Bleak picture painted of Greater Cincinnati affordable housing

CINCINNATI - When Jeni Jenkins moved to Cincinnati from Boise, she had a hard time finding affordable housing for herself and her two children.

She was a graduate student at the University of Cincinnati and didn’t have a lot of money to spend.        

“The housing that is available a lot of times is second rate.  It’s run down,” she said Wednesday.  “It took me quite some time in order to find really good, decent housing that was safe, secure and that the landlord wasn’t a scum landlord.”

Not wanting a handout, Jenkins used the services of agencies that helped her climb the economic ladder.

Now, she’s the owner of a rehabbed home in Northside –a property renovated by a for-profit corporation with the help of federal housing dollars.

Jenkins’ situation is among those that will be discussed Thursday when a new report from Affordable Housing Advocates is released.

9 News obtained a copy on Wednesday and its paints a bleak picture of affordable housing opportunities in Greater Cincinnati.

 

• Most low-income workers, seniors and persons with disabilities cannot

afford good affordable housing

 

• Only one-in-three low income households are served by government-

assisted housing programs

 

• The foreclosure crisis continues to add to the housing problems in the

area, impacting thousands of families and destabilizing neighborhoods

 

• Chronic homelessness continues and is exacerbated by the poor economy

 

• The supply for housing for persons with disabilities is far below the need

 

• Opposition to government housing programs continues and is

counterproductive

 

• Housing discrimination continues to drag down the community

             

In 2000, about 18 percent of the Hamilton County households had trouble finding housing that didn’t cost more than 30 percent of their annual income. By 2010 that number had risen to 26 percent.

Elizabeth Brown, Executive Director of HOME, Housing Opportunities Made Equal, said there simply isn’t enough affordable housing.

The recession gets a lot of the blame.

“Someone would have to make over $14 an hour and work 40-hours a week in order to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment in Cincinnati,” Brown said.  “A lot of people are working full-time and don’t make $14.00 an hour.  Those folks need some sort of subsidy in order to have a stable living situation.”

Subsidized housing is available, but waiting lists are often long.

“There is a myth that there’s been an explosion of subsidized housing, which is just not true,” she said.  “It’s pretty constant and yet the need is even greater.”

Brown said that means many people get stuck in substandard housing.

HOME Tenant Advocate Nicole Kelch hears their stories every day.

“They’re in dire situations,” she said.  “They lose just one piece of their income and they immediately think they’re going to be homeless.”

Kelch said she usually tries to get callers into apartments that are affordable or connect them with area resources that can help with rent or deposit assistance.

“Things are very tough out there,” she said. 

The report doesn’t make any strong recommendations on how to solve the problem, other than to create more awareness that more affordable housing is needed in the region.

“Too often affordable housing has a bad name so the city leaders and others will say, ‘Oh, we’re going to built market-rate housing,’” Brown said.  “If there’s money to be made on higher-end housing, folks will be in that business.”

According to Brown, a seismic shift in thinking must take place.

“What we need government and society to concentrate on more is meeting the needs of those folks that cannot necessarily do it themselves,” she said.  “Many of them are working families.  We’re not talking about folks that are sitting around waiting for someone to take care of them.”

Jenkins said she agreed that subsidies are one part of the solution, but there’s another key ingredient as well.

“I think living wages need to go up,” she said.  “If the housing prices are not going to go down, then wages need to go up all around.”