Columbus City Council approves plan to quadruple downtown population

Columbus is booming, but city leaders say it's not growing fast enough. Monday, Columbus City Council unanimously approved a resolution to quadruple the downtown Columbus population by 2040.

Currently, there are more than 10,000 people living in downtown Columbus, but if the city council gets its way, there will be 40,000 by 2040.

“We have to build. We have to build and build more,” Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin said.

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“I think if we do not invest in housing, and we do not ensure that we are creating housing in tandem and parallel with our job creation, affordability is going to be at risk,” said Carlie Boos, Executive Director of Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio.

Bexley fighting lawsuit on affordable housing project

BEXLEY, Ohio — According to the Affordable Housing Alliance Of Central Ohio, a person needs to earn $19 an hour in order for them to afford an apartment in Bexley.

"Just to afford a bare bones, two bedroom and most of the jobs in our community aren't paying at that rate," said, Carlie Boos who runs the organization.

A developer is looking to solve the problem by proposing two developments in the city. One is located off East Livingston Avenue and the other is on Cassady Avenue.

‘Feeding frenzy’: Bill aims to slow Wall Street purchases of Ohio homes

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – The influx of out-of-town and private investment firms seizing single-family homes in Ohio led one state lawmaker to devise a plan to even the playing field for local homebuyers.

Private investment firms with a “boatload of resources” and cheap debt often place cash bids on homes just hours after they’re listed online, according to Carlie Boos, executive director of the Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio.

When corporate investors are willing to waive contingencies and purchase homes with no inspection, sight unseen, Boos said they’re contributing to a “feeding frenzy” that’s leaving the “average Joe” high and dry.

“That’s just not a fair fight,” Boos said. “In that scenario, a human being is going to lose to a computer algorithm from Wall Street every single time.”

New program seeks to build ranks of minority and female developers

A new Columbus-area program seeks to remedy the region's affordable housing shortage by helping minority and female developers build more homes.

The program, called the Emerging Developers Accelerator Program, will provide education and funding for the developers in the hopes that they will provide more housing.

The accelerator program was created by tAn estimated 54,000 low-and moderate-income households in Franklin County are spending more than half of their incomes on housing, according a 2017 estimate by the Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio. According to the Alliance, one in five Columbus-area renters was unsure in December how they were going to make their next rental payment.

he Affordable Housing Trust for Columbus and Franklin County and is being funded by the city of Columbus, Franklin County and JPMorgan Chase. 

The plan to fix Ohio's affordable rental housing shortage

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What they're saying: "This is just putting numbers to what everybody knows," Carlie Boos, executive director of the Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio, tells Axios.

• Boos says the widespread support from entities like the Ohio Chamber of Commerce and Nationwide Children's Hospital demonstrates how this issue impacts other community needs, from jobs to public health.

• She also credits Mayor Andrew Ginther with seeking a $150 million bond package toward affordable housing projects on the November 2022 ballot.

Of note: Boos highlighted local resources available to help struggling residents pay rent and prevent eviction.

New initiative helps Franklin County's low-wage workers obtain housing stability

Started in the fall, the Resiliency Bridge program focuses on the intersection of affordable housing and workforce development. The project aims to help Franklin County’s low-income residents achieve long-term housing and financial stability by offering them job training and subsidizing their rental costs as they work to obtain their education credentials.

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The newly established program received $500,000 from JPMorgan Chase & Co., $500,000 from the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority and $711,000 from the Franklin County Board of Commissioners, according to Carlie Boos, executive director of the Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio.

Renters, landlords can seek financial assistance to avoid eviction process

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — A local program was designed for renters and landlords to keep people housed and owners paid during the pandemic.

According to the website’s About Page, Rentful614 is there to help stop the spread of evictions.

What do Intel’s central Ohio plans mean for the housing market?

