Sustainable, inclusive housing growth: A case study on Columbus, Ohio

Over the past two decades, the Columbus region has enjoyed outsize population and economic growth compared with leading peer cities and the US average.¹In this article, “Columbus” refers to the Columbus metropolitan statistical area unless otherwise specified. See “Ohio Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs),” Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, Office of Workforce Development, accessed June 22, 2023. Yet growth has come at a cost—specifically by outpacing the region’s supply of available housing. Home and rental prices have soared as stock has been depleted, making homeownership—and sometimes even having a roof over one’s head—increasingly out of reach for many people, particularly those from historically marginalized communities.

In just this past decade, the increase in housing prices and rents has dramatically outpaced household income. Additionally, the region’s population of people experiencing homelessness (PEH) has grown faster than those of its US peers in recent years. The region’s challenges have a disproportionate impact on historically marginalized populations (such as Black and Hispanic residents), who have a dramatically lower likelihood of being a homeowner and a much higher likelihood of experiencing homelessness. Amid ongoing rapid growth, the need for affordable housing and support services for PEH will only continue to increase unless significant action is taken.²HUD defines affordable housing as “housing on which the occupant is paying no more than 30 percent of gross income for housing costs, including utilities.” See “Glossary of terms to affordable housing,” HUD, accessed June 22, 2023.

Columbus is a microcosm of the United States’ housing insecurity plight. While many major cities are receiving national press coverage for this issue, housing insecurity is a humanitarian challenge facing communities of all sizes across the country. The National Association for Home Builders estimates that about 70 percent of US households cannot afford a new home at the national median price.³NAHBNow, “Nearly 7 out of 10 households can’t afford a new median-priced home,” blog entry by National Association of Home Builders, February 15, 2022. In 2022, US home vacancy rates were at their lowest levels since 1987,⁴“Home vacancy rate for the United States,” US Census Bureau, retrieved from Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED) June 22, 2023. and the country is estimated to have a shortage of 6.5 million housing units.⁵Anna Bahney, “The US housing market is short 6.5 million homes,” CNN, March 8, 2023. Renters are also facing increased pressure nationally: 23 percent spend at least half of their income on housing costs,⁶Katherine Schaeffer, “Key facts about housing affordability in the U.S.,” Pew Research Center, March 23, 2022. rendering them “severely rent burdened” as defined by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).⁷“Rental burdens: Rethinking affordability measures,” PD&R Edge, accessed June 22, 2023.

As in many regions in the United States, the primary contributors to the housing shortage in Columbus are embedded within deeply vexing economic and social issues, including stagnating incomes, racial gaps in homeownership, and access to financing and services.

As Columbus charts a growth strategy for the decades ahead, addressing housing and homelessness will be an essential component in realizing the goal of prosperity for all. Today, Columbus is projected to have a shortage of as much as 110,000 housing units by 2032.⁸Vogt Strategic Insights, “Analysis of housing need for the Columbus region,” Building Industry Association of Central Ohio, August 30, 2022. Without an increase in the supply of housing, Columbus may struggle to continue on a growth trajectory. Specifically, we have identified four priority interventions designed to work in concert to increase housing stock, keep rents affordable, and help more people, including historically marginalized populations, access the housing market:

1. Tap into existing housing capacity potential. Public–private collaboration on policies can identify land available for housing either as underused property or as part of broader rezoning efforts to increase the supply of homes, which is a requirement for sustained economic growth.
2. Reduce the cost of new construction. Promising cost-reduction opportunities include simplifying the permit process and engaging builders with expertise in cost-effective construction methods.
3. Support homebuyers and renters. Local government and policy makers can expand resources and consider policies that support public- and private-sector initiatives to improve homeownership rates, assist with rental affordability, and reduce the risk of homelessness.
4. Prioritize tackling homelessness. Alleviating homelessness requires increasing awareness of currently available resources for PEH and expanding relief funds to assist residents with affordable housing, healthcare support, training for employment, and other resources critical to reducing homelessness.

