John Coleman was walking around The Evanston apartment complex April 8 when the property manager handed him a notice. He owed $1,040 in back rent – even though he’d paid his rent every month, he said.
“I’m waking up every day thinking I might be getting set out,” Coleman, 62, said. He said that’s taken a toll on his health. “So of course that’s mental. That’s physical, too, because it makes me sick. “
Coleman isn’t alone at The Evanston, where 58 out of the 100 residents received the same notice.
Residents have accused the former property manager of pocketing their rent money. City leaders, including a councilman, the mayor and the head of the housing authority, confirmed this month there’s an ongoing police investigation into the former property manager at The Evanston, which is managed by the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority’s property management arm known as Touchstone Property Services in the neighborhood of the same name.
As of April 29, no one had been charged. Cincinnati police did not return messages seeking their response. Prosecutor Connie Pillich, through a spokeswoman, declined to say whether the office was pursuing a case.
Meanwhile, anxiety and speculation has run rampant in the sprawling 100-unit, four-story apartment complex near Xavier University. Some residents said they fear they’re being pushed out of their homes for development. The Evanston is a mix of Section 8 housing, vouchers and market rate units. Residents pay on a scale depending on income with rents ranging from $0-$800 a month, according to a housing authority spokesperson.
No one is being evicted, the chief executive officer of Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority told The Enquirer.
Residents seemed skeptical.
One of them was Shane White, 59, who has lived in The Evanston for 12 years. He said he was told by management he owed $3,000 even though he’s never missed a rent payment.
White and others gave emotional, tearful testimony before Cincinnati City Council about their fear of getting evicted.
“It just pisses me off,” White told City Council on April 15 as his voice broke with emotion. “It just pisses me off that we have to go through this, and nobody is listening to us. I’m tired of talking about it.”
White and other residents said they gave the property manager money orders and found out later he put his name on it as the payee. White came back to City Council multiple times this month, demanding they arrest the property manager.
Councilman: ‘We’re doing everything we legally can to rectify this situation’
Councilman Scotty Johnson in the April 15 City Council meeting said he has “been reassured there is an active criminal investigation” into former property manager Dion Crockett. Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority officials said they’ve turned over evidence to the Cincinnati Police and Hamilton County prosecutor.
“I want to reassure the people we are listening,” Johnson said. “We’re doing everything we legally can to rectify this situation.”
Mayor Aftab Pureval also tried to reassure the residents.
“The residents should not be held accountable for the criminal acts of one bad actor,” Pureval said in the meeting.
Calls to phone numbers associated with Crockett were not returned.
While residents pleaded with council to do something, the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority is an independent government agency separate from both the federal government and city of Cincinnati.
Housing authority chief said property manager resigned
Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority Chief Executive Officer Gregory Johnson confirmed there is an investigation. He wouldn’t say what the property manager is suspected of, but he said Crockett resigned in November when they brought him in “to address this issue with him.”
Johnson said the housing authority is cooperating with the investigation and has turned over all information to the prosecutor’s office.
Gregory Johnson said no one has received an eviction notice. Instead, residents received “30-day notices” that “there’s something wrong with their ledger,” Johnson said. That can mean there’s missing rent, he said.
“If it’s been cashed by an inappropriate person, then what we’re doing is making sure that we’re crediting their accounts,” he said.
If they paid in cash, then they’re encouraged to file a police report so I can be added to the evidence the housing authority has already turned into the prosecutor, he said.
“The one big thing about this is that no one received an eviction notice. It was a 30-day notice, and no resident is going to be evicted because of something that someone else did to negatively harm them.”
Housing Authority officials “have informed residents that if they believe their rent was stolen before Jan 2026, they may file a police report with the Cincinnati Police Department and bring that to property management,” Missy Knight, a spokeswoman for the Housing Authority, wrote in an email to The Enquirer.
Crockett’s personnel files reveal good reviews until the final one
The Enquirer, through public records requests, obtained Crockett’s personnel file, which confirmed he resigned, effective Dec. 1, 2025. The reason given was “under investigation.”
Crockett was hired as property manager in June 2023 at an annual salary of $47,000. His managers seemed satisfied with his work, based on employee reviews, until the final review in October 2025 when his supervisor wrote that he did not complete tasks on time and did not always interact professionally with residents and staff.
“There are times when his communication does not fully reflect our values or the standards we expect,” his manager wrote in the review. “I would like him to be more conscientious about how his words and actions reflect not only on him personally, but also on his entire team and the organization as a whole.”
‘I couldn’t believe it’
The eviction and payment notices have taken an emotional toll on residents.
Vanessa Jones, 69, has lived at The Evanston for more than a year. She said she paid her $288 monthly rent using a debit card, submitting the payments directly to Crockett.
When a new property manager took over earlier this year, Jones said she was stunned to learn her account showed she was more than $700 behind on rent.
“I couldn’t believe it. I will pay my rent if I don’t do anything else,” Jones said, shaking her head.
Like many of her neighbors, Jones received an eviction notice stating she owed $706 in back rent and warning she could be evicted if the balance was not paid by May 9.
Jones believes the money she paid never made it to the property’s accounts.
“We were paying our rent directly to him with our credit cards,” she said. “We had to trust him. What else were we supposed to do? He told us he would send receipts to our Gmail accounts, but he never did.”
Residents say the problem isn’t just one property manager
Residents say the problems don’t stop and end with one property manager.
Some of The Evanston’s tenants told The Enquirer issues of missing back rent go back to at least 2020. They also complained of poor maintenance and issues of black mold that the housing authority won’t address. It’s created a conspiratorial atmosphere with residents speculating they’re being pushed out in favor of development.
“Dion is just the tip of the iceberg,” said resident Dempsey Dejanette, 52. Dejanette has lived in The Evanston for two years.
“He’s just the one who got caught. And I believe the reason why they cover it up so much is because they know he could tell a bigger story.”
The housing authority has an emergency number and online portal to field resident complaints, said Knight, the housing authority spokeswoman, in an email. The housing authority recently addressed a complaint of mold, which turned out to be “a water leak with no evidence of mold,” she said.
The housing authority has put in measures to better protect residents’ rent, Knight said. Starting in early 2025, residents started paying monthly rent through an online portal called Rent Café. Residents also have the option of going to Kroger, CVS or Walmart and use a barcode to pay rent.
“There is no situation where we take payments in the office,” Knight said in the email.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Evanston residents fear eviction after manager accused of rent theft
Reporting by Scott Wartman and Randy Tucker, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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