Many Ohioans can commiserate with former New York gubernatorial candidate Jimmy McMillan, whose "the rent is too damn high" complaint in 2005 captured attention throughout the country.
But the problem isn't confined to the Empire State. Ohio鈥檚 three largest cities were among the hottest real estate markets last year. in 2021, the median home price was 2.6 times the median household income. The situation has worsened in recent years, and people at the lowest end of the economic scale are feeling it the most.
showed many Ohioans cannot afford a basic two-bedroom apartment. The report also showed the gap between what the average renter earns and what they need to make for that basic unit of housing continues to grow. That has risen 148% since 2020.
The Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio estimates a shortage of more than 264,000 rental units that are affordable and available to low-income householders.
State lawmakers have said they are hearing from Ohioans who are having problems being able to afford housing 鈥� regardless of whether they rent or own.
Sen. Michele Reynolds (R-Canal Winchester) led an Ohio Senate committee that held hearings in 2023 on affordable housing. She said the recently signed contains some provisions that could help. One involves money to create affordable housing for workers who are hired to service big business districts being created in Ohio.
鈥淎ny site that is bringing about $700 million in investment to the state or creating 700 jobs, it creates a residential economic development district鈥攁 RED zone鈥攔ight around that economic development site to build out infrastructure for that local jurisdiction,鈥� Reynolds said. 鈥淲e are inviting those municipalities to apply for grant funds. It's $25 million in grant funds, and we've identified about 62 of these sites. That would be all over the state of Ohio; not just in our urban areas, but also in our rural and suburban areas.鈥�
Reynolds said $100 million has also been set aside in a revolving loan fund for rural communities to build infrastructure in rural areas that can accommodate housing. But she said more needs to be done.
Sen. Hearcel Craig (D-Columbus) was on the housing committee with Reynolds. He said he has been working with Republicans on provisions that made it into the budget and some legislation that hasn't passed yet. He said one bill is aimed at preventing hedge fund investors from gobbling up starter homes by levying a monthly tax on high-volume landlords.
鈥淚t is a very complicated issue but one in which we fundamentally believe with this housing crisis that Ohio, this is a great state, but we must begin to look at this issue critically,鈥� Craig said.
State lawmakers said they want local communities to work with them when it comes to dealing with this problem. Rep. Latyna Humphrey (D-Columbus) said local laws can be an impediment to developing affordable housing.
"I was working with a developer and we tried to see if they would be able to build affordable housing on the land. And because of zoning and how things were written up, it didn't necessarily allow for it,鈥� Humphrey said.
鈥淲e have functionally zoned out the starter home," said Rep. Adam Mathews (R-Lebanon). He said local zoning needs to allow solutions to the affordable housing problem.
鈥淲e have had with our local governments some incredible restrictions,鈥� Mathews said. 鈥淟egislation that we thankfully got into the budget this term is going to incentivize these local governments to right-size their regulations and protect their local character, but also get out of the way so we can build more homes.鈥�
COHHIO鈥檚 Executive Director Amy Riegel said while some headway is being made, she agrees that more needs to be done, especially for Ohio to attract and maintain jobs and economic development.
鈥淲e are not going to have the services, the amenities, the types of conveniences that people want in their community if the individuals who work at these locations don鈥檛 have a place to live,鈥� Reigel said.
Advocates said they are also concerned about not just building new affordable units but maintaining existing low-income housing, which can fall into disrepair if federal tax credits on those places expire.
