Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME) has championed fair housing in the Greater Cincinnati area for over six decades with the mission of “eliminating unlawful discrimination in housing.”
HOME’s work targets Cincinnati’s extreme segregation due to discriminatory housing practices like gentrification that systemically displace Black homeowners by raising rents, mortgages as well as property taxes.
The organization currently assists thousands of clients per year through tenant advocacy to help Cincinnatians understand their rights. Their programs offer legal support for fair housing complaints and a range of education courses for individuals, businesses and partner organizations.
One of HOME’s most significant initiatives is the Roadmap for Increasing Black Homeownership, which was developed in partnership with more than 30 local stakeholders and launched in October 2022.
At the time, Black homeownership in the Cincinnati metropolitan area stood at roughly 34% compared to 74% for White households—a nearly 40 percentage-point gap that ranked among the worst nationally.
“This roadmap is more than a report… It’s an umbrella that covers all of the work necessary to bridge these home ownership and wealth gaps in our communities,” said Elisabeth Risch, HOME’s executive director. “What we’ve found is that the ceiling you have to break to achieve ownership is becoming tougher and tougher to get through.”
The Roadmap presents six core recommendations aimed at reversing this disparity, which included a call to expand fair, non-predatory lending to Black and low-income households, the creation of a targeted loan and grant fund for marginalized households, reforming the city’s zoning policies and offering property tax relief to low-income homeowners.
In February 2025, HOME published an updated lending report covering data from the 2018–2023 period and examining community outcomes since the Roadmap’s initial release.
The report found that Black borrowers accounted for just 15% of mortgage applicants in Hamilton County, yet Black households are 25% of the population. Black applicants are also more than twice as likely to be denied for home loans as White applicants, even among upper-income borrowers whose denial rate is nearly three times higher.
“When Black communities lose access to lending and when loans in Black neighborhoods are granted mainly to white buyers, patterns of gentrification intensify,” said Clementine Deck, HOME’s policy and research coordinator. “This erodes generational wealth and disproportionately impacts historic Black neighborhoods.”
As gentrification continues to reshape Cincinnati’s neighborhood landscape leading to the erosion of long-standing Black communities, HOME’s roadmap provides a much-needed, research-backed guide towards realizing true housing equity for the city’s most disenfranchised communities.
HOME’s work demonstrates that closing the Black homeownership gap isn’t just about fairness—it’s also about protecting community identity, equity and generational wealth in the face of rapid neighborhood transformation.
“This work is more important than ever [and] we need to be focused on increasing home ownership for everyone, especially for people that have not been afforded the same options due to racial discrimination,” said Risch.
Maya McKenzie is a Contributing Writer with NCRC’s Communications team.
Photo courtesy of Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME Cincy).
This article highlights the urgent need for fair housing practices in Cincinnati. HOMEs efforts to address the racial homeownership gap are inspiring, but the persistent discrimination and gentrification remain deeply concerning. Their roadmap offers a crucial path forward for equity.basketball random unblocked