Editor’s note: The following article was originally published by Ohio Capital Journal and is available to the Canton Repository under a content sharing agreement.
Ohioans must earn at least $20.81 an hour in full-time employment to afford a “modest” two-bedroom apartment, according to a new report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio.
This is a 9% increase from last year’s report, which was $19.09 per hour, said COHHIO Executive Director Amy Riegel.
“Wages for Ohio’s most common occupations have increased significantly since the pandemic,” she said. “Employers are trying to keep up with inflation, but skyrocketing rental costs have virtually wiped out those wage gains, making affordable housing unaffordable for a large portion of Ohio’s workforce.”
Of the top 10 most employed occupations in Ohio, only operations managers and registered nurses earn more than $20.81 per hour, according to the 2024 Out of Reach Ohio report. Fast-food workers, warehouse workers, cashiers, retail sales clerks, laborers, customer service representatives, assembly workers and home care workers all earn less than $20 per hour.
“This creates a huge gap between what people earn and what they can afford,” Riegel said.
The minimum wage in Ohio is $10.45 per hour. This means that someone with a minimum wage job would have to work 80 hours per week to afford a two-bedroom apartment. The market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Ohio is $1,082, according to the report.
In Ohio’s three largest cities, renters have to pay even more, according to the report.
Renters in Columbus must earn $25.04 per hour, renters in Cincinnati must earn $22.98 per hour, and renters in Cleveland must earn $21.31 per hour.
“We must act now to meet this need and help our communities provide the support needed to help people achieve stable housing,” Riegel said.
According to COOHIO, landlords in Ohio filed nearly 108,000 evictions last year — the most since 2015 — and homelessness in Ohio increased 7% in 2023 compared to the previous year.
Rising rents can be especially hard on older Ohioans and people with disabilities who live on fixed incomes.
“Ohioans who have worked hard for 40 years or more should be enjoying their retirement,” Riegel said. “Instead, many are rationing their medications and wondering how they will feed themselves and pay the rent.”
It is no secret that the country is suffering from a housing crisis, which particularly affects the search for affordable housing.
“Meeting this challenge requires long-term federal investment in affordable housing,” said Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the NLIHC, in a statement. “As the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated, federal policies and resources play a critical role in creating a robust social safety net, preventing evictions and homelessness, and curbing housing instability among the lowest-income renters.”
The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that cities can ban people from sleeping outdoors, even if they have nowhere else to go. The court upheld an Oregon city’s policy of punishing homeless people who slept outdoors because the city did not have adequate shelter.
The case is expected to have far-reaching implications for the way cities respond to homelessness.
What’s happening at the Ohio Statehouse?
In last year’s state budget, Ohio created the Housing Tax Credit Program and the Single-Family Home Tax Credit Program.
Five lawmakers from both parties formed the Senate Select Committee on Housing, which spent nearly a year holding hearings across the state to learn more about communities’ housing problems.
They recently released a report with 23 recommendations, including ideas for increasing homeownership opportunities, consumer protections for renters and buyers, alternative housing options, tax policy, increasing density, grants for local government capacity building, technical assistance for zoning, third-party review of services, and changes to the Ohio Housing Finance Agency.
“We’re seeing an increasing interest in what’s happening at the state level in housing,” Riegel said. “But we’re seeing that there’s still not a lot of interest. There’s still not a lot of commitment to the needs of those who are extremely low income, those who may be on a fixed income, and those who are most vulnerable in our communities.”
Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on Twitter.
