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Guest article by Michael Earl Patton.

One way to change the ethnic composition of Cincinnati is to restrict the housing options for certain groups.  At a landlord training seminar held by the Cincinnati Police Department on February 5, the police recommended that landlords do not rent to people who have had any kind of drug conviction.  Since this seminar was held to explain the chronic nuisance premises ordinance, which holds landlords civilly and maybe even criminally liable if their property exceeds the quota for police runs, the message was clear: if you rent to someone who has had a drug conviction, even for possession of a marijuana joint, the landlord runs the risk of fees, fines, and even jail.

The chronic nuisance premises ordinance sets quotas for police calls for service for “nuisance activities,” which include such diverse activities as assault, drug possession (including marijuana), prostitution, loud noises, curfew violations, truancy, and kidnapping.  Each multi-family dwelling is allowed 3 calls per month and a certain number per year, depending on size.  For example, buildings with 2 or 3 apartment units are allowed 6 calls per year.  If that number is exceeded the owner is warned that the building is “in danger” of being declared a chronic nuisance and they must develop a plan acceptable to the police to reduce the nuisance calls within 13 days.  The quotas are deliberately set so that a certain percentage of landlords will fail every month and every year.

The key is cooperation with the police.  If the police determine that the landlord is cooperative they emphasized they would not pursue penalties for the landlord.  And the police emphasized not to rent to people with drug convictions (they did state that this was not an order).  It was, in fact, almost the only recommendation given in writing to the participants: “advise applicants that if any drug conviction in past terminates the applicant process [sic].” A criminal background check was advised, but conviction for illegal drugs were the only offense that was recommended to be a cause for refusal to rent.  Not even sexual offenders were so mentioned.

For whatever reason, African-Americans are convicted much more often than other groups for drug crimes.  During her interview posted earlier in the Cincinnati Beacon, councilwoman Leslie Ghiz stated that she did not expect the marijuana ordinance would be used to send people to jail for just holding a joint, but only if one were walking around acting as a dealer (about half-way through the interview).  But the 6-month report indicates otherwise—people were arrested and sentenced to jail for an average of 7 grams of marijuana.  Were most of the convictees black?  Whether they were or not, the CPD is recommending to landlords that they NOT be allowed to rent an apartment anymore in Cincinnati.

The net effect will surely be to change the ethnic composition of Cincinnati.  There are other ordinances and policies which appear as if they will have a similar effect, sometimes on African-Americans, and sometimes on lower- and fixed-income people in general.  There will be other columns in this series.

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