After nearly four years, a group of Black Cincinnati residents and the city’s officials have settled a federal lawsuit in which the residents accused the Ohio city of intentionally favoring white homeowners through the way it operated its residential tax abatement program.
The lawsuit filed in July 2020 claimed the city operated the program in a “racially discriminatory way” that worsened Cincinnati’s racially segregated residency pattern.
The recent settlement will allow the program to continue, provided that city officials make efforts to increase the number of Black residents participating, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported .
The Cincinnati Tax Abatement Program, administered by the city’s Department of Community and Economic Development, was designed to allow property owners to apply “to pay property taxes on the pre-improvement value of their property for 10-15 years,” the lawsuit stated.
The program required a minimum of $5,000 in renovation costs to be eligible for the tax reduction, and the lawsuit claimed that this disqualified lower-income homeowners who wanted to make modest renovations totaling less than that.