Hundreds of families lost their homes in the tornado that tore through Selma last year. If housing was an issue before, it became an urgent need following Jan. 12, 2023.
As a result, leaders in Selma are now rethinking how they can build smooth paths to homeownership for their neighbors. This comes in the way of restoring over 100 homes to a healthy, livable condition through the housing authority, educating residents on how to get a mortgages and even giving away the occasional home for free.
The last came to fruition on April 21.
Members of several organizations gathered in front of a house off of Broad Street that day to announce that one Selma family would receive the new-build home free of charge. With 3-bedrooms, 2-bathrooms, a front porch and wind-resistant architecture, the home was valued around $169,500.
“The City of Selma is grateful to partner with NACA, the Selma Housing Authority and the Black Belt Community Foundation to provide this extraordinary opportunity,” Selma Mayor James Perkins said in a statement. “We cannot wait to share our excitement with the winner.”
Meet the winning family
Drawn in a random lottery that Sunday, the winner is Tamicka Newberry, a 44-year-old Selma native and mother of three. The 2023 tornado displaced Newberry, her husband and her kids, and since then, they have been living in a North Selma apartment complex.
“We lost everything and then had to adjust,” Newberry said. “We just truly thank God because God made all this possible for us. We’re just truly blessed.”
In the last few weeks, the good news came in threes: Newberry got a new job, her daughter got married and they won the new home.
“It’s a brand new start,” she said.
Since the BBCF and the Selma Housing Authority are fully furnishing the place for Newberry, it’s not quite move-in ready yet, but the family is planning to move as soon as they can. Newberry is also taking a financial management class so that she can maximize the benefits of her new, free house.
“Unfortunately, systemic racism has left us with a biased way of attaining wealth in our communities, and so by having Ms. Newberry to own a home, right off the block, she has equity,” BBCF President Felecia Lucky said. “That’s how you begin to build wealth and communities, so that’s the goal.”
Other houses coming soon
Newberry’s home is one of 100 new, affordable homes that NACA is constructing in Selma. Four other homes are completed too, though their new owners will take on affordable mortgages through a partnership with NACA and Bank of America.
The rest of the houses will be doled out to Selma locals through a NACA housing lottery where selected buyers will pay an adjusted mortgage that is approximately 30% of their gross income with no down payments, closing costs or additional fees.
Selma Housing Authority CEO Kennard Randolph said his organization has provided 27 plots of land to NACA for the project, and it has purchased about 73 more to rehabilitate alone.
“This is unprecedented for housing authorities. Housing authorities typically don’t do community revitalization,” Randolph said. “We are becoming private landlords. We were already in the multifamily, but now, we are buying houses throughout the community, and the Black Belt Community Foundation is helping with those initiatives.”
Randolph also sits on the board for the BBCF, so when the foundation decided to get support post-tornado housing initiatives, he was the resident expert. After some discussions, the board committed about $700,000 to support the affordable housing efforts in Selma.
“We know that housing has forever been an issue here in the Black Belt region,” Lucky. “if you want to do good and leave a legacy for the work that you’re doing, this is a place to do it.”
Lucky asked that anyone who wants to help continue BBCF initiatives donate to the foundation online.
How to apply for a NACA home
While the first NACA home in Selma has already been given away, about 99 more will be coming available for purchase through the housing lottery.
In order to be eligible to purchase a home through NACA, potential buyers must first attend a workshop on homeownership. They are offered both in person and online. To find the most convenient workshop for you, visit NACA.com and sign up.
With more questions or concerns, potential buyers can contact NACA at services@naca.com or 425-602-6222.
Hadley Hitson covers children’s health, education and welfare for the Montgomery Advertiser. She can be reached at hhitson@gannett.com. To support her work,subscribe to the Advertiser.
LANSING — Jan Munk was drawn to her eastside neighborhood more than four decades ago by its diversity and affordability.
The neighborhood, just a mile and a half from the heart of downtown, isn’t as nice as it once was, she says, but she’s hoping that a new initiative to rehab nine older homes bought for possible expansion by Sparrow Hospital but recently donated to nonprofits will help revitalize streets around her home.
Habitat for Humanity Capital Region and the Ingham County Land Bank will renovate the homes.
“Houses in our neighborhood are over $200,000, that’s never happened here,” Munk said. “I know I could sell our house. But what kind of place could you move to? My kids grew up here and I’d like to stay.”
