Ohio Sen. Michele Reynolds, R-Canal Winchester, left, and Sen. Matt Huffman, R-Lima listen to testimony Monday at the Ohio Senate Select Committee on Housing hearing at the Rhodes State Borra Center for Health Sciences.
Craig Kelly | The Lima News
LIMA — The topic of housing has been the subject of numerous discussions and debates in both the public and private sectors, both locally and at the state level. On Monday, Lima became a focal point for that discussion as the Ohio Senate’s Select Committee on Housing met at Rhodes State College’s Borra Center for Health Sciences.
The session lasted for several hours and featured testimony and discussion representing both the public and private sectors, with topics ranging from addressing a lack of quality housing available in the region to bridging the housing gap for low and middle-income residents to examining the effect of housing issues on business and economic development to examining the impact of lead paint in older homes.
The committee’s stop in Lima on Monday was part of a series of sessions held throughout the state over the past five months. For committee chair Sen. Michele Reynolds, R-Canal Winchester, the sessions have shown her just how unique the circumstances and challenges related to housing are in different areas of Ohio.
“It’s a very complex problem,” Reynolds said. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Some things we’re hearing that are very common are that there’s a lack of supply of housing. However, in urban communities, there are different challenges than there are in rural communities. The reality is that, overall in Ohio, we need to do something to make housing more accessible and affordable.”
Numerous ideas and proposals were brought up during Monday’s meeting, ranging from providing grants for aspiring homeowners to tax abatements or credits for developers constructing new homes to ramping up investment in infrastructure to accommodate new housing construction. Questions regarding how involved state and local governments should be were raised or whether the private sector should take the lead in housing development.
Lima Mayor Sheretta Smith offered multiple proposals during her committee testimony, including investing in grants for housing rehabilitation, down payment assistance and homelessness prevention programs and addressing gap financing for developers.
“Particularly in Lima, there is a need for affordable housing, there’s a need for workforce housing and there’s a need for market rate housing,” she said. “It’s not a but/for approach, but it is an and/and what else we can do when it comes to housing.”
Reynolds said she hopes her committee will have recommendations for the Ohio Legislature to consider by February or March, but she envisions state government serving as a resource hub to help spur housing development.
“We are going to step up and look at some low-hanging fruit of what we can do to help the problem,” she said. “But we’re also looking, and we heard from our Senate president [Matt Huffman, R-Lima] today, that if the state were to put together resources, then it would be something that would allow local communities, local governments to be able to access at their level for whatever it is they need. If it’s infrastructure improvements, then they get access to grant dollars for that. If it’s for training and technical assistance, they can potentially access grant dollars for that.”
