By India Gardener / Broadcast version by Nadia Ramlagan reporting for the Kent State-Ohio News Connection Collaboration.

Rising housing costs are creating significant challenges for Ohioans seeking affordable homes - especially those with the lowest incomes.

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), to afford a two-bedroom home in Ohio without spending more than 30% of your income on rent, you will need an annual household income of $39,702.

Ohio's median household income was $67,520 in 2022, according to U.S. Census data. But even in a relatively affordable state, households whose incomes are at or below the poverty guideline-$15,225 for a single person under 65 or $29,678 for a family of four-face significant challenges in finding housing they can afford.

In Ohio, 67% of extremely low-income residents - those making just 30% of the area median income - are spending more than half of their income on rent, according to NLIHC.

"Over 700,000 renters are spending over half their income on rent, and, when you're spending that much of your income on rent, there's very little left over for the other necessities of life - food, transportation, education, healthcare, childcare - all of those things suffer," said Marcus Roth, communications/development director with the Coalition of Homelessness and Housing. This statewide coalition advocates for affordable housing.

The 2021 Ohio Housing Needs Assessment states there was a shortage of over 256,875 affordable rental units for extremely low-income (ELI) households across the state in 2018. This translated to a meager 44 available units for every 100 of these households.

Considering inflation, the median gross rent in Ohio increased by 9% from $733 to $797 per month from 2012 to 2018. The highest earners' incomes have outpaced this rise in rent since 2006, but those in the lowest 20 percent of income earners since 2008 have not. They are at heightened risk for housing cost burdens and instability.

"The main thing we need to do is increase the supply of affordable housing," Roth said. "We have a huge shortage of affordable housing. It's just grown worse and worse over the last 10 to 15 years."

The Ohio Housing Finance Agency's research highlights a significant decline in authorized new housing units - all housing units, not just affordable ones - for construction since 2000. In 2022, only 30,936 housing units were authorized, down from 49,745 in 2000.

"We have not had enough affordable housing for a very, very long time. But one of the novel things about what we're seeing is that that instability is creeping up the economic ladder," said Carlie Boos, executive director of the Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio. "And it's not just minimum wage earners who are feeling the pinch. It's not just retirees who are feeling the pinch, but now it's folks who are working 40 hours a week in a very respectable profession."

Limited housing availability, combined with rising construction costs, has created a shortage of affordable housing options.

According to the Ohio Finance Housing Agency Fiscal Year

"We're in an atypical moment in history where we are just not building enough homes for all of the people who live here," said Boos. "We're getting more and more and more people, especially in Central Ohio, where we're going to grow by another million people in the coming years."

Boos discussed the housing crisis in Ohio and how it requires a multifaceted approach that includes increasing the supply of affordable housing, providing financial assistance to low-income renters, and regulating the rental market.

"There's a lot of different tools that we can start making work for us. One of the things that I think Central Ohio has really been aggressive on... well, it's housing bonds," Boos said. Housing bonds are issued by governments at the state and local levels to help raise money for new affordable housing projects.

"Last November, the city of Columbus put a ballot measure up for a vote that passed super-majority-style," Boos said. "With $200 million and new resources to support affordable housing and start to bring those rents and those home ownership costs down... We had a $50 million pilot before that was overwhelmingly successful. So we know that this is going to have a huge impact."

Exploring financing methods, such as public-private partnerships and social impact bonds, can further tap into private-sector investments for affordable housing development. These include the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) and the HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME).

Roth said the most recent Ohio state budget created a state version of the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program.

"It is about $100 million of additional state resources that will go toward the development and rehabilitation of affordable housing. So that is a great first step," Roth said. "It'll create 4,000 additional units of affordable housing."


This collaboration is produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.


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Gov. Bob Ferguson has signed Washington's first rent stabilization law and renters and advocates who fought for the bill are breathing sighs of relief, after years of effort.

The new law caps the amount landlords can raise yearly rents at 7% plus inflation or 10%, whichever is less. For manufactured homes, increases are limited to 5%.

