Affordable Housing in the News - May, June and July 2021 - Homesteading & Urban Redevelopment Corporation

“Across the country, house prices are increasing and inventory is decreasing. Luddy says that landlords are also learning, especially in places where people vacation, more money can be made through short-term rentals through apps, like Airbnb or VRBO. In Cape Cod, the pandemic has only made this problem worse for the working class.”

“They risk joining the estimated 19,000 households struggling with housing affordability in Cincinnati, according to data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Some housing advocates fear that number could rise as Cincinnati’s real estate market continues on a white-hot uptick.”

“Bramble House, Alice’s House and the soon-to-open Freedom House complex will bring about 40 new affordable living spaces to the region.”

“It is a relief to see policymakers finally focus in earnest on the nation’s crumbling infrastructure. But it is unnerving to see so little attention given to what may be the most critical infrastructure need of all: the nation’s dire shortage of affordable housing. If Congress is to take overhauling infrastructure seriously, it has to tackle the shortfall.”

“The Bond Hill duplex could offer rewards for the region, too, as a lesson in how to tackle Greater Cincinnati’s affordable housing shortage in two important ways. The project is creating homeownership opportunities for people whose wages make it hard for them to find decent housing they can afford – and it’s encouraging young people to pursue construction careers with higher wages that make it easier to afford a decent place to live.”

“Between the city of Cincinnati and Hamilton County at large, the county’s communities stand to put a combined $90 million toward affordable housing projects. How that money gets divided up, though, remained to be seen Thursday.”

“Hamilton County officials are working on concurrent plans to address affordable housing county-wide and in certain communities. The county is using federal HUD funding to develop housing strategies for six communities, working with LISC Greater Cincinnati and the Community Building Institute at Xavier University.”

“The experience these five cities had in developing a missing middle program provide a potential blueprint for other communities wishing to begin discussions on how to increase affordable housing opportunities.”

“But value-add investors that renovate and raise rents at thousands of Class B and C apartment communities represent one of the biggest threats to the supply of workforce rental units, often referred to as naturally occurring affordable housing or “NOAH.” As a result, social impact funds have emerged to compete with value-add investors and preserve affordability for renters typically earning between 60 percent and 120 percent of area median income.”

“Although about two-thirds of Cincinnati voters rejected Issue 3 during Tuesday’s primary, Newman and other affordable housing advocates said they were happy to highlight Cincinnati’s housing shortage in a place where thousands more people would see and think about it… And in a long-term battle for housing equity, raising awareness is its own victory.”

“The first big plan to follow through on these climate commitments is the American Jobs Plan, which will provide resources to build, preserve and retrofit more than 1 million resilient and affordable housing units through an array of resources—grants, energy-efficiency tax credits, public housing capital backlog resources, support for rural housing and new project-based rental assistance. In addition, the plan calls for the enactment of the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act (NHIA), which would support the construction and rehabilitation of over 500,000 homes in distressed communities.”

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