“In Franklin County last year in 2021, we had over 15,000 evictions,” said Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio Executive Director Carlie Boos. “That’s just a little bit shy of where we were pre-pandemic. So, any stall out that we saw, has come back.”

There are five organizations that make up Rentful614.com.

• City of Columbus

• Franklin County Board of Commissioners

• United Way of Central Ohio

• Siemer Institute

• Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio

Boos said the money comes from federal pass-through funds that are hosted by the state, the city, and the county.

“Rentful614 is an information hub. It’s a one-stop-shop for all things rent assistance,” Boos said.

She said the site is open for renters and landlords to find the right resources to assist them with either making payments or getting paid. Landlords can apply for assistance for up to 18 months for rent and utilities. This can be used for past due payments and future payments.

Landlords can get assistance without filing an eviction.

“We don’t want landlords to have to pay for an attorney,” Boos said. “We don’t want tenants to have that appear on their credit record. We definitely don’t want everybody coming down to the courthouse in the middle of a pandemic.”

‘The deal will get bigger,’ Intel CEO says of New Albany project

According to Rentful614, about one-third of Ohio’s renters are having trouble paying rent.

“Statistically speaking, if you know four renters, a cousin, or a colleague who rents, you know someone who is probably facing an eviction right now,” Boos said. “They aren’t talking about it because it’s terrifying and it’s embarrassing.”

To eliminate the stigma many renters may have, the program is set up to be private for both renters and landlords.

The site was launched in English at the beginning of the year. Since then, there are now translations in Somali and Spanish.

Columbus knows how to solve problems. Days numbered for affordable housing crisis.

We can work together to solve affordable housing problem

When Central Ohio decides to solve a problem, consider it a done deal.

Providing opportunity and access for every resident to receive free COVID tests and safe, effective vaccines? Creating a pathway to college for every Columbus City Schools’ graduate? Becoming Ohio’s premiere economic powerhouse? Done.

As an affordable housing advocate, it makes me proud and encouraged to live in a community that comes together to solve big problems.

We have a huge housing problem on our hands—tens of thousands of homes are needed in our community and that gap keeps getting bigger.

 The Columbus Dispatch reported that Columbus will have the fifth hottest housing market in the country. Good if you’re selling a home…not so if you’re buying, renting, or struggling to keep up with property taxes.

The City of Columbus and Franklin County are collaborating and targeting housing as a priority to address, now. The region’s new Recovery and Resiliency report identified 37 strategies to ensure we emerge from COVID-19 stronger than before. The first seven strategies move us closer to solving the affordable housing puzzle. And our elected officials aren’t waiting for the ink to dry to get to work.

To raise awareness about the existing resources available in Greater Columbus to help pay rent, the City and County teamed up with a number of nonprofits to launch www.Rentful614.com, an online relief hub for landlords and tenants. It dispels common rent assistance myths, provides eviction information localized to Franklin County, and connects people to places where they can get relief funds.

Considering that one in four Ohio renters don’t know how they’re going to pay rent this holiday season, sharing this tool far and wide could help make the holidays – and beyond –brighter for a neighbor, colleague or family in need.

Watch out, housing crisis, when Central Ohio addresses a challenge, together, consider it done.

Bill Hinga, senior vice president for business development at Wallick Communities and Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio board of directors member

Why It’s So Hard to Build Affordable Housing

A wide range of local organizations and institutions have been working in recent years to draw attention to the need for more affordable housing in Central Ohio. Numerous plans and studies have been completed on the topic, but they tend to assume a level of familiarity with the affordable housing and development industries that most people simply don’t have, and they don’t answer the most basic question – ‘If there is such a desperate shortage of affordable housing, why aren’t developers just building more of it?’

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Here’s What ‘Affordable Housing’ Means in Practice in Columbus

In addition to the usual stats like total square footage, height, and number of units, many development announcements in recent years have started to include another metric – the percentage of ‘affordable’ or ‘workforce’ units that will be included the project.

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