Norwood Section 8 housing down 26% from 1994

The Enquirer has done an analysis of 15 years of local and federal housing statistics. Their research shows an unequal relocation of poor families in Hamilton County. 60% of all Section 8 housing in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky is located in Hamilton County and has doubled since 1994 to about 11,000 this year.

Roughly 60% of the 11,000 units are on the West Side, which has 51% of the region’s rental units, and that’s a 5-percentage-point increase since 2003. Colerain Township, Columbia Township, Mount Airy, College Hill and Forest Park all have seen triple-digit increases in the number of Section 8 renters in just the past four years.

In contrast, the Enquirer’s neighborhood tally chart shows that the number of Section 8 housing units in Norwood has declined 26% since 1994, from 321 total units to the current 238 total units. Norwood has 2.6% of all the housing that is subsidized. Does the Enquirer’s research satisfy our readers that Section 8 housing is not on the rise in our community, and that, in fact, it has declined substantially over the last 15 years?