Chassie Robinson lives in Cincinnati. She works as a nurse and she and her husband used

to own a home there. But after the 2008 housing crash, they lost it in foreclosure.

Do you ever think about that house that you used to own?

Oh, yeah. When I drive by, I'm like, uh, but you know, it's one of those things. If I

wind about everything that I lost, I would probably be, you know, sitting on a curb, just

rocking back and forth. So I can't keep it moving. We're in a better place now, financially

and, you know, emotionally.

Chassie still lives in the same neighborhood. She can see her old house out the window.

But now she rents. What do you like about your neighborhood?

Uh, that's close to pretty much everything. And so I basically just find a house big

enough for all of us. All of us. How many people do you live with?

Um, well, I've had my 80 year old mom all the way to my, um, two month old granddaughter

about 10 of us. Wow, 10. That's literally a full house. Yeah.

Chassie has built up some savings and says she'd like to own a home again. But buying a house

in her neighborhood is tough. Prices are high and demand is competitive. And some of that

demand has come from big institutional investors who are buying homes and converting them into

rentals. But a new gambit by an economic development agency in Cincinnati might give

Chassie another chance to be a homeowner.

Welcome to the journal, our show about money, business and power. I'm Ryan Kuducin.

It's Thursday, January 27th.

Coming up on the show, inside an effort to take on big investors in the Cincinnati

housing market. Chassie Robinson isn't the only one having a hard time buying a house

...