Public Records Raise Questions About Nonprofit Rent, Private Property Financing and Former Falmouth School
FALMOUTH, Ky. / CINCINNATI, Ohio — August 29, 2026 — Public records and nonprofit tax filings raise questions warranting independent examination of financial and property relationships involving New Foundations Transitional Living (NFTL), its former president Ross Shively, privately controlled Cincinnati properties, and the former Falmouth School Center at 500 Chapel Street in Falmouth, Kentucky.
The records do not, by themselves, establish fraud or other wrongdoing. They do, however, create a significant accounting question that could be resolved through leases, mortgage records, invoices, nonprofit ledgers and closing files.
IRS filings disclose substantial related-party transactions
NFTL’s IRS Schedule L filings report substantial transactions involving former president Ross Shively.
According to the filings:
– 2017: approximately $378,657 in rents and $109,227 in management fees.
– 2018: approximately $261,523 in rents, $143,129 in management fees, and a separate $38,519 item identified as “LOAN” assistance.
– 2020: approximately $351,111 in rents.
Those disclosures make the underlying property economics an appropriate subject for independent review: Which properties generated the rent? Who owned them? What debt was attached to them? Who paid for repairs, insurance, utilities and improvements? And how much private real-estate equity was accumulated while the properties were being used for nonprofit programs?
Hamilton County records connect private properties and nonprofit operations
A March 7, 2019 Hamilton County rental-registration record identifies Ross Shively as owner, checks the ownership category “Trust,” and lists properties including:
2342 Rohs Street
2348 Wheeler Street
3421 W. Eighth Street
3769 St. Lawrence Avenue
1728 Iliff Avenue
The registration uses 826 Harris Avenue and 513-813-2787 as owner contact information and identifies Mikella Chrisman as agent at 826 Harris.
The telephone number was publicly used by New Foundations, and multiple properties on the registration were associated with New Foundations recovery housing.
An earlier property record provides additional context. In a 2007 affidavit, an attorney for Shively stated that Shively acquired the mortgage on 2348 Wheeler Street “by assignment and purchase,” initiated foreclosure proceedings, and ultimately obtained the owner’s interest through a quitclaim deed as part of a settlement. Supporting primary records document that transaction chain.
These records make the complete mortgage, lease and payment histories important to understanding the relationship between nonprofit operations and privately held real estate.
Academy Avenue financing deserves reconciliation
A 2016 conveyance involving 804-806 Academy Avenue shows Academy Estates LLC acquiring the property for $95,000, consisting of approximately $9,500 cash and $85,500 in private seller financing from Scott Williams.
Academy Estates used the Ross-associated 609 Legend Hill address.
A later public mortgage index reports a $125,000 mortgage in 2023 involving the same property.
That does not establish improper double financing. The relevant unanswered question is whether the earlier seller-financed lien had been satisfied or released before the later mortgage, or whether financing layers legitimately overlapped.
Obtaining the complete mortgage and release chain would answer that question.
The former Falmouth School Center presents a separate Kentucky records question
Public records establish the following ownership chronology for 500 Chapel Street in Falmouth:
Pendleton County Board of Education → Highland Hills Holdings LLC — $161,000 in 2018
Highland Hills Holdings LLC → City of Falmouth — $60,000 in 2023
City of Falmouth → Trinity Southern Baptist Church — $150,000 in 2025
Records also place New Foundations within the earlier Chapel Street purchase/development history.
However, the complete executed assignment, closing documents and financing records from the 2018 transaction should be obtained before determining exactly how New Foundations, Highland Hills Holdings and the property acquisition were related.
A correction concerning a previously referenced $750,000 grant
Earlier Chapel Street material included a reference to a $750,000 Community Development Block Grant award.
That information should not be repeated as evidence of missing or diverted money.
The Northern Kentucky Area Development District subsequently confirmed that the document was erroneous and that Falmouth did not apply for or receive that $750,000 CDBG award.
This correction is important because the investigation should remain focused on transactions that can be substantiated by primary records.
The central question is an accounting question
The issue can be tested without speculation.
A property-by-property reconstruction should identify:
Legal owner → acquisition financing → mortgages → debt service → taxes → insurance → utilities → repairs and capital improvements → nonprofit rent → management fees → grant/rental assistance → refinancing proceeds → disposition → ending private equity.
That reconciliation could determine whether the disclosed related-party transactions represented ordinary, properly approved arrangements or whether nonprofit resources paid expenses or improvements that materially benefited privately retained real estate.
Among the most important records still needed are:
1. NFTL leases for properties owned or controlled by interested persons.
2. NFTL general ledgers and check registers separated by property.
3. Repair, construction, insurance and utility invoices.
4. Property-management agreements and management-fee calculations.
5. Board minutes and conflict-of-interest approvals concerning related-party transactions.
6. Complete mortgage, assignment, satisfaction and release records for Academy Avenue and other related properties.
7. The complete 2026 Rohs Street mortgage documentation.
8. The assignment, closing statement, title work and financing file for the 2018 acquisition of 500 Chapel Street.
Independent review requested
The nonprofit-related questions have also been referred to the Ohio Attorney General Charitable Law Section and relevant Kentucky public-integrity offices for independent review.
Those referrals are not evidence that any agency has found wrongdoing.
They are requests for agencies and journalists with appropriate access and authority to examine the underlying records.
Reporters interested in investigating the matter can be provided with IRS Schedule L filings, deeds, mortgages, foreclosure records, rental-registration records, the 500 Chapel Street audit packet and a source chronology.
The objective is not to ask a newsroom to adopt a predetermined conclusion.
It is to ask a straightforward question that the records should be capable of answering:
Where did the money go, who paid the expenses, who carried the debt, and who ultimately retained the resulting real-estate equity?