Many local leaders are well aware of the challenges that can result from booming growth. The policy-neutral research presented in this article is intended to complement the work already under way by leaders in the city of Columbus and surrounding areas to inform decision making about the housing shortage, affordable housing, and homelessness.⁹For example, see Bonnie Meibers, “Columbus details plan to build, preserve and invest in inclusive affordable housing,” Columbus Business First, June 27, 2022; Bonnie Meibers, “Columbus City Council announces 12-part plan to combat affordable housing shortage,” Columbus Business First, March 16, 2023; Bonnie Meibers, “The Punch List: Columbus lays out new solutions to housing crisis,” Columbus Business First, October 24, 2022; Mark Ferenchik, “Worthington considering asking for $1.1M affordable housing bond issue on November ballot,” Columbus Dispatch, January 16, 2023. In the process, we believe the Columbus region’s approach to housing could both build on and inform the economic development strategies of other regions across the country—with successes offering a potential blueprint for progress.

The fastest-growing region in the Midwest

From 2000 to 2021, the Columbus Region’s population increased by a third, adding more than 500,000 people and becoming the fastest-growing metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the Midwest.¹⁰“Resident population in Columbus, OH (MSA) [COLPOP],” US Census Bureau, retrieved from FRED April 7, 2023. Includes MSAs with populations greater than one million. Midwest defined as Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. See “Resident population in Columbus,” retrieved April 7, 2023; Factbook 2020, City of Columbus, accessed June 22, 2023. In September 2022, Columbus was named the fifth-hottest housing market in the United States, driven by the speed of home sales and demand.¹¹“CAGDP1 County and MSA gross domestic product (GDP) summary,” US Bureau of Economic Analysis, accessed May 12, 2023; “Table 1.1.6. Real Gross Domestic Product, Chained Dollars,” US Bureau of Economic Analysis, accessed May 12, 2023.

This growth was precipitated by, and continues to benefit from, the region’s mounting economic strength: from 2008 through 2021, Columbus outpaced national GDP growth by almost ten percentage points.¹²“Total gross domestic product for Columbus, OH (MSA) [NGMP18140],” US Bureau of Economic Analysis, retrieved from FRED June 23, 2023; “Gross domestic product [GDP],” US Bureau of Economic Analysis, retrieved from FRED June 23, 2023. Growth has also been bolstered by more-recent major commercial investments from a range of industries, including semiconductors, financial services, and biopharmaceuticals.¹³“Intel breaks ground in Ohio,” JobsOhio, accessed June 22, 2023; “Project announcements,” One Columbus, accessed June 22, 2023; “Western Alliance Bank expands into the Columbus Region, creating 150 new jobs at new technology hub,” One Columbus, January 9, 2023; “Discover plans to open a customer care center in Whitehall to bring high-quality jobs and enhance equity in the Columbus Region,” One Columbus, November 18, 2022.

Growing pains: Coping with rapid growth

The population influx has measurably strained Columbus’s residential real estate and rental markets, particularly for people of color. Increasing housing supply is a critical enabler for the region’s continued growth trajectory.

Rapidly rising home prices. Although the region remains relatively affordable compared with leading peers, home prices have skyrocketed in relation to incomes. Data from Zillow reveal that roughly a decade ago, the growth of median household incomes in Columbus and the value of the city’s “lower tier” housing stock began to diverge (Exhibit 1). In the ten years since then, lower-tier housing prices within the city’s boundaries increased at 1.9 times the growth of median household income—an unsustainable divergence.¹⁴Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI) All Homes - Bottom Tier Time Series, accessed April 19, 2023. A cavalry in the form of new-housing construction may be slow to arrive: from 2004 to 2022, annual construction of new single-family homes in Columbus fell by 34 percent, and it has yet to return to pre-2004 levels.¹⁵“B19013 Median household income in the past 12 months,” ACS 5-Year Estimates 2016–21, American Community Survey, US Census Bureau. In fact, for every 100 net new jobs in the region, only 65 new housing permits were issued.¹⁶Analysis of housing need for the Columbus region, Vogt Strategic Insights, August 30, 2022.

