The Columbus Housing Strategy

By Tim Feran

Will a new plan help Columbus solve its housing crisis?

Central Ohio is in the midst of a housing crisis, as the region's population increases far more rapidly than housing units -- particularly affordable housing units -- are being built. But the crisis is in its early stages in the Columbus metro, a point that a panel of government officials and private developers believe will make a big difference in solving the problem. Brought together by the Columbus Metropolitan Club, the panelists told a crowd of 300 at the Boat House in Confluence Park on Wednesday, August 24, 2022 that the crisis is real and the time to act is now.

The panel featured Patty McClimon, senior vice president and chief strategy officer at Nationwide Children’s Hospital; Erin Prosser, assistant director of Housing Strategies for the City of Columbus; and Otto Beatty III, president of Otto Beatty Real Estate; with moderator Bonnie Meibers, reporter for Columbus Business First.?

In introductory remarks, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther noted that the region has added nearly 140,000 jobs and 300,000 people, but has built only over 50,000 housing units. "That's just not a sustainable trajectory," Ginther said.

"That's why we developed the Columbus Housing Strategy," to encourage more new housing "at all price points." "We believe we can be the first region to be ahead of the issue," Prosser said. "We here in central Ohio are having this conversation really early," unlike peer cities such as Austin, Texas, where housing prices have skyrocketed.

As part of that strategic plan, Columbus will ask voters in November to authorize a $200 million bond to help create affordable housing. "But it's not just a Columbus problem," Ginther said. "It's a regional problem. We need our neighbors to join us. Candidly, some communities are doing their part, but others are building higher fences."

Central Ohio has been an affordable place "for a lot of decades," Prosser said, but that has begun to change and could become a even bigger problem as Intel builds at least two semiconductor fabrication plants in the region.

As more workers chase fewer available housing units, market forces tend to push prices higher. And that makes a big impact on housing affordability, which is defined as paying no more than 30 percent of a family's income for rent or mortgage. When lower-wage workers are pushed out they look for affordable housing that typically is farther from their jobs, McClimon said. "We need to avoid [that] displacement," McClimon said. "We need to avoid having to drive 35 miles to a job."

The scramble for affordable housing isn't just a matter of convenience, she said, but a real health problem. That's why Nationwide Children's Hospital has joined the effort to create more affordable housing. "If we don't start with housing we won't get best outcomes" for healthy children.

Beatty pointed out that the bond issue would not increase taxes, and that the money would be spent on projects that would benefit affordable housing, points which seem to have been met with skepticism among some critics.

"You can see … on social media, 'Well, we know who's gonna get that?' But I'm here to tell you that's not the case." He offered as an example the redevelopment of the Ohio Baptist General Convention's historic headquarters on the Near East Side. The Parkwood Avenue building, close to East High School, the Martin Luther King Library and OSU Medical Center East, has been vacant for decades.

"For over 25 years children leaving [East High School] have been seeing nothing but a vacant building and blight," Beatty said. The apartments are intended to be for people with 60 to 80 percent of the area's median income. "It doesn't have an exercise room, but it's near Franklin Park. It doesn't have fancy car bays but it's a block from the bus stop. This needs to be duplicated again and again and again."

The Columbus Metropolitan Club connects people and ideas through community conversation. Every Wednesday, CMC explores public policy issues, current events, and lessons in leadership. Learn more.