Michigan’s population is stagnant, and that isn’t likely to change unless the state’s housing crisis is addressed, experts say. In the Lansing region alone, officials estimate 7,500 housing units need to be built soon just to keep up with the demand. The pace of rehabilitation of the region’s older housing stock needs to quicken as well.
The lack of housing stock has sent home prices spiraling upward, at time when inflation has made rehabbing older homes expensive and, in some cases, nearly cost prohibitive.
It’s a real-world problem officials are grappling with now. With several major employers set to open in the next year — including an Ultium battery plant and Amazon fulfillment center in Delta Township — the Lansing area is expecting to get more new jobs in a shorter time period than it has in years.
But where those new workers will live could be a big problem, said Ken Fletcher, Delta Township’s supervisor.
There are just over 100 homes on the market with price points under $100,000, largely in Lansing, but experts caution many of those homes could need significant, expensive repairs. There’s another 111 priced between $100,000 and $200,000, and more than 80 of those are in Ingham County, primarily in Lansing. For residents wanting to buy homes in Eaton and Clinton counties, or the more affluent areas of Ingham County, the vast majority of homes will be priced between $200,000 and $400,000 or more.
The Amazon and Ultium developments are expected to create more than 2,200 jobs by the end of 2025.
There aren’t enough homes
Like the rest of Michigan, the low supply of quality housing is a big driver of increased housing costs, said Hillary Doe, Michigan’s chief growth officer.
She cited Federal Reserve Bank data, from Chicago’s branch, showing that Michigan needs to figure out housing before it can grow. That’s going to take fixing up old homes, building new single family homes and standing up new apartment buildings, Doe said. The downtown Lansing area added at least 600 housing units in the last two and a half years with hundreds more that are under construction.
There simply aren’t enough housing units, and that lack of options causes housing costs to rise, said Amy Hovey, CEO and executive director of the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, which offers programs for renters, owners and developers.
“The big issue we have in our state is supply, we don’t have enough housing to meet our needs and we can’t just build our way out of it without some incentives or subsidies,” she said.
State housing leaders announced earlier this month a new statewide grant program with $60 million to fix dilapidated homes or build new ones.
Doe came to Lansing a few days later, for a separate housing announcement for new apartments units at the REO Gateway Apartments, at Washington Avenue and Malcolm X Street, beside Interstate 496.
A fourth building at REO Gateway, that will rely on state funding, was announced. It will have two dozen new units, in addition to the complex’s 72 existing units, which started opening for lease last year.
The apartments took about a decade to build from the concept, said developer Brett Forsberg.
That timeline needs to be dramatically compressed, he said, if Michigan wants to build more housing.
How many houses do we need?
State data puts the number of new homes that need to be built at around 7,500 in Greater Lansing.
Alan Fox, Ingham County’s treasurer and a board member of the Ingham County Land Bank, said the number may be closer to 10,000, but coming anywhere close to either number would take many years and plenty of effort.
Fletcher said Delta Township has gotten serious, and creative, about opening up housing options in preparation for the township’s new employers.
The township has recently changed its ordinances to allow for more variety of homes — like smaller cottage homes and more permissive multi-family projects — and is working to expand sewer access to open development in the western parts, Fletcher said.
The township recently approved an expansion that would nearly double one of the area’s larger apartment complexes, adding another 354 units in 11 new buildings.
Developers have been more interested in apartments and multi-family units than neighborhoods of single-family homes, potentially because of the current interest and construction costs, he said.
Some of that may be changing soon.
Even as costs remain high, the number of new home permits in February was 38% higher than February 2023. That may be, in part, a one-time statistical blip because of potential new state regulations and a mild winter, said Bob Filka, CEO of the Home Builders Association of Michigan.
“There are too few housing options available and we’ve had a mild winter,” Filka said. “This, along with the potential of significant new housing costs being imposed by LARA (Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs) later this year, with new costly proposed code requirements, explains the acceleration we’re seeing.”
He said builders worry that sprinklers and other potential code requirements could increase costs for a single home by $20,000 or more.
Filka said regulatory and construction costs already make it “usually impossible to build a home for less than $350,000 or $400,000 and make money in the mid-Michigan market.”
Not even $15 billion would fix it
Fox said the housing shortage is a $15 billion problem, assuming 7,500 homes could be built for a likely unrealistic $200,000 each. But it would still be difficult, if not impossible, to find the people, the material and the land to do it in a reasonable time period.