Caroline Hardy, secretary of the Leisure Manor Tenants Association and a retiree in Aberdeen whose manufactured home community faced up to 50% yearly increases under new corporate ownership. She said her community is mostly seniors living on fixed incomes and the increases had become untenable.

"It was getting to the point where people were skipping meals and they were not able to afford prescriptions," Hardy recounted. "I couldn't afford my diabetic medicine. It was getting scary and we were getting mad."

Landlords associations and real estate agencies fought hard against the bill, saying it would impede development. Proponents countered under the law, new construction is protected from the cap for the first 12 years.

Hardy spent three years knocking on doors, making phone calls and testifying in support of the new law. She said she was deeply relieved to hear it passed and is grateful to Sen. Emily Alvarado, D-Seattle, and Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, D-Tacoma, who sponsored the bill.

"We were so thankful that they listened to us, and they helped us," Hardy added. "It was a great accomplishment. We're really proud of ourselves."

Nine Washington counties had record-breaking eviction rates in 2024. The state now joins Oregon and California as the only states in the nation to enact a statewide limit on how much landlords can raise the rent.


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With rates of homelessness on the rise, advocates are decrying plans to remove a long-standing camp from the Sandy River Delta, also known as Thousand Acres.

The Department of State Lands is planning to remove the encampment this week, along with its residents, some of whom have been there for decades. In response, residents have filed an injunction.

One outreach worker, who would prefer to stay anonymous fearing backlash, has been working with the 30-some residents of Thousand Acres for the past year. They said the state has failed to connect residents to promised resources and the people living there have nowhere else to go.

"They can offer you a bed in an overcrowded, low-quality shelter, or they can offer you to get on a housing waitlist that will last for years," the worker explained. "It's really not a legitimate option at all."

The state said the camp is making the area unsafe and they need to close it temporarily to restore the land. New data show Oregon saw a 13% increase in people experiencing homelessness in 2024 alone.

Residents of Thousand Acres have created a Cooperative Stewardship Proposal, which they are providing as an alternative to eviction from the site.

Tyrell Graham, a musician, has lived at the park for more than three years.

"People have been peaceful down here, been peaceful for a long time and this is like a sanctuary," Graham emphasized.

Advocates for the unhoused say the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office has been leaving people at Thousand Acres when they have no other options, including after their release from Multnomah County Jail. The outreach worker argued evicting people who have nowhere else to go is inhumane.

"People aren't trash. You can't just pick them up and throw them away," the worker stressed. "They've created a home there and they've lived there for decades, and you can't just disrupt that on a whim."

The number of people experiencing homelessness once again set a record last year, nearing 775,000 nationwide.


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Laramie, Wyoming is short on affordable housing but a new partnership aims to help.

Albany County's population grew nearly 7% between 2010 and 2021 and many newcomers are remote workers, according to a statewide needs assessment. Because the county is home to Laramie, the state's only bona fide college town, many homes are rentals occupied by students, adding to a housing crunch for vital workers such as teachers and nurses and the schools and hospitals working to retain them.

Todd Feezer, assistant city manager of Laramie, and others have eyed the site of the former Slade Elementary School, due to be demolished soon, for housing built under a new partnership model.

"Really, I think we've got a good team that's all pulling together," Feezer observed. "As long as that team can continue to pull together, we should be able to see some success in this, hopefully within the next year to 18 months."

He noted the school district is appraising the property to see what is possible. Feezer pointed out the public-private partnership taking on the project includes the City of Laramie, Albany County School District, Laramie Chamber Business Alliance, Ivinson Hospital and WyoTech.

The exact mechanics of the project are still in the works but Feezer stressed he hopes to add 34 workforce-attainable housing units to the mix.

"We're excited for the interest in our project," Feezer emphasized. "This isn't the solution but this is a start for us to try to create solutions to the housing issue here in Laramie."

According to the statewide needs assessment, Wyoming in 2030 will need between 21,000 and 39,000 more units than it had in 2021 to cover housing needs.


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