October 6, 2004. The Columbus Dispatch.
Thousands of Franklin County’s poorest people need better housing, and the trust fund created in part to meet that need isn’t doing enough to serve them, an advocacy group said yesterday.
The Columbus/Franklin County AffordableHousing Trust Corp. isn’t focusing enough on the area’s poorest people, said BREAD — Building Responsibility, Equality and Dignity — adding to the criticism it has levied against the trust fund in the past. According to the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University, which prepared a report for BREAD, Franklin County needs about 55,000 more homes for the area’s poorest residents.
The trust, which has received tax money from Columbus and Franklin County since its creation in 2001, needs to help build affordablehousing for families with incomes of $19,140 or less, the group said. That’s 30 percent of the area’s median income of $63,800 for a family of four.
According to the report, 68,000 poor households in Franklin County fall into that category. But according to the trust fund’s 2003 annual report, none of the 739 dwellings the trust helped build during its three years are affordable for those households.
The group also wants the trust fund, which acts as a lender and investor, to track the income range of the residents in its developments to ensure that only low-income residents benefit from the projects.
Since 2001, the trust fund has supported 454 new rental units and 285 owner-occupied homes, according to its 2003 annual report, although by now the trust has supported more than 1,000 new homes. About 90 percent are affordable for those who earn less than $31,900 for a family of four.
Mary Brooks, director of the housing trust program for the Center for Community Change and a national expert on housing trusts, said the city-county trust fund needs to focus on where the need is the greatest.
“If I were a taxpayer, I would ask why tax dollars aren’t being used for the most in need,” said Brooks, whose organization has advised BREAD.
Trust fund President Warren Tyler said the fund’s goals are not only to provide housing for low- and moderate-income residents, but also to build more homes near job centers. Tyler also doesn’t believe it’s the trust’s place to check income levels of residents. He said it is not a retail lender.
“BREAD has a different perspective,” Tyler said. “Their point of view is simply different than what we signed on to.”
Columbus Development Director Mark Barbash said he’s been impressed with what the trust fund has accomplished.
“I think we were clear about the mission of the trust corporation from the start,” he said.
That mission, Columbus Councilwoman Charleta B. Tavares said, was to build housing for poor residents and to stabilize and re-energize central-city neighborhoods by increasing homeownership.
“Many trust funds don’t have those goals,” said Tavares, who leads the council’s health, housing and human services committee. Stable neighborhoods attract businesses, which create jobs for residents, she said.
Ed Hoffman, BREAD’s housing chairman, said the group wants candidates for county commissioner to focus on this issue before the November election.
When the city created the fund in February 2001, officials pledged that half the money would go to housing for families that make less than $38,280 a year. Tyler said the trust fund met that goal.
Mayor Michael B. Coleman pushed for the fund’s creation, and the city and county have committed money each year for the revolving loan fund. This year, the county gave $1 million and the city $785,000, Tyler said.
Two years ago, BREAD also said the trust needed to target more of its projects toward the poorest residents. Brooks then criticized the fund for using tax money to support market-rate projects.