The county doesn’t have billions. It does have $9 million remaining in pandemic money dedicated toward housing and county commissioners are starting to float a proposal to add a county millage to support housing.
The existing money won’t go far if the county builds homes; it’d be a few dozen houses.
So instead, Fox and county officials are planning to use it to fund educational programs, attract private investment and otherwise try to stretch the money.
Encouraging homeowners to keep up with repairs, connecting investors with local real estate options and helping renters to save up money are some of the ways the area’s housing situation will get better, he said.
And nonprofits will play a role.
It will take several years for the homes Sparrow Health System once bought for possible expansion of health facilities to be rehabbed, said Brent Taylor, executive director of Habitat for Humanity Capital Region, adding that his organization is about six months into that process. They are working on about half of the homes.
For the Sparrow homes, Taylor said it was important to renovate those as single-family homes. Having a broad mix of housing — rentals, single-family homes and others — is important, although one of the gaps in the market now is single-family homes, he said. Many of the homes Sparrow donated were split over the years into duplexes and will be converted back into large single-family homes.
The homes tick all the boxes for Josh Hamilton, who lives in the neighborhood and works for University of Michigan Health-Sparrow. As he waited for the school bus to drop off kids Monday, Hamilton said he wanted the vacant homes to be fixed up and owner-occupied so he’ll have some new neighbors soon.
“I’m excited to see it happen,” Hamilton said.
‘We can’t just build our way out of it’
The state has been in a housing crisis for years, Hovey said.
“We can’t just build our way out of it without some incentives or subsidies because of what it costs for people to build,” Hovey said. “Because what it costs to build, the average Michigander can’t afford to pay.”
The incentives and subsidies would come from a variety of state and federal programs, along with municipal and county-level programs. There are so many options that working with a local housing agency can help people find programs, Hovey said.
She said the state’s efforts at attracting jobs are running into problems because potential recruits can’t always find housing. That means companies sometimes pull out of Michigan plans or don’t consider the state due to a lack of housing.
“You cannot imagine how frustrating it is for an employee to have to pull out of a job, and say they can’t find housing so they can’t take that job,” Hovey said. “That happens across our state, including in Lansing.”
Rawley Van Fossen, Lansing’s director of economic development and planning, said the Capital Area Housing Partnership, Habitat for Humanity Capital Region, the Ingham County Land Bank and Eastside Community Action Center are four of the groups doing the work on the former Sparrow homes. Together they can probably do dozens a year, welcome relief for some but it doesn’t go far enough.
Fixing up those homes — and others like them in Lansing, which has many homes 75 years old or older — will often cost more than they will be valued at afterward, said Van Fossen, who until recently was the executive director of the Capital Area Housing Partnership.
Van Fossen said it can cost a homeowner or a property developer a few hundred thousand dollars to buy a Lansing property, get the professional planning work necessary for the renovation, get permits, hire a contractor and pay for the renovation. At the end, the home may appraise for $170,000, on a good day, he said.
“There’s a gap,” he said, acknowledging a major factor that can keep people from improving homes in Lansing. “A private developer or someone who is not mission based, they’re not going to do that. We can’t rely on our nonprofits.”
Most people will need more financial support.
He said some of the city’s best tools are education and connections to a wide variety of financial supports: Teaching real estate and financial literacy at community centers and being able to walk people through the permitting and construction process. The state offers several programs to help fund repairs, renovations, new homeowners, early-stage developers and large-scale developments.
Utility companies can also offer incentives for appliances and modernizations, Van Fossen said.
Anyone who wants to do significant renovations for themselves, or even get into developing houses or flipping them, can go to Lansing’s offices and get some help with the wide variety of programs, Van Fossen said.
To get more affordable housing, Filka suggests density like smaller lots and multi-family options like townhomes or duplexes, as well as taking advantage of state subsidies like tax credits and construction subsidies.
Contact Mike Ellis at mellis@lsj.com or 517-267-0415
HILLSDALE — Hillsdale’s leaders joined with representatives from Portage-based Allen Edwin Homes Monday for a groundbreaking ceremony on Hidden Meadows Drive where middle-income housing for the workforce will be built.
Allen Edwin Homes first came to the city in the fall of 2023 with their plan to build three duplex-style residential units that will ultimately house six families with occupancy available in early 2025.
The project is the first in Hillsdale to take advantage of new state legislation which allows developers to seek payment in lieu of taxes agreements with municipalities in order to entice housing development.
The council approved a 10-percent PILOT payment over 15 years for Allen Edwin Homes’ project in Hillsdale, which came under scrutiny of Councilman Joshua Paladino when the council took up the issue on Nov. 20, 2023.
Paladino, who opposed the concept of the PILOT payments, ultimately voted no on the resolution to allow the project to proceed while the rest of the council voted aye.
“Hillsdale is experiencing a surge of energy as investment in the community continues to grow,” Brian Farkas, director of workforce housing for Allen Edwin Homes, said. “Allen Edwin Homes is thrilled to be part of this momentum by bringing more housing to Hillsdale.”
Previously, the PILOT incentive only applied to developments qualifying for low-income housing tax credits, which typically involve large apartment complexes. By contrast, this new tool can be applied to smaller apartment developments and single-family homes, city officials said.
The agreement with the city requires Allen Edwin to keep rents affordable to families earning up to 120% of the median household income for 15 years.
“We are excited to be working with Allen Edwin Homes to bring additional housing options to Hillsdale,” Hillsdale Mayor Adam Stockford said. “Housing is a need, not only in Hillsdale but across the entire state. This project builds on the recent growth we’ve been seeing as investors realize the opportunity our community has to offer.”
A state housing report published in 2022 found approximately 47% of the state’s housing units are more than 50 years old and that Michigan needs 190,000 more units to meet current housing needs. The report also found, as of 2019, about 26% of Michigan residents were considered “housing-cost burdened” because they spent more than 30 percent of their income on housing.
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“Preserving our aging housing stock and developing new units are both critically important to tackle our housing shortage and grow our local economy,” Hillsdale City Manager David Mackie said. “These new homes will help address the need for affordable housing for working class families, young professionals, or retiring residents who are looking to downsize. This project is a significant step forward.”
The developer has proposed for the second phase a mix of “for sale” and rental single-family homes on the remaining acreage in the Three Meadows Subdivision they currently have under exclusive option.
— Contact Reporter Corey Murray atcmurray@hillsdale.net or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @cmurrayHDN.
Coastal Georgia’s boom in new industries, coupled with its population increase, has forced local authorities to pause and take into account where the influx of newcomers holding these new gigs will lay their head at night. Chatham County alone, for example, has a housing deficit of 9,300-10,000 units, especially to support workforce housing for those making 60% to 120%. of area median income.
The Savannah Economic Development Authority (SEDA) is teaming up with Georgia Tech for a Comprehensive Coastal Georgia Housing study, which was introduced during SEDA’s monthly meeting Tuesday. The research will take inventory of the housing stock in Bryan, Bulloch, Chatham and Effingham counties, as well as the city of Savannah to determine the best areas for housing growth.
What does a housing study do?
Each county and the City of Savannah will pay $20,000 for the study. A state grant worth $100,000 will go toward the project.
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Betsy McGriff of the Center for Economic Development Research at Georgia Tech said this kind of research is imperative to ensure communities are built to grow over time.
“We do this to make sure your infrastructure can handle the development you propose,” said McGriff. “What we are doing will be a community engaged process.”
Can laborers afford to live here?
There is one major issue looming regarding the housing boom that is expected to occur. Many of the homes in the area are out of reach financially.
“You look at wages and if there’s a mismatch between wages on the market and the cost of homes, that might be considered in terms of what you try to drive as far as construction,” said McGriff. “If the demographic shows a certain area has a one-person household, you may consider smaller homes. The government can issue a request for proposal and work with the development authority to drive the kind of development they want to public property [that they own]. The big piece is, time is money. The more you can streamline that process – you can drive down the cost of development.”
According to the real estate website Redfin, the average home prices in each county are:
- Bryan County: $430,000
- Bulloch County: $265,000
- Chatham County: $352,000
- Effingham County: $318,000
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, however, the average median household income across the four-county region is shy of $75,000, which means most households could not afford a home above $245,000 without being cost burdened.
Georgia Congressman Buddy Carter said during a previous interview that the state has been “addressing” the need for funding to go towards workforce housing.
“That’s extremely important,” said Carter. “Federal funds have been flowing through the state to address that. We are going to make sure they have what they need.”
