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Hard Work Recognized
Establishing goals, creating plans to achieve them and staying focused is hard work that leads to accomplishments small and great. Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority was recently recognized for the hard work our team is doing to be the housing industry leader. Nearly $8M in l
ow-income housing tax credits from the Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA) were awarded to Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority to help fund the development of Bennett Point which will be located in the Pendleton community. It is the agency's first new development within the City of Cincinnati in more than a decade.
CMHA is not just building affordable housing as places for families to live, these developments help lift people out of poverty through job creation and opportunities.
The Public Housing Program was intended to create jobs and stimulate construction activity at its inception in 1937 and we are continuing that important work to benefit Hamilton County families.
Furthermore, just days after learning about the OHFA award, I was notified that the agency won a National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) Award of Merit for our Economic Impact Strategic Plan. The NAHRO Awards are like the Oscars for public housing agencies as they give national recognition to the achievement and innovation of agency members. We submitted the plan in the Community Revitalization category which consists of programs that have mixed-use developments, neighborhood preservation, economic development and more. More information about both awards is available on our website, click here for details.
The billion dollar revitalization work we are doing to transform affordable housing along with the new partnerships being created are making a very huge impact in the lives of the families we serve, the businesses we partner with and the community as a whole. CMHA is a very important
part of the fabric of this community. We are taking bold moves that will ultimately change lives and that work requires internal partnerships with staff and external partnerships with residents, business owners and other stakeholders. Thank you for being a part of this journey.
Finally, as we move forward with this "BOLD" approach in securing quality affordable housing, our housing authority, like other housing authorities across the country, looks at the impact of a variety of subjects that affect our daily work and the families we serve each day. Equity is the subject that comes to the top of my mind. How equity pertains to jobs, neighborhoods, and race and gender.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is one of my favorite people and his messages often guide my motivation for making Hamilton County a better place. He said, "
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
With that in mind, CMHA wants to be a change agent in this community. We would like to see more communities open to the idea of adding affordable housing in their communities and we would like to help stimulate economic empowerment with more jobs that pay livable wages.Inspiring success for families comes from within and we can make these changes for everyone we serve by becoming the agency that makes significant and bold changes that move all of us forward. We are building collaborations in housing, education, mental health and business that can collectively work to uplift Hamilton County.
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Gregory D. Johnson, MS, EDEP, PHM
Chief Executive Officer
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 Partner Spotlight: Inspirational Bible Church
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Inspirational Bible Church, located in Forest Park, has a history of doing service work throughout the community but it's not your typical service work. Inspirational was one of the first churches in the area to giveaway gas cards to families and instead of giving away school supplies during backpack season the church gave away personal hygiene items to students and their families. Bishop Victor Couzens, the Senior Pastor said, "We always look for the needs that are not being met and then we try to fill those needs."
Inspirational Bible Church is the first organization in Southwest Ohio to partner with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farmers to Families Food Program. Farmers have a surplus of fresh fruit, vegetables and dairy due to the pandemic closing schools and restaurants. So instead of letting the items go to waste, the USDA is supplying communities with the fresh products. Inspirational will receive 1000 boxes of fresh produce and 1000 boxes of fresh dairy every week in June and distribute that to the community.
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Bishop Couzens and members loading family cars with supplies.
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Inspirational Bible Welcome Team
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That brings us to the new relationship with Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority. Bishop Couzens reached out to CMHA CEO Gregory Johnson about sharing items with residents. He says his reason for selecting CMHA families is selfish. "I grew up in community housing in Dayton, OH. So I know the needs of community housing. I know the lack of resources those families often have. I know the majority of those families look like me and I know those families have been more disproportionately impacted by the economy, by the coronavirus and etc. so whenever I have an opportunity to look out for the least of these, I try to do that."
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CMHA staff loading food supplies
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Setty Kuhn family
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Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority will receive 400 of the boxed items each week and distribute them to families at various sites. This new partnership is a great example of how CMHA makes efforts to go beyond housing, connecting residents to resources.
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J-RAB & CMHA Serving Resident Needs
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The Jurisdiction-wide Resident Advisory Board (J-RAB) once again partnered with the Freestore Foodbank and Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority to answer the call of residents. Seniors from the high rise buildings and some family sites have found it difficult to get out and shop so they sought help. J-RAB secured 13 tons of non-perishable items that were boxed for distribution.
CMHA secured enough hand sanitizer for each of those residents. Delorise Calhoun, J-RAB President, finds it satisfying to assist residents and leveraged her relationship with the Freestore to get supplies. She shared, "Each of the boxes provide enough food to last 2 to 3 weeks for the families."
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Valarie McDonald is a Maple Towers resident and has been there since 2013. Ms. McDonald is one of the people who benefited from the food delivery and stated, "This lets us know people care and that the community is there for us. I appreciate what J-RAB and CMHA are doing. They are all good people."
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Agency Spotlight: Bennett Point
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Bennett Point is a proposed 56 unit mixed-income development in the Cincinnati neighborhood of Pendleton - one of the city's most centrally located and economically dynamic areas. Once completed, the two buildings will offer a variety of one-, two- and three-bedroom units, and a laundry facility for community use.
OHFA announced that CMHA edged out the competition and won a $7.9M award to develop Bennett Point. This is the first newly developed property that will be constructed, within city limits, by CMHA in years. The accomplishment is huge because it's not just new affordable housing it also creates and secures jobs in turn furthering the sustainability of the agency. Below are some renderings of the development.
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