1

Rent increases outpacing wage increases. Renters in Columbus have also seen a price surge.

Rent prices in Columbus increased by about 35 percent between December 2016 and December 2021, exceeding median household income growth in that period by 11 percentage points (Exhibit 2). As a result, by 2021, approximately 40 percent of renters in Columbus were spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent, meeting HUD’s definition of “rent burdened.”¹⁷“Gross rent as a percentage of household income,” 2021: ACS 5-Year Estimates, American Community Survey, US Census Bureau. And renters account for a significant percentage of residents: as of 2021, nearly 40 percent of total households in the metro area were rentals, which is comparable to other fast-growing US regions such as Austin (around 41 percent) and Miami (about 40 percent) but much higher than similar sized regions such as Pittsburgh (around 29 percent) and Indianapolis (about 32 percent).¹⁸“B25008 Total population in occupied housing units by tenure,” 2021: ACS 1-Year Estimates, American Community Survey, US Census Bureau.

2

More people experiencing homelessness.

Columbus outpaced its US peers in the growth of its PEH population from 2008 through 2022 (Exhibit 3), and early reports indicate homelessness was up 22 percent in January 2023 compared with January 2022.¹⁹“Columbus region leaders introduce new action on homelessness: Funding for programs and services introduced as data shows increase in homeless count,” Community Shelter Board, June 6, 2023. McKinsey research on homelessness in the Bay Area indicates that homelessness is a result of a range of disparate triggers, including economic issues (such as job loss, raised rent, or foreclosure), health factors (such as substance abuse or mental illness), and social factors (for example, incarceration or domestic violence).²⁰For more, see “The ongoing crisis of homelessness in the Bay Area: What’s working, what’s not,” McKinsey, March 23, 2023. A brief but significant drop in the number of PEH in Columbus in 2021 is likely attributable to additional support during the pandemic (for example, eviction moratoriums and stimulus payments). Still, as of 2022, Columbus had the fastest-growing PEH population among its peers.

3

Disproportionate effect on historically marginalized communities. The racial disparities that plague many leading US regions are also starkly apparent in Columbus. Some historically marginalized groups are less likely to be homeowners: one-third of the region’s Black households own their homes, compared with more than two-thirds of White households (Exhibit 4). Black household incomes in the region are also about 42 percent lower than those of White households.²¹“S1903 Median income in the past 12 months (in 2021 inflation-adjusted dollars),” 2021: ACS 1-Year Estimates, American Community Survey, US Census Bureau.

4

In addition, Black residents account for 16 percent of Columbus’s general population but 60 percent of the homeless population.²²“DP05 ACS demographic and housing estimates,” 2021: ACS 5-Year Estimates Data Profiles, American Community Survey, US Census Bureau; “PIT and HIC data since 2007,” HUD Exchange, February 2023. And even when people in these communities have housing, Black households are almost five times more likely to be overcrowded (more than one occupant per room) than White households.²³“B25014B Occupants per room (Black or African American alone householder),” 2021: ACS 5-Year Estimates, American Community Survey, US Census Bureau; “B25014A Occupants per room (White alone householder),” 2021: ACS 5-Year Estimates, American Community Survey, US Census Bureau. These disparate experiences in different communities are reflected in other metrics of financial and housing stability, including income and the ability to pass on generational wealth.²⁴“B19013B Median household income in the past 12 months (in 2021 inflation-adjusted dollars) (Black or African American alone householder),” 2021: ACS 5-Year Estimates, American Community Survey, US Census Bureau; “B19013A Median household income in the past 12 months (in 2021 inflation-adjusted dollars) (White alone householder),” 2021: ACS 5-Year Estimates, American Community Survey, US Census Bureau; Jung Hyun Choi, Laurie Goodman, and Jun Zhu, Intergenerational homeownership: The impact of parental homeownership and wealth on young adults’ tenure choices, Urban Institute, October 2018.

These disproportionate effects have wide-ranging impact, including on overall economic growth. PolicyLink and the USC Equity Research Institute estimate that the racial gap in Columbus is costing the region’s economy $10 billion annually.²⁵Erica Thompson and Mark Williams, “Racial inequities costs Columbus economy $10 billion a year, report finds,” Columbus Dispatch, updated May 12, 2022.

Four interventions to address Columbus’s housing challenges

Housing is a critical enabler for economic growth—and Columbus’s housing challenges are no secret. Local leaders, organizations, and partnerships have long worked to improve housing security directly. Advocates and organizations have all published research on housing and homelessness, including the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, the Coalition on Housing and Homelessness in Ohio, the Affordable Housing Trust for Columbus & Franklin County, the Center for Social Innovation, and the Community Shelter Board of Columbus.²⁶Healthy Beginnings at Home: Final report, CelebrateOne and the Health Policy Institute of Ohio, June 2021; Regional Housing Strategy final report: Central Ohio, Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, September 2020; Annual report 2021: Preserving, creating & facilitating, Affordable Housing Trust for Columbus and Franklin County, 2021; Columbus, Ohio: Initial findings from quantitative and qualitative research, Supporting Partnerships for Anti-Racist Communities (SPARC), Center for Social Innovation, May 2018. Yet the latest estimates show that the region could need as many as 110,000 housing units beyond the current run rate by 2032 to cover expected job growth. This would require more than doubling the construction rate, from around 8,300 units per year to as many as 19,300 per year.²⁷Analysis of housing need for the Columbus region, Vogt Strategic Insights, August 30, 2022.

After reviewing the available research, examining the actions taken by other local governments, and drawing on our experience in the real estate and public sectors, we have identified four key interventions that can augment existing efforts to address Columbus’s housing challenge: tap into existing housing capacity potential, reduce the cost of new construction, support homebuyers and renters, and prioritize tackling homelessness.

Tap into existing housing capacity potential

Zoning regulates how land is used, where residential or commercial buildings may be constructed, and the density of new developments, making it a key lever in changing a city’s residential landscape. The city of Columbus spans 220 square miles of central Ohio, and it has 50 more square miles of single-family zoning than multifamily zoning.²⁸Nicholas Julian, “Zoning in Columbus: Single-family vs. multifamily,” Ohio Housing Finance Agency, April 2, 2019; “QuickFacts: Columbus city, Ohio,” US Census Bureau, accessed June 22, 2023. Increasing density and creating housing “hot spots” are both potential options for Columbus to address current housing supply challenges.

Increased housing density. Zoning has a direct impact on housing density. In Washington, DC, for example, areas zoned for detached single-family units typically consist of up to 1,200 units per square mile,²⁹Yesim Sayin, “Single-family zoning and neighborhood characteristics in the District of Columbia,” D.C. Policy Center, July 17, 2019. compared with up to 40,000 units per square mile in large multifamily buildings. But zoning in most US cities largely restricts higher-density homes. Three-quarters of the land in US cities is barred from development for anything other than detached single-family homes—and where multifamily buildings are allowed, height and lot size requirements hurt the economic calculus for development.³⁰Jenny Schuetz, “To improve housing affordability, we need better alignment of zoning, taxes, and subsidies,” Brookings Institution, January 7, 2020. Specific zoning adjustments could contribute directly to closing the housing gap, not just in the city limits but also in the surrounding suburbs. For example, a recent analysis by the Columbus Dispatch found that zoning contributed to the lack of affordable housing options in Upper Arlington, New Albany, and suburbs in Delaware County.³¹Jim Weiker, “Columbus suburbs offer few affordable housing options,” Columbus Dispatch, May 4, 2023. High-density zoning can be a meaningful part of a community’s housing ecosystem to enable future growth.

‘Housing hot spots’ created by reusing and rezoning underused property. To help alleviate the shortage of homes in the near term, municipalities can also identify potentially high-impact housing areas by reviewing the zoning of properties that meet criteria for vacant or underutilized land, homes with room for more units, and more. This approach has been used elsewhere to great effect. An analysis of three counties in California found room for more than five million new units,³²Jonathan Woetzel, Jan Mischke, Shannon Peloquin, and Daniel Weisfield, “Closing California’s housing gap,” McKinsey Global Institute, October 24, 2016. and separate efforts are under way in New York City and Los Angeles to rezone underused commercial zones for residential or mixed use—making more space available for housing construction without needing to expand a city’s footprint.³³“Mayor Adams unveils recommendations to convert underused offices into homes,” City of New York, January 9, 2023; “Adequate sites for housing,” 2021–2029 Housing Element, Los Angeles City Planning, November 2021.

Reduce the cost of new construction

A priority for the Columbus region will be reducing the cost of new construction to accelerate the pace of development. Programs that accelerate construction, reduce permit fees, or otherwise defray development costs are common levers to help reduce the cost of affordable housing. Several approaches can be prioritized to address the challenges facing Columbus and other US regions.

Innovative, cost-saving construction techniques and builders. As in many areas of the United States, inflation drove up the cost of building materials, labor, and financing in Columbus by as much as 18 percent between 2021 and 2022.³⁴“How much does it cost to build a house in Columbus?,” Home Builder Digest, accessed June 23, 2023. Innovative, low-cost approaches such as modular and prefabricated construction can help; in our experience, when applied at large scale, these techniques can reduce the cost of construction materials by up to 20 percent and decrease build time by 20 to 50 percent without sacrificing build quality.³⁵Modular construction: From projects to products, McKinsey, June 18, 2019. This is especially true with projects featuring repeatable elements, such as schools and affordable housing.

Columbus, specifically, can establish itself as a center of excellence for modular and prefabricated construction by leveraging the region’s transportation network (such as railroads and highways) to efficiently transport modular units into the region. The region can further attract builders that use these construction techniques by offering tax incentives, investing in land and modular units at scale, reskilling the labor force, and streamlining the approval process to help drive affordable housing growth. These and other approaches could improve the economics for these kinds of construction projects almost immediately once implemented. For example, Portland, Oregon, made changes to its design review process to allow mixed-use and multifamily projects to go directly to the permit process, saving developers time and money by decreasing their financing costs. Local governments in the Columbus region can further improve the economics of housing development by producing and holding off-the-shelf design schematics that can easily be used by prospective housing-unit developers.

Reduced development costs. Identifying parcels of public land for housing development could defray the overall cost of new projects in addition to rezoning efforts. Some cities, including Copenhagen, London, New York City, and Stockholm, have established professional management of their publicly owned land, allowing them to identify suitable city-owned sites for affordable developments.³⁶“Affordable housing in Los Angeles: Delivering more—and doing it faster”, McKinsey Global Institute, November 21, 2019.

Accelerating the construction permit process could help reduce lengthy permit timelines that both create delays and increase developers’ costs. Under Columbus’s permit approval system, new-construction permits can take six to nine months. In fast-growing metro areas elsewhere in the United States, permits can take as little as a few weeks—a disparity that the City of Columbus is reviewing as part of its longer-term affordable-housing initiatives.³⁷Allen Henry, “Columbus to overhaul zoning code for first time in 70 years,” NBC4 WCMH-TV, October 20, 2021. The Affordable Housing Trust in Columbus has launched the Emerging Developers Accelerator Program to provide education and funding for minority developers.³⁸Jim Weiker, “New program seeks to build ranks of minority and female developers,” Columbus Dispatch, updated May 18, 2022. Yet the holding costs due to the lengthy time horizon between initial plans and selling the first house keep many potential developers out of the business.

Reduced development finance costs and fees. Financing costs and government taxes tend to be a heavy burden on housing developers. Legal agreements and public financing tools, such as joint powers authorities (JPAs) and tax increment financing (TIF) programs, provide incentives for public and private partners to collaborate in the development of affordable housing. In instances where traditional incentives and subsidies are unable to produce the desired outcomes, JPAs enable the city, partnered with a developer, to issue bonds and use its property tax exemption to purchase a property or finance the creation of a new development process. As part of the acquisition process, the JPA agrees to restrict the rent of a set number of units in line with affordable-housing standards. This approach is unlike traditional affordable-housing projects in that long-term ownership rests with the city, with an option to purchase the property back from the JPA after a set period.

JPAs are eligible for significant tax exemptions on their properties, with the added benefit that these savings are passed on to renters. Bond financing can also be tax-exempt given that governmental bodies have the authority to issue tax-exempt bonds for facilities that provide a public benefit.³⁹“Portantino bill creating regional affordable housing trust passes assembly local government committee,” Senator Anthony J. Portantino, California State Senate, June 9, 2022; Brennon Dixson et al., The ABCs of JPAs, SPUR and the Terner Center for Housing Innovation, June 2022. In California, the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Regional Housing Trust is leveraging these benefits to address barriers to building nearly 3,000 affordable-housing units in the region.⁴⁰“Newsom signs Portantino bill creating Pasadena-Glendale-Burbank affordable housing trust,” Pasadena Star-News, August 24, 2022. The JPA will be allowed to request and receive private and state funding allocations, as well as authorize and issue bonds, to help finance affordable-housing projects.

As another option, TIF districts enable cities to freeze property tax revenue at current levels and use incremental tax revenue generated from a development to reimburse the developer’s costs over time. In 2018, for example, the City of Chicago approved TIF measures for The 78, a $7 billion mixed-use project to transform a former railroad property into 13 million square feet of residential, commercial, and institutional construction with a 20 percent commitment for affordable-housing units. According to plans, this TIF district will reimburse around $551 million in future increments for the construction of new infrastructure related to this project, including a new subway station, street improvements and extensions, and riverfront renovations.⁴¹“The 78,” Department of Planning and Development, City of Chicago, accessed June 23, 2023.

Support homebuyers and renters

In conjunction with initiatives that improve the supply of affordable housing, Columbus can explore approaches that improve an individual’s ability to pay for housing. The region can take these approaches in tandem to reduce the risk that demand will outpace supply and drive up prices on housing, making it even more unaffordable.

Homebuyer assistance from the public sector. Increasing investment in housing programs could help broaden the range of homes applicants can consider purchasing. For example, the City of Columbus’s Housing Division currently offers homebuyer assistance under its American Dream Downpayment Initiative (ADDI), which provides eligible first-time homebuyers with a loan of up to 6 percent of the purchase price (or up to $7,500) to put toward their down payment.⁴²“American Dream Downpayment Initiative (ADDI) Program,” City of Columbus, accessed June 23, 2023. This loan is forgiven after five years if the resident meets certain requirements, including maintaining residency and not selling the property.

In Cleveland, Cuyahoga County’s Down Payment Assistance Program covers up to 10 percent of a home’s purchase price (or up to $16,600).⁴³“Cuyahoga County Down Payment Assistance Program,” CHN Housing Capital, accessed June 23, 2023. This higher amount is especially significant given that the median sale price for a home in Columbus was $250,000 in December 2022, compared with $175,000 in Cuyahoga County and $115,000 in Cleveland itself.⁴⁴“Columbus housing market,” Redfin, accessed June 23, 2023. The down payment program available in Cleveland provides greater assistance in real dollars in an area where those dollars can go further than in Columbus. Beyond affordable housing, assistance in the form of microloans and flexible funding programs have been shown to enable this transition.⁴⁵Interval House, “How flexible funding can create stability and prevent homelessness,” Long Beach Community Foundation, accessed June 23, 2023.

Increasing the amount of assistance available could help broaden the options available to prospective homebuyers who could benefit from programs such as these, especially for historically marginalized communities that tend to have much lower rates of homeownership.

Rental assistance from the public sector. Some 54,000 households in the Columbus region are spending more than half their monthly incomes on rent, making rental assistance a cornerstone of the effort to improve housing affordability in the region.⁴⁶Homeport website, US Department of Homeland Security and the United States Coast Guard, accessed June 23, 2023. Today, the State of Ohio and Franklin County have a number of rental assistance programs, including specific funds to help families, seniors, and veterans.⁴⁷“Rent assistance providers,” Rentful, accessed June 23, 2023. Alternative programs, including flexible funding that allows for short-term, flexible financial assistance, could help stabilize individuals’ housing needs.⁴⁸“How flexible funding can create stability,” accessed June 23, 2023.

Additionally, HUD subsidizes rent for low-income families.⁴⁹A family’s income may not exceed 50 percent of the median income for the county or metropolitan area in which the family chooses to live, and 75 percent of vouchers must be provided to applicants whose income does not exceed 30 percent of the area median income. For more, see “Housing choice vouchers fact sheet,” HUD, accessed June 23, 2023. For fiscal year 2023, Columbus is allocated to receive approximately $12.7 million dollars in HUD funding for housing programs—approximately 16 percent more than Austin and 35 percent more than Denver⁵⁰“Community Development Block Grant Program,” HUD, updated December 22, 2022; “HOME Investment Partnerships Program,” HUD, updated December 22, 2022; “Community planning and development formula program allocations for FY 2023,” HUD, updated May 3, 2023.—but the need for housing support exceeds the availability of funding. Columbus and Franklin County have also received more than $120 million combined due to the reallocation of unused federal COVID-19 relief funds to fight evictions, a majority of which is expected to go toward rent and utility assistance for low-income residents.⁵¹Bill Bush, “Columbus, Franklin County get over $120 million windfall in federal rental assistance,” Columbus Dispatch, May 8, 2023.

In addition, the Columbus City Council has made it illegal to deny a lease based on the source of a potential tenant’s rental payment—an effort to prevent landlords from denying leases to tenants using Section 8 subsidies.⁵²Yilun Cheng, “Some landlords reject Section 8 renters despite Columbus law against discrimination,” Columbus Dispatch, February 8, 2022. The Columbus Metropolitan Housing Department has even offered cash incentives to landlords, and nonprofits have offered home upgrades in attempts to persuade more landlords to accept vouchers.⁵³Jamilah Muhammad, “Central Ohio mother struggles to find homes accepting HUD vouchers,” Spectrum News 1, December 1, 2021. However, while these vouchers can effectively keep people housed, wait times to obtain them can be as long as 12 months. And about 30 percent of vouchers have expired over the past three years because participants could not find landlords in time.⁵⁴“Some landlords reject Section 8 renters,” February 8, 2022. Streamlining the process from application to placement in subsidized housing could increase the impact of housing choice vouchers.

Housing assistance from the private sector. Private-sector employers in Columbus and across the United States play a crucial role in helping employees maintain stable housing by providing appropriate compensation. However, simply paying employees a living wage may not be enough to ensure stable housing in the face of unexpected expenses or other financial difficulties. A recent Harvard Business Review article suggests that any investment in housing assistance can both attract new workers (a growing challenge for companies across the United States, with ten million unfilled jobs⁵⁵“Total unfilled job vacancies for the United States,” Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, retrieved from FRED July 7, 2023.) and increase the productivity of existing workers (for example, by creating a shorter commute or reducing stresses related to housing affordability).⁵⁶Edward L. Glaeser and Atta Tarki, “What employers can do to address high housing costs,” Harvard Business Review, March 14, 2023. Other housing-security interventions—such as housing search and placement services, access to shower facilities, or even temporary hotel rooms—can support employees more quickly than local social services and also reduce employee turnover. Some corporate programs can provide immediate relief to recipients, while others can provide long-term benefits to at-risk individuals over the course of several years (see sidebar, “Potential interventions from the private sector”).

