- Cincinnati’s vice mayor has proposed a reparations program to address past discriminatory housing policies.
- The program would offer financial aid for home purchasing and maintenance to certain residents in 15 neighborhoods.
- Eligibility is based on income and past discrimination, not explicitly on race.
- The proposal suggests an initial $5 million investment funded by recreational marijuana tax revenue and the city’s capital budget.
Cincinnati’s vice mayor has proposed reparations for policies that kept many Black people from owning property.
Cincinnati City Council the week of March 1 is expected to consider what the creators are calling the Cincinnati Real Property Reparations Program. The plan would target residents in 15 of Cincinnati’s 52 neighborhoods who would be eligible for financial assistance for purchasing and maintaining property.
The assistance would be for low-to-moderate income residents and “any individual or family member of an individual who was prevented from buying a home due to discriminatory practices.” It’s not clear, based on the motion, whether the program would be restricted just to the 15 neighborhoods or whether people outside those neighborhoods could apply.
Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney and Councilman Scotty Johnsoncosponsored the legislation they introduced before Cincinnati’s all-Democratic council.
“Now is the time to repair the damage done by racial and income-based discriminatory policies,” a statement attached to the motion stated.
Kearney: Program would not be race-based
Calls to Kearney and Johnson were not immediately returned on Thursday. Kearney texted a statement late Thursday afternoon saying the program wouldn’t be race-based.
“Let’s repair some of the damage done to low-income communities that kept the residents from owning homes and other real estate and prevented building of generational wealth,” Kearney texted.
How much will it cost?
Kearney and Johnson’s motion would direct the city to invest initially $5 million in the program using proceeds from the tax on recreational marijuana and from the city’s capital budget.
It doesn’t mention how much each individual applicant could receive from the program. Individuals benefiting from the reparation program could get assistance for downpayments, delinquent property taxes and emergency repairs, according to the motion.
How would it work?
The motion for the reparations program doesn’t specify the exact qualifications for applicants to get assistance, such as how the city would determine whether someone was a victim of past discrimination or what the income guidelines would be.
It calls for the city administration to provide an annual report on the expenditures of the program.
Past discriminatory policies cited
The statement alongside the motion mentions historic racial discrimination for why the program is needed.
Policies that persisted well into the 20th century in Cincinnati and around the country kept many Black families from owning property and contributed to poverty today, according to the statement Kearney and Johnson attached to the motion.
They cited a 1920s Cincinnati Real Estate Board policy to prevent Black people from following white people to the city’s more suburban neighborhoods.
“No agent shall rent or sell property to colored people in an established white section or neighborhood,” the order said. “This inhibition shall be particularly applicable to the hilltops and suburban community.”
They also cited federal “redlining” practices that made it difficult for Black people to get home loans.
NAACP President: ‘It’s restoring people that have been unfairly treated’
Cincinnati NAACP President David Whitehead urged people not to dismiss the proposal because of the word “reparation.”
Homes are a way of creating wealth that can be passed on to the next generation, wealth that for so long had been denied many Black people, he said.
“I think people get confused and caught up with word ‘reparation,'” Whitehead said. “It’s restoring people that have been unfairly treated.”
What neighborhoods would the program focus on?
The program would provide assistance to residents of the “Rising 15 neighborhoods,” the motion stated. The motion doesn’t list the neighborhoods. In a previous proposal Kearney made last year to direct Cincinnati Southern Railway money toward the Rising 15, the Rising 15 would be based on median household income and would change over time.
At the time of the proposal, in Feb. 2025, the Rising 15 were:
- Villages at Roll Hill
- Millvale
- English Woods
- Lower Price Hill
- Queensgate
- Winton Hills
- South Fairmount
- West End
- East Westwood
- Avondale
- Roselawn
- Mount Airy
- East Price Hill
- South Cumminsville
- North Fairmount.
The neighborhoods are either predominantly Black or have a sizable Black population.
Who supports it?
The measure, introduced Feb. 19, only has Kearney and Johnson as cosponsors listed on the city website as of Feb. 26. It’s listed on the City Council agenda for March 4 on the city’s website.
Mayor Aftab Pureval did not return a message seeking comment. A message to Hamilton County Republican Chairman Russell Mock was also not returned.
