Affordable housing in Ohio--and your state, too

Because the current value of your 401-k, your 403-b, or your private investments and the value of your house are tied directly to the government's interference in the housing market in the past 15 years, it's time for you to take a look around, become familiar with the real estate, as it were. Today I'm looking at the Ohio Department of Development and how many fingers and thumbs are trying to pull out a plum.

Here's some history from the Ohio Housing Trust Fund Annual Report 2008 :

To address Ohio’s housing needs, Ohio’s housing advocates, led by the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO), began a grass roots campaign to improve Ohio’s housing conditions. The campaign’s first success came in November 1990 when Ohio’s voters approved Issue 1, a constitutional amendment making housing a public purpose. During the following year, the Ohio Legislature passed implementing legislation (House Bill 339) to establish the Ohio Housing Trust Fund (OHTF) and an Advisory Committee to work with the ODOD, the administering agency, to develop the fund’s housing programs and policies.

OK, start small with volunteers, get some funding, get established, hire more staff to find more funding.

In the 1992-1993 Ohio Biennium Budget, $5 million of state general revenue was allocated to the fund. Immediately, Ohio’s housing advocates began lobbying for an OHTF permanent, stable funding source.

So that's the beginning. Identify a need, get a small grant to keep you going until you can get more money. No low income person's rent is ever paid, but the goal is set with meetings and workshops--rent, coffee and snacks eat up a lot of budget. Keep the need out front--"affordable housing," but keep expanding what that means. From homeless to poor to low income.

For the next 12 years, the fund’s allocation level struggles with a sluggish economy and the high demand for other state-funded services, including education. During that period, the allocation level fluctuated from $5 million for a biennium to $20 million for one year.

OK, funding is too iffy to pay all the salaries, so let's rethink this. We need to bring in more people at every level of the housing industry for a larger stake.

In 2002, established the Affordable Housing Taskforce, (when the word Trust Fund loses its glow, try Taskforce) recommend an increase in fees to have a permanent, dedicated funding source for the OHTF. Continue to raise fees, while warning about the housing crisis and lauding a public/private partnership to increase affordable housing for low- and moderate-income families.

What started as "homeless" in 1990, is now "moderate-income" housing. Continue to lobby the governor's office and state legislature and broaden your base in the building industry so they can get a piece of the pie. By the early 2000s, you've got so many endorsements, businesses, non-profits (which have also been expanding using the same methods) and financial institutions (which are being threatened for "red lining") plus religious organizations (faith based initiatives), you can go for yet another increase in fees for 2004-2005 for the funding of OHTF. And finally, the pot and the end of the rainbow.

In the 2008-2009 Ohio Biennium Budget, the Ohio Legislature appropriated $53 million each year to the OHTF. Subsequently, the State Controlling Board approved an increase in the OHTF appropriation authority for SFY 2008 to $56 million.

From grass roots, rag-tag volunteers for the homeless to $56 million dollars in just 18 years. Not bad. Of course, we still have homeless; we still have decaying housing stock in the older neighborhoods like Hilltop and near East side and over there south of Children's Hospital. But we have an unending stream of funding, the non-profits and religious organizations have places to put staff who might not otherwise have jobs, the volunteers have a place to go to feel good, and it certainly is reducing the gap between the rich and the poor--by helping indirectly to destroy the wealth of the middle class.

The bigger the housing trust funds became, the bigger the crisis grew--the more funding was needed. Take a look at this explanation by Fannie Mae, that sweet thing who was stealing from you all along while her front man Barney said everything was just fine.

And we've just elected a guy who claims we aren't doing enough!