Employers also can collaborate to provide a broader set of resources to employees. In Cleveland, for example, the Greater Living Circle offers financial assistance for home purchase, rent, and renovation projects for employees of nonprofit institutions in the Greater University Circle area, including in low-income neighborhoods. Such collaboration is also the goal of the Columbus Regional Housing Coalition, a task force focused on convening leaders across the region to address the region’s housing and homelessness challenges.

Prioritize tackling homelessness

Homelessness across the region served by the Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio Continuum of Care has increased by 33 percent in the past decade⁵⁷The Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio Continuum of Care is the organization that oversees programs funded by HUD in the region.; in January 2023, more than 2,300 people in the region were experiencing homelessness.⁵⁸“Columbus region leaders introduce new action on homelessness,” June 6, 2023.

Improving awareness of available resources and expanding access to essential resources—such as healthcare, transitional housing, and training programs—can help alleviate challenges for PEH and reduce the homelessness rate across the region.

Improve awareness of existing resources. A recurring problem in approaches to homelessness is a lack of public awareness of resources available to PEH. This is especially a concern among people who have recently lost their source of housing, including young people (aged 18–24). Partnering with other organizations to increase awareness of and augment available resources can equip individuals with the means to self-resolve or seek help earlier. Even initiatives that partner with existing organizations can provide immediate relief. For example, in December 2022, the City of Columbus partnered with Columbus Coalition for the Homeless to launch an interactive map showing the locations of warming centers and homeless shelters to help individuals find places to keep warm in the winter months.

Expand essential resources to alleviate homelessness. Expanding access to essential resources will be necessary to combat the increase in homelessness. Health resources make it much more likely that PEH will remain housed after securing a more permanent living situation. For PEH who have health issues such as substance abuse or severe mental health disorders, long-term health-focused housing should be considered. Efforts that expand housing with easily available healthcare resources could provide both immediate and gradually increasing support in reducing chronic homelessness. These resources can be combined with existing techniques for ensuring PEH have the resources they need to secure permanent housing. Other innovative solutions such as alternatives to traditional security deposits and credit scores can support PEH who may not have enough savings for a security deposit or the credit history to be approved for a loan.

One emerging strategy is providing training to PEH by placing them in some form of transitional housing and helping them find employment so that they can remain housed. Portland, Oregon, and other cities have also amended zoning to allow for more homeless shelters and more flexible group living, while increasing access to resources PEH may need.⁵⁹“Warming stations,” City of Columbus, accessed June 23, 2023; Lindsey Mills, “Columbus leaders, community partners launch interactive map for warming centers, homeless shelters,” WBNS-TV, December 19, 2022. In Columbus, the Community Shelter Board (CSB) serves thousands of people through programs to prevent and respond to homelessness, including partnering with landlords to create additional housing capacity for PEH and with the Homelessness Prevention Network to coordinate social services in the community for PEH.⁶⁰“Major updates to the City’s housing-related zoning rules coming August 1,” City of Portland, Oregon, July 16, 2021.

As Columbus’s population continues to grow, stressors that come from growth need to be understood and mitigated head-on through innovative approaches. Through a focus on housing development, the region’s public, private, and civic leaders are seeking to improve housing security while supporting economic development. By setting clear goals to increase the overall housing supply, reduce the cost of new construction, provide support to improve housing affordability, and assist those who are currently experiencing homelessness,⁶¹Community Shelter Board website, accessed June 23, 2023. Columbus could make significant strides toward sustainable and inclusive growth, set an example for other regions, and ensure that all who wish to reside here can find a place of their own to call home.