Resolve to welcome new neighbors!
Register today: Author talk with Shane Phillips on Jan. 13
Join us for N4MN’s first virtual event—a lunchtime talk about housing solutions on Jan. 13.
Join the Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio and Neighbors for More Neighbors Columbus for a lunchtime event with Shane Phillips, author of The Affordable City.
About The Affordable City
- From Los Angeles to Boston and Chicago to Miami, U.S. cities are struggling to address the twin crises of high housing costs and household instability.
- Debates over the appropriate course of action have been defined by two poles: building more housing or enacting stronger tenant protections. These options are often treated as mutually exclusive, with support for one implying opposition to the other.
Shane believes that effectively tackling the housing crisis requires that cities support both tenant protections and housing abundance.
- He offers readers more than 50 policy recommendations, beginning with a set of principles and general recommendations that should apply to all housing policy.
- The remaining recommendations are organized by what he calls the Three S’s of Supply, Stability, and Subsidy.
The Affordable City is an essential tool for professionals and advocates working to improve affordability and increase community resilience through local action.
A couple things you may have missed
City of Columbus’ Zoning Code Assessment (Oct. 20, 2021)
- This event marks the culmination of the first phase of the city’s zoning code assessment. The consulting team presented their key findings and answered questions.
- Watch the presentation here
Author talk for Boomtown Columbus hosted by Columbus Metropolitan Library (Dec. 9, 2021)
- Book: Boomtown Columbus: Ohio’s Sunbelt City and How Developers Got Their Way
- Pioneering geographer and author of Boomtown Columbus, Kevin R. Cox takes us through the postwar history of development in Columbus to discuss how developers got their way.
- Watch the event here.
Here are some of things N4MN did in 2021
- Organized pro-housing rally at the site of the former Giant Eagle in Schumacher Place
- Submitted letter of support to Columbus City Council for “Housing for All” legislative package
- Gathered supporters for an informal happy hour at Land-Grant in October
- Submitted letter of opposition to German Village Commission for single-family home development.
- Submitted letter of support to Columbus City Council for affordable housing development in South Linden
- Submitted letters of support to Development Commission of the City of Columbus for multiple housing projects, including affordable units.
- Printed hundreds of yard signs in two designs for distribution
- Offered continual updates to supporters on the City of Columbus’ assessment of its zoning code.
- Reached out to supporters and built a page of testimonials showcasing why residents throughout Central Ohio support the goals of N4MN Columbus
Handpicked housing news you might be able to use.
If you have fun links to share, please send them our way!
- New affordable housing under construction in Whitehall
Columbus Business First, 20 Oct. 2021 - How the pandemic changed the rules of buying and selling a home
Columbus Dispatch, 25 Oct. 2021 - Columbus to spend balance of $50 million from bond package on affordable housing
Columbus Dispatch, 28 Oct. 2021 - Despite Building Supply Shortage, M/I Homes Isn’t Slowing Down with Housing Developments
Columbus Monthly, 29 Oct. 2021 - New affordable housing development in Columbus will list rent as low as $350 a month
Fox 28 WSYX, 15 Nov. 2021 - With many still working from home, Columbus office space sits empty
Columbus Dispatch, 24 Nov. 2021 - Theodore Decker: Not everyone sharing in excitement of Columbus' hot housing market
Columbus Dispatch, 28 Nov. 2021 - Central Ohio mother struggles to find homes accepting HUD vouchers
Spectrum News 1, 1 Dec. 2021 - United Way to sell Downtown building, seeking buyer who will incorporate affordable housing
Columbus Dispatch, 6 Dec. 2021 - Central Ohio program that helps single mothers move to 'high opportunity' neighborhoods is expanding
Columbus Business First, 6 Dec. 2021 - Columbus forecast to be nation's fifth hottest housing market in 2022
Columbus Dispatch, 7 Dec. 2021 - Several Columbus tenants face eviction with soaring rