Public/Private partnership creates affordable housing in West End

CINCINNATI – As development continues in Cincinnati’s historic West End neighborhood, residents and housing advocates have been working to ensure that creation and preservation of affordable housing is part of the equation. A set of historic rowhouses in Cincinnati’s West End is being redeveloped as a combination of affordable and market-rate, rental and homeownership housing – a mix that is crucial to the neighborhood’s vitality for long-time and new residents.

Six historic rowhouses on Baymiller Street, that were vacant and deteriorating, were stabilized in 2018 by the Hamilton County Landbank, a managed entity of The Port, in partnership with the City of Cincinnati. The City identified the Baymiller properties as ideal candidates for stabilization through the Landbank’s Historic Structure Stabilization Program, which works to preserve buildings in danger of collapse or demolition for future reuse and redevelopment. The Landbank worked to transfer three properties to Habitat for Humanity and Seven Hills Neighborhood Houses for affordable homeownership.

The homes at 1803 and 1807 Baymiller are being rehabbed by Habitat for Humanity of Greater Cincinnati (HFHGC). HFHGC will work with qualified home buyers, giving them an opportunity for home ownership in this historic part of town. Habitat’s professional construction staff will lead the work, supported by skilled subcontractors, the homebuyers, and volunteers (following COVID safety protocols). The scope of work includes family selection, first-time homebuyer education, and financing for each home. Funding for these two homes has been provided by Procter & Gamble, a longtime Habitat partner, donors to HFHGC’s first Episcopal Build (see complete list attached), Greater Cincinnati Foundation and the City of Cincinnati.

The home at 1805 Baymiller is being developed by Seven Hills Neighborhood Houses as an affordable rental unit, with Habitat as the general contractor. This work is supported by FC Cincinnati, the Landbank, Cincinnati Development Fund, and Greater Cincinnati Foundation. The remaining three rowhouses are under private or Hamilton County Landbank ownership.

This collaboration responds to the critical need for affordable housing in the West End, long identified by West End by community organizations and planners and in the West End Housing Study led by The Port and Seven Hills Neighborhood Houses and released in 2019. For example, the project dovetails with three of the housing goals of the West End Speaks Plan (2016): the condition of all West End properties is improved; the quality of affordable units in the West End is upgraded; the West End supports the expansion of homeownership in the neighborhood.