Carter did not provide a dollar amount.
While some counties allow the market to determine the price of homes, McGriff said there are ways to mitigate the cost. She said it is important to attract developments that “the CEO and the security guard can afford.”
McGriff said she grew up in a rural community and understands the hardships that come with change and said that community character will be considered as Georgia Tech conducts its research.
She added that because Georgia is a property rights state, owners, for the most part, have control over their land.
“You can’t shut the gate and tell people not to come. What you can do is drive development to the places where services are appropriate and preserve green spaces. We are cognizant of that but we also want to be welcoming of people that are investing in the community. You have to balance that out.”
The study is slated to be complete by October.
Latrice Williams is a general assignment reporter covering Bryan and Effingham County. She can be reached at lwilliams6@gannett.com.
In Brenda Williams’ 35-year career in public housing, she has seen a lot. From the front lines of moving families into new homes to strategic planning sessions in board rooms, Williams makes it her business to ensure that affordable housing is within reach of everyone she can. “Housing is a life necessity,” she says, “and anything I can do to help people obtain it inspires me.”
This commitment to the wellbeing and safety of others has made her a trusted leader and subject matter expert, as well as one of Tallahassee’s 25 Women You Need to Know in 2024.
Williams chose Tallahassee. After working her way to the role of executive director of the St. Louis, MO, Housing Authority, serving as Transitional Administrator for the Camden New Jersey Housing Authority, and finally serving as the Chief of Staff for the New Orleans Housing Authority, she spent another 14 years in consulting work, providing strategic management services to housing agencies throughout the southwest. “I was in and out of 52 housing authorities over the course of 35 years,” she says.
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She decided it was time to make a home for herself. “I was tired of traveling every week,” she said. “And after growing up in the Midwest, I chose Tallahassee because of the weather.”
Now, she enjoys her current role of executive director of the Tallahassee Housing Authority, a job she embraces for its nuances and purpose. “My day often begins with text messages from people looking for a home,” she says. “When I can help someone find housing, it’s a good day. I just wish I was able to help everyone.”
To that end, she is a volunteer for Tallahassee Crime Solvers as a board member. “I want to be part of the solution in the neighborhoods that are often served by my work,” she said.
Much of her time is spent working on the $82 million redevelopment of the former Orange Avenue Apartments. “Moving someone into an apartment and off of the street is the most rewarding part of my work,” she says. “I like what I do because it’s an opportunity to change lives for the better and helps to make communities thrive.”
Construction on the second phase is projected to be complete in June, and she looks forward to moving families back into their new homes.
She always knew she wanted to work in social services, and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and a Master’s in Sociology/Social Work from Lincoln University. “I immediately went into my first job as section 8 coordinator in the St. Louis Housing Authority,” she said. “Back then, urban planning was not a field of study.”
Williams chose Tallahassee for the weather, and she stays because of the community. “The people in Tallahassee are kind and caring,” she says. “I love cooking for my friends, entertaining, and being at home!”
Seeing opportunity and hope for affordable housing in Tallahassee, Williams hopes that we will keep our eye on the prize. “The most important thing Tallahassee can do is stay focused on looking for creative ways to provide housing that is affordable in today’s economy,” she said. “All we have to do is stay focused on what is possible.”
David Buntjer was 18 when he died in September 2022, five months after welcoming the Statesman Journal into his Salem apartment to talk about the work he and other teens were doing to help other homeless youth.
On Wednesday a crowd celebrated the opening of a new transitional shelter in Monmouth bearing his name.
David’s House initially will provide transitional housing for five Polk County youth, and eventually house up to 10. Teens will be able to stay up to two years or until they graduate high school and turn 18.
It will serve as a stopgap between emergency shelters and permanent support. On-site staff will support the youth 24 hours a day, including helping with homework and chores or giving rides to appointments.
“Every kiddo deserves to grow up in a neighborhood,” said Christopher Lopez, associate program director at Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Alliance.
In 2022, there were an estimated 1,500 youth in the Mid-Valley experiencing homelessness at any given time. Buntjer was one of them.
During the sentencing of the man convicted of shooting and killing his father a couple of months before Buntjer died, he said his father’s death was the hardest thing he had gone through and his difficulties with housing and feeling secure. In an earlier interview he recalled being threatened with a machete after asking older people if he and his peers could sleep near them.
