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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Nine months after its initial announcement, Columbus City Council gave an update on its strategic initiative to address the city’s housing crisis.
So far, more than $20 million in housing initiatives aimed at affordable housing and protecting renters have been rolled out, with more to come.
“We are taking action now so that when we welcome another million neighbors to our region in the next 25 years, we are ready for it,” council President Shannon Hardin said.
Back in March, council announced an 18-month plan to take on 12 housing initiatives focused on investment, preservation, and inclusion of Columbus’ housing stock. With a commitment to fostering equitable and sustainable housing solutions, council said the city achieved significant milestones, is actively working on remaining initiatives, and has ambitious plans for the future.
“These policies range from third-party payment and pay-to-stay critical rental protections that help tenants prevent an eviction,” Councilmember Shayla Favor, who chairs the city’s housing committee, said.
Favor said additional initiatives include housing developments like Homeport at Easton, more than $90 million in emergency rental assistance, and most notably, legal representation in eviction court.
“This year alone, we’re expecting about 24,000 evictions to be filed, which is up from 18,000 before the pandemic started,” Jyoshu Tsushima, the managing attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Columbus, said. “Evictions are pretty expedited in Ohio. Most tenants are only going to receive a seven-to-10-day notice before their actual eviction trial, and a lot of the tenants may show up to court not realizing that it’s an actual trial and they haven’t studied law.”
Tsushima said the relief he sees on his clients’ faces makes the work worth it.
“There’s nothing more important than a home,” he said. “I mean, in your daily life, whether it’s work, education, just rest recovering from illness, it’s always going to start at home and if you don’t have that, then it’s really difficult to make a place in the world.”
It’s stories like these that city council members said are why this work is needed right now.
“This council believes that people who have lived here their whole lives should not be priced out of their communities,” Hardin said. “We also believe that we need to make those communities accessible for more families. This is a difficult balancing act, but it is one that is possible if we take action now, and that is what we’re doing.”
Council approved Monday night an additional $4 million for housing investments.
Councilmembers said they are committed to both short- and long-term solutions, welcoming input from the public in 2024.
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