Home affordability gets local boost, but will it be enough?

Affordability is in the eye of the beholder, or more accurately in the bank account of the wouldbe homebuyer or renter.

While new studies proclaim central Ohio as having one of the most affordable housing markets in the nation, advocates for the poor still see too big a gap between the price of local housing and the means available to many in the Columbus area to secure decent housing.

Thankfully, those advocates are being heard as more than $200 million is pledged to help meet a projected need for 54,000 affordable housing units for low-income families.

How much new incentives for developers to add more affordable housing units will actually help the most needy families remains to be seen.

By definition, for housing to be considered affordable, it should cost no more than one-third of a household’s income. The gap of 54,000 units in central Ohio and 400,000 statewide is the number of households estimated to spend more than half of their income on housing.

Central Ohio has long been considered one of the nation’s most economically segregated areas, as explained in the Dispatch series Dividing Lines in 2017. It showed that median income can vary widely from one neighborhood to another — from $100,284 in a Clintonville census tract to $27,702 in a North Linden census tract.

It is laudable that some of the city’s top employers and nonprofits announced plans in late June to create a $100 million Housing Action Fund to provide low-cost loans to developers who commit to make more housing units available for lower-income renters. That is expected to yield 2,150 additional rental units.

The new fund is in addition to $50 million in a Columbus bond package that voters

approved in May.

More recently, Franklin County commissioners announced they will invest $65 million in the next decade for construction of 2,050 affordable housing units as part of a new economic development plan.

In contrast to the perceived local need for more affordable housing, three national studies rate the Columbus metro area highly for housing affordability. Real estate service Trulia puts Columbus second only to Pittsburgh for most ZIP codes (19.1%) where a median income earner can afford any home in the neighborhood.

Listing service Realtyhop placed Columbus seventh among 100 U.S. cities, with housing costs here overall consuming just 22.4% of household income. Financial website Smartasset tapped Columbus as 22nd most affordable metro area when comparing household income to housing prices.

But those rankings may just confirm that income disparity is especially wide here, as wages on the higher end drive up overall median income to $78,000 for a family of four.

The new privately fueled housing fund will require half of all units it supports to be affordable to households making 80% of the county median income, or $62,400 for a four-person household. To make that much, a single parent with three kids or two wageearners with two children would have to make $30 an hour combined.

The Dispatch hopes the local initiatives will help close the affordability gap and put more low-income families in stable housing.

Even so, lawmakers working to finalize the next state budget should boost county recording fees as requested for the Ohio Housing Trust Fund to raise $8 million to help provide homeless services, affordable housing development and home repairs for senior citizens statewide.