Buntjer was part of Backbone, a youth advisory board involved in the implementation of Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project funding via a $3.7 million U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant to the Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Alliance.
Backbone members are experiencing homelessness or youth at risk of experiencing homelessness and they provided input for a 2022 Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Alliance plan to to end youth homelessness.
David’s House will be the first program of its kind in Polk County
The Monmouth property was purchased in 2023 for $650,000. Repairs and updates of the property followed before a Wednesday ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Lopez said the location of the home was intentional. Services are often concentrated in more urban centers and youth are traditionally forced to travel to Salem for services. That removes them from the communities where they live.
“That induces trauma,” Lopez said.
David’s House will be the first program of its kind in Polk County.
“This is a big deal,” Polk County Commissioner Jeremy Gordon said Wednesday. “We want to take care of people where they are.”
Jimmy Jones, executive director of the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency, referred to the youth-specific shelter as a “very, very rare thing.”
Megan Perez, program manager at MWVCAA, said the goal is for the house to feel like a home setting rather than a facility.
There’s a resource room upstairs where youth will be able to find clothes and decor so they can make the space their own. A large deck is available in the backyard along with garden boxes. There are donated acoustic guitars in the living room.
Buntjer’s family has remained involved in the development of David’s House. They donated bikes and other supplies because they knew how passionate Buntjer had been about opening spaces like this, Perez said.
Two portraits of Buntjer greet visitors and residents at the home. Friday, MWVCAA will host a vigil to honor David and other youth.
Dianne Lugo covers the Oregon Legislature and equity issues. Reach her at dlugo@statesmanjournal.com or on X @DianneLugo
Baltimore officials approved a program that would sell city-owned vacant homes for as little as $1.
The city’s Board of Estimates voted on the program during a meeting on Wednesday morning, despite pushback from City Council President Nick Mosby.
The board passed the new pricing structure for city-owned vacant homes on the “Buy Into BMore” website in a four-to-one vote where Mosby was the sole opposition.
Baltimore has over 13,500 vacant properties, nearly 900 of which are owned by the city, according to the Department of Housing and Community Development.
The fixed-price program would only apply to certain city-owned properties, according to a page on DHCD’s website.
Buyers need to promise to fix up the homes
Those purchasing a home in the program must promise to renovate the property and have at least $90,000 to fix it up. Owners must also move in within a year, and stay in the home for five years.
During Wednesday’s meeting, Mosby said the program does not have guardrails written in place that would ensure city residents had priority to buy these homes and won’t be forced out of these neighborhoods when their conditions improve.
“If affordability and affordable home ownership and equity and all of the nice words we like to use are really at the core competency as it relates to property disposition, this is a really bad policy,” Mosby said. “This is a bad policy because it doesn’t protect or prioritize the rights of folks in these communities.”
Who can buy a home for $1?
As part of the program, only individual buyers and community land trusts would be able to purchase the properties for $1. Nonprofits with 50 or fewer employees would pay $1,000 while developers and nonprofits with more than 50 employees would have to pay $3,000.
Ohio homebuilders are pushing state lawmakers to eliminate local zoning referendums, create a tax-abatement program that doesn’t require school-board approval, and other policies that would make it easier for companies to build more homes.
They say the lack of new homes is slowing growth in central Ohio and that builders are not meeting demand statewide.
“For the last 15 years in central Ohio, we’ve underbuilt,” said Kenny McDonald, president and CEO of the Columbus Partnership economic development organization. “Supply and demand are just out of balance.”
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The Building Industry Association of Central Ohio’s report, “Ohio Housing Policy White Paper: Strategies to Address Ohio’s Housing and Economic Challenges,” was presented Wednesday morning at the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.
It recommends several policy changes. Among them:
- Create a Governor’s Housing Council that would include developers, local government, business and community leaders who would advise the governor on how Ohio can address the housing crisis, establish housing as a statewide concern, and adopt a comprehensive strategy for housing development.
- Regulate small, non-limited home rule township zoning at the state level that would put zoning in the hands of county government.
- Enact state legislation that permits residential development where retail zoning now exists.
- Create a new Ohio Housing Infrastructure Fund of $250 million to offer competitive grants for large and small cities to build dense residential projects.
- Increase the amount of funding from $100 million a year to $400 million for the state’s Transformational Mixed Use District Program.
- Eliminate referendums for zoning decisions.
