Cincinnati officials want full-time housing court

CINCINNATI (AP) — With foreclosures at a record high, authorities need a full-time housing court that would hold property owners accountable for neglected homes and would also enforce building code violations, a Hamilton County commissioner said.

Fifty to 80 cases are heard each Friday in Hamilton County’s one-day-a-week housing court, where some of the county’s worst property owners have been told to clean up their junk-littered yards or remove paint that’s tainted with lead.

But that’s not good enough, considering the number of vacant properties has climbed so quickly because of the mortgage crisis, commissioner Greg Hartmann said.

“We have never needed this more than now,” he said.

Hartmann and Cincinnati Councilman Jeff Berding have been rallying support for a full-time housing and environmental court, which would have jurisdiction over all criminal and civil actions to enforce building, housing and health codes.

The court would also oversee foreclosure cases, which are now heard by a common pleas magistrate. The new court could be up and running as early as January with a judge that would be a kind of “housing czar” for the southwest Ohio county, Hartmann said.

In order for the court to be established, the Legislature has to amend Ohio’s Revised Code by a two-thirds majority vote. Lawmakers have already provided for housing courts in Toledo, Cleveland and Franklin County.