Company wanted to buy a women's shelter that was not for sale, sued them until they ran out of funds

[The Straight Story]

CINCINNATI (AP) — For more than 100 years, the Anna Louise Inn in downtown Cincinnati has been a safe, serene place that thousands of struggling women came to know as home.

But after losing a two-year fight with a Fortune 500 company determined to buy their beautiful, 104-year-old property and turn it into a boutique hotel — even though it wasn't for sale — the women of the Anna Louise Inn have to leave the neighborhood.

While most of the 60 women living there are relieved that the fight with Western & Southern Insurance Group appears over, they can't help but also feel sad and angry.

....

Western & Southern executives, whose headquarters sit across a park from the Anna Louise, offered to buy the Anna Louise for $1.8 million several years ago, less than half its value. The Anna Louise declined and won $12.6 million in federal and state tax credits to renovate the home, where some rooms are smaller than 100 square feet and all the women have to share bathrooms and one kitchen.

Days before the renovation was to begin, Western & Southern sued over a zoning issue and a judge ordered an immediate construction halt until the legal fight was resolved. The Anna Louise and its supporters didn't back down, vowing to fight Western & Southern with everything they had — until last week when they inked a deal with the company to sell the home for $4 million.

Leaders at Cincinnati Union Bethel, the nonprofit that runs the Anna Louise, said they sold reluctantly because they couldn't afford to fight any longer.

...

Barrett, who has repeatedly declined requests for an interview, has become a loathed figure at the Anna Louise, not only for his tireless efforts to acquire the property but also for the way he has talked about the women living there, repeatedly referring to them as recovering prostitutes and saying they just don't belong in the neighborhood.

http://news.yahoo.com/women-sad-angry-over-sale-nonprofit-ohio-home-152229520.html

[winter is coming]

1. If I ever need to travel to Cincinnati, I'll be sure to call that hotel

and tell them I'm staying somewhere else because of this shitty maneuver.

[nilram]

15. One of the subsidiaries is "National Integrity Life Insurance Company." Integrity!

http://www.westernsouthern.com/familyofcomp.asp

From the article, the headquarters of Western & Southern is "right across the park" from where the shelter is. As a boutique hotel, that's sure to be very convenient for other visiting slime--I mean, financial executives.

[hankthecrank]

2. Time to give western & southern some free advertising

If this how they treat little people with little hope. Money to burn as a company and run over little people.

I'm sure they would be ass hats too when they came to pay claims then.

They need some free advertising on how they operate. I'm sure no one will buy insurance from these clowns

[DRoseDARs]

3. I don't understand. On what grounds did this case go on for so long? I saw zoning, but the shelter

had been operating there for a while.

[onethatcares]

4. zoning issue means

they had to shop judges until they found one that was in their zone.

It's another part of eminent domain scam or the one that says cities can take private property if they can make more in
taxes off the theft than is available off the people that might actually need the shelters.

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. contact info

http://www.westernsouthern.com/media/boardofdirectors.asp

[rhett o rick]

6. His page on Wikipedia has already been updated to reflect this story.

Anyone have contact info for him?

[SharonAnn]

7. The various Cincinnati based insurance companies are ruthless, right-wing, "conservative"

thugs.

I did some IT work for two of them and after the short assignments I told my boss to never send me to any of these companies again. They're awful.

[eggplant]

8. Companies to avoid

[SharonAnn]

16. Other Cincinnati Insurance companies -

Not part of Wester Southern, but of the same ilk.

Great American Insurance
http://www.greatamericaninsurancegroup.com/Pages/default.aspx

[Vietnameravet]

9. Boycott

Why cant people in this area start a boycott of Western and Southern?

[HiPointDem]

10. kr. "The right to property" applies only to the rich. The rest of us own property only until

the rulers decide they want it.

Then they will ghettoize, condemn, bubble, eminent domain or sue it away from us.

[sheshe2]

11. This wrong and so very sad,

they have helped women and children for three generations! Until, Western & Southern executives decided they needed to make more buckets of money. Greedy bastards!

"A lot of these ladies now have to worry about their living situation," she said. "This was something that was going well for people and it's been there for three generations. To have it happen like this, it's just outrageous."

Thanks, Straight Story!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

12. I'm convinced the Conservatives are on a mission to wipe out all evidence of caring from history...

[Triana]

13. Psychopathic corprat rule

We're all subject to it. They own this country and this world lock, stock, and barrel, including our government.

They'll do whatever they damn well please to anyone for any reason and get away with it. No stopping them anymore.

[msongs]

14. attorneys versus honest people - the system is rigged by politicans who are also attorneys nt

[smirkymonkey]

17. Absolutely sickening!

[Ilsa]

18. Another Dickhead shitting on abused women.

I hope his new hotel fails and drains him.

[rhett o rick]

19. Anyone here able to edit Wikipedia? The page on John Barrett has been changed from yesterday.

Yesterday it reflected the article as discussed here. Today it's been edited to make it sound like Mr. Barrett was doing the Anna Louise a favor and that now it's "win-win".

Here is the page that shows the old version and new version.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_F._Barrett&diff=556095224&oldid=556063401