CINCINNATI -- The city is rolling out the red carpet for the NAACP national convention, which begins downtown next week.

But some social service organizations have complained that they’re being swept under the rug.

City Council directed City Manager Milton Dohoney not to concentrate social services in any one area of Over-The-Rhine.

“It's a disgrace and a shame to everything this national convention and the history of the NAACP stands for,” said Michael Howard of Justice Watch.

City Councilman Chris Bortz, who sponsored the resolution that was adopted 8-1 last week, said he hoped to break up some of the 100 social service agencies in the historic neighborhood north of downtown.

Some of those agencies duplicate services, he said, and do not reach everyone in the city who might need them.

“If you have satellite offices that are spread out throughout the region, you're more likely to get to those folks that need help because you're closer to them,” Bortz said.

Social service providers said they suspect city officials plan to alter their system for funding existing agencies, but Bortz said he hoped to encourage more effective budgets.

“This isn't about closing down agencies,” he said.

But skeptics remain.

“It's an assumption that we're in the way of development or a good neighborhood, which is absolutely not the case,” said Georgine Getty of the Homeless Coalition.