“Local zoning decisions in Ohio involve a substantial amount of time, public input, public hearings, and ultimately a vote by local government officials,” the paper says. “Permitting a referendum vote on the zoning decision among voters, the majority of which will not have access to any of the facts related to the zoning decision, creates an unpredictable business model for the creation of residential development.”
The report said that Indiana, Tennessee, and Texas do not use referendums for local zoning decisions, and that 22 states do not have any initiative or referendum process.
“There are simply too many boxes to check to get a house built in central Ohio,” said Jon Melchi, executive director of the central Ohio BIA.
The report, prepared by The Montrose Group LLC, a Columbus-based economic development and lobbying company, said central Ohio needs to build 18,000 homes and apartments a year to keep up with demand but is taking out only 13,000 permits, which drives up housing costs.
“We need housing of all stripes and shapes in Ohio,” Melchi said.
The lack of new homes, the report claims, contributed to central Ohio’s population growing 17.4% over the past decade, lagging metro areas of Charlotte (56%), Austin (40%), Nashville (28%) and Indianapolis (21%).
More:As Columbus booms, its suburbs limit affordable housing options
The group also wants the state to give cities and counties the power to sign off on residential tax abatements without school board approval.
“News reports are full of local school boards denying approval for large-scale economic development projects all over the state of Ohio,” the report says. “In some cases, these school districts are in Licking County and are denying residential development that could build workforce housing needed for workers at the planned Intel facility.”
The report also recommends extending and expanding tax credit programs, creating an Ohio Rural Housing Loan Program, and streamlining Ohio’s property tax appraisal system.
Some communities have also said a lack of housing is hindering economic development efforts. In October, the Union County Chamber of Commerce released a statement that the county had more than 8,300 unfilled jobs and an average home-sale price of more than $430,000.
“Ultimately, if employers cannot find workers to fill these positions, the community decides to slow housing development, and the home sale price point stays at $430K+, our community’s quality of life will be in peril,” the county chamber said.
Meanwhile, Columbus officials are in the midst of revamping the city’s 70-year-old zoning code that would make it easier for developers to build housing, and which concerns some who believe they won’t have enough of a say as to what is built in their areas. The city has also expanded tax abatements for new housing throughout the city, instead of in blighted pockets.
mferench@dispatch.com
@MarkFerenchik
jweiker@dispatch.com
@jimweiker
The Knoxville City Council will vote Jan. 23 on the missing middle housing plan that could bring more housing to a city facing a housing crunch.
Amid rising prices, not enough affordable housing, a growing population and challenging interest rates, these proposed changes would make it easier to build nontraditional homes that take up less space.
The plan could add thousands of new homes, as 2,039 empty lots would be eligible for missing middle housing under this plan. These multi-unit homes — like townhomes, duplexes and triplexes — would fit in the footprint of a single-family home and be built in certain city neighborhoods.
Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon unveiled her plan in August.
The council can edit this plan, and it would require a second vote.
Where Knoxville’s missing middle housing would be built
Kincannon’s plan creates a new zoning structure in Knoxville’s Traditional Residential Zones, about 25% of the city. These zones include historic neighborhoods such as Mechanicsville, Fourth and Gill, and Parkridge.
If a developer wants to build missing middle housing in those areas, these new codes would allow for more homes to be built per lot.
Developers also would be required to provide fewer parking spaces, only 0.7 parking spaces per unit or none at all if the homes are within a quarter-mile of a public transit line.
If the council approves and only makes small changes, such as tweaking parking space minimums, the plan could move forward to the second vote, Knoxville Chief Policy Officer Cheryl Ball told Knox News.
The plan would have to be sent back to the Knoxville-Knox County Planning Commission for further review if there’s a major edit, such as expanding the code beyond just Traditional Residential Zones.
If the council approves the plan, it will vote on it again Feb. 6, Knoxville City Recorder Will Johnson said. If it’s voted down, there won’t be a second reading and the plan would fail.
Why Knoxville proposed housing code changes
After Kincannon unveiled her plan, the city held three public input sessions to inform the community and hear concerns.
The Knoxville-Knox County Planning Commission decided that wasn’t enough time for the public to learn about the plan, and in October it delayed approving the plan by 60 days.
During that time, the city held dozens of public meetings, from open houses to one-on-one meetings with developers and neighborhood leaders, and made three major changes to the plan:
- Allowing duplexes to also be built in RN-1 zones.
