordability in this neighborhood so that it can remain diverse going forward? It really will take some creative thinking and creative strategies.”
OTRCH currently provides safe, affordable housing to residents—half of whom earn less than $10,000 per year.
“Shelter is a basic human thing that people need, and being able to help an organization create more affordable places to live and be a part of is why it’s important,” says Brittany Skelton, OTRCH volunteer coordinator. “In Cincinnati, we have 300,000 people in our city limits, and about 100,000 live in poverty, and there isn’t enough affordable housing to go around.”
If there isn’t enough affordable housing to go around, the question remains: where will residents go if they can’t afford a place to live?
“People have low wages," Burke says. "Where are they going to rent that’s safe and decent and where they can build a community? If we close the door of OTR to affordable housing, where are people going to go? There’s an opportunity here to demonstrate that low-income, middle-income, high-income [individuals] can live together—not that they all have to be best friends and that there won’t be some disagreement now and then—but that it can work. Property values increase, people get along. There’s an opportunity.”
Moving forward, OTRCH will need community support, but Burke is confident that OTR can be a welcoming and inclusive community for all individuals. She’s already seen that happen as a result of the
Washington Park renovations.
“The programming has made it feel like everyone’s welcome, and it’s not for some kind of separate culture or community,” she says.
Burke’s hope is that the urban redevelopments of OTR do not have to lead to the displacement of the community’s long-time residents. They shouldn’t feel pushed out, she says.
“It would be like any of us who have roots somewhere," says Burke. "You just love it and want to stay there. I’d like the new folks moving in to appreciate that. There’s just a value in living with difference and extending your world to include diversity.”
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By Brittany York
Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.
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