As housing concerns in Northeast Ohio rise, Portage County leaders are organizing to address affordable housing, employment and accessibility.
An event organized on Nov. 1 — “Uniting for action: A discussion about collaborative solutions for Northeast Ohio’s housing future” — brought public agencies and private companies together at at The NEW Center at Northeast Ohio Medical University in Rootstown. The event was hosted by the Ohio Realtors, the County Commissioners Association of Ohio and law firm Bricker Graydon.
Portage County Commissioner Sabrina Christian-Bennett introduced the hosts, addressing the room of community leaders, policy makers, organizations and advocates.
“Today, we have the opportunity to leverage our combined strengths, knowledge and resources to address one of the most pressing issues of our time,” she said. “Northeast Ohio faces unique housing challenges from affordability and availability to quality and equitable access.”
Economic update
Northeast Ohio makes up about 40% of Ohio’s economy, said Abigail Logar, a research manager at Team NEO.
“Northeast Ohio is a region that has been powered by the manufacturing industry historically,” Logar said. “The region has struggled to keep up in terms of jobs and GDP when compared to Ohio and the nation as a whole, however, has remained quite competitive in productivity.”
She said Northeast Ohio has shown significant job loss over the last 20 years and is facing demographic headwinds like population loss, as the workforce ages and birth rates decrease, which puts pressure on key industries, like manufacturing, to grow its workforce. She said accessible and affordable housing is a key solution to attracting workers, and the accessibility of housing opportunities for all demographics will contribute to a more equitable workforce.
“Our population has been slacking compared to Ohio and the U.S. for growth projections,” she said. “A lot of that, like I said, is due to the aging population, but it allows us to think about attraction in a different way.”
The aging population refers to the number of older people in the economy increasing, while the number of younger people remains low or does not increase.
“Northeast Ohio’s housing market is struggling — there’s not enough available, affordable homes due to a few different impeding factors, which impacts the ability for companies to reliably source workers. If housing is not readily available, it’s a deterrent for a worker to relocate for a job,” she said.
Affordable, attainable and available housing
The next speaker, Todd Peetz, director of the Portage County Regional Planning Commission, began by complimenting the county’s diversity and agriculture, noting that it is a great place to start a family.
However, the average rent price in Portage County has reached $1,000, with the average home price being over $250,000, according to Peetz, who described this as “pretty pricey” for younger people just coming out of college.
He showed a map demonstrating the potential for housing in the county. None of the undeveloped space on the map had water or sewer lines, which are needed for housing development.
Affordability is considered no more than 30% of income; if someone is paying more for a home, including utilities, it is not considered affordable for them.
“We always want the private sector to rule, and I still believe the private sector should rule, but we need to find ways to make it profitable for developers to make money and still provide us affordable housing that we still need,” he said.
Veronica Cardello, assistant vice president of external engagement at Ohio Realtors, spoke about pre-approved building plans as an option to increase affordability and speed up permitting.
“So when local governments adopt pre-approved programs, the developers will not only save time, they’ll also save on the permitting fees through the approval process, and the places that have these existing programs already there have been able to shave off time and permitting fees by about half,” she said.
To address this, she said Ohio Realtors and other organizations have created a pattern book of designs that are easy for municipalities to adopt. She said more than 40 communities throughout Ohio are already interested in the book and have signed up to adopt the patterns. The pattern book will be released to communities in January 2025.