- Reducing parking space minimums for within a quarter-mile of a public transit line.
- Reducing lot width minimums for fourplexes.
Students at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville School of Architecture showed off some creative designs for missing middle housing at a public event in December, showing Knoxville what this type of housing could look like.
The planning commission approved the mayor’s plan in December, making a few edits that further reduced parking minimums and increased setback variances, allowing buildings to be built closer to their property lines.
Silas Sloan is the growth and development reporter. Emailsilas.sloan@knoxnews.com. Twitter@silasloan. Instagram@knox.growth.
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Family members, lower income bidders, tenants and community development corporations will have an easier time purchasing foreclosed homes after Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill Friday that overhauls the sheriff’s sale process.
Under the Community Wealth Preservation Program (A5664/S4240), New Jersey homeowners experiencing foreclosure, their next of kin, or tenants living in a foreclosed property would have “the right of first refusal” — or first shot when the property goes up for auction — at the upset price, which is the minimum price a seller would accept. That typically includes the outstanding mortgage, interest, fees and other costs.
The law aims to give lower-income families a leg up against large investment companies buying and flipping single-family homes at a growing rate. It lets a foreclosed-upon family, their family members, or tenants of the property to put down 3.5% at the auction, as opposed to the 20% deposit usually required.
“Black and brown wealth is hemorrhaging through the loss of foreclosed property, and the people who live in the community often do not have deep enough pockets to even participate in the foreclosure process,” said state Sen. Britnee Timberlake, D-Essex, the lead sponsor of the bill.
More:Bill headed to Murphy would help low-income bidders buy foreclosed homes in NJ more easily
“This bill is a creative opportunity for families to save their wealth at the time of a foreclosure sale by using financing,” Timberlake said. “This legislation also levels the playing field for renters, affordable housing nonprofit developers and people who want to purchase an abandoned home to restore and live in or to create affordability. This is what equity in systems look like.”
In September 2022, Murphy conditionally vetoed a similar bill (A793/S1427), writing he “wholeheartedly” supported the overarching objectives of the bill, but that he had “serious reservations regarding the legality, practicality, and unintended consequences of several of the proposed mechanisms for achieving these goals.”
New bill after Murphy’s conditional veto
In the conditional veto, he asked lawmakers to rework language dealing with caps to auction prices, and properties that don’t sell at sheriff’s sales, among other things. He struck out a section of the bill that said the upset price — or minimum price accepted by a bank — must be capped at no higher than 50% of the outstanding mortgage, interest, fees or other costs owed.
Lawmakers reintroduced a new version of the bill, as opposed to voting to accept the language, or overriding the veto, and took out the 50% cap language.
More:Murphy conditionally vetoes bill to overhaul home foreclosure. What he wants changed
“That’s the key difference and that’s the reason our opposition was redrawn and we’re neutral on it,” said Michael Affuso, head of the New Jersey Bankers Association. “That was clearly problematic, that everyone could decide to default so they could get their principal reduced.
“When something like that could happen, government-sponsored entities like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could look and say, ‘Wait a second, every mortgage that we own in New Jersey is potentially worth significantly less than we think it’s worth, so we’re just not going to buy mortgages in New Jersey,'” Affuso said.
The bill Murphy signed on Friday also gave the right of first refusal to tenants of foreclosed-upon properties, which was not included in the previous bill, and required upset prices be made public at least four weeks before the sheriff’s sale, among other small changes.
How it works
For those who put down a 3.5% deposit at the auction, the rest would be owed within 90 days by cash, certified or cashier’s check, or wire transfer. They can pay with financing if they plan to use the home as their primary residence for at least seven years, and provide proof they have been pre-approved by a financial institution.
They must live in the home for at least seven years, though there are a handful of hardship exemptions for homeowners, like if the bidder or their spouse or child dies, the bidder becomes disabled or loses income.
A nonprofit community development corporation would have the second right of refusal if it agrees in writing to buy the property for the foreclosed upon family, their next of kin, or the tenant. The organization must negotiate an affordable lease for the family and give them the option to buy the property back from the organization.
“For too many, the dream of homeownership feels far out of reach,” Murphy said. “We are creating a new avenue to homeownership for individuals and families throughout New Jersey, giving many the opportunity to remain in the homes and communities they cherish while also protecting our neighborhoods from rapid investor-driven homebuying.”