When Sandra Roberts moved into Victory Vistas in Paddock Hills last year, the 66-year-old says she had grappled with a bout with homelessness, the death of her spouse, health issues, and declining conditions at previous apartments.
But she thought the new building would be a long-term refuge. It was clean and quiet. There's even a library.
"When they first showed me this little apartment, I fell in love with it because it was across from the library," she says. "Sometimes, when it was really peaceful, I used to go walk across the hall when it was snowing and look at the birds. And oh, Jehovah God, it was so relaxing."
Best of all, she says, the building was for low-income seniors like herself. The roughly $500 a month rent was affordable on her fixed income. Then a couple months ago she got notice from the property managers that her rent was increasing — by a lot.
"When I saw that amount — $1,154 dollars, I just said, 'How?' "
Most of all, Roberts says, she just feels disappointed and confused.
"You guys made the building," she says. "If you wanted it to be a thousand dollars, all you had to do was tell us that at the beginning. I could have said, 'a thousand dollars, you know what, I can't really afford that' and I could have looked somewhere else."
Other residents in the building faced with similar increases say they couldn't afford to stay. Those WVXU spoke to confirmed they've been offered temporary rental assistance to close the gap between their old and new rents. But they said that would only last for a month or two and doesn't represent a viable solution.
Some are already planning to move. Others, however, are sticking around and pushing back.
"No one can make that work"
Cara-Mia Demarcia says she signed a lease for her unit in Victory Vistas in Paddock Hills a year ago with the understanding it was for someone with a very low income.
Last month, she found out her rent is going from roughly $600 a month to about $1,200.
She says a group of tenants affected by the rent hikes got together and decided to do something.
"It's not fair," Demarcia says. "The impact is seniors having to go under this stress. We're already old and have our own issues to deal with. A lot of us have medical issues, like myself."
Now, Greater Cincinnati Legal Aid is representing the 10 residents of Victory Vistas facing rent increases as high as 130%. Staff attorney Phil Rich says those increases likely violate the terms of Low Income Housing Tax Credits developer Kingsley + Co. used to construct the building.
Under those credits, Kingsley is required to keep 10 units of the building affordable to people making 30% of the Area Median Income. The rest of the units in the building must remain affordable to someone making 60% of the Area Median Income. That's roughly the $1,200 a month the 10 residents are suddenly being asked to pay.
Rich says it's possible there will still be 10 units in the building at 30% AMI even after the rent hikes.
But he argues the sudden increases effectively represent non-renewal of the tenants' leases. A landlord of a LIHTC building must have a viable reason to do that, he says.
"It's between 82% and 102% of our 10 clients' income," Rich says of the new rents. "No one can make that work."
Rich also points out that the building received subsidy from the city of Cincinnati and that the increase in rents could violate the terms of that agreement as well.
Legal Aid sent a letter to Kingsley + Co. and the building's management Wednesday demanding reversal of the rent hikes.
"By threatening sudden and significant rent increases, Victory Vistas has destabilized the housing of seniors in direct conflict with the purpose of the funding provided by LIHTC, Hamilton County, and the City of Cincinnati," the letter reads.
Demarcia had to undergo amputation of both legs due to a health problem and, like many residents of the building, has mobility issues. She says the rent hike will take up 80% percent of her income and "make cost of living unbearable." It would force her to move if carried out, she says.
"I had to planned to stay here until my death," she said. "Being in this dilemma, where am I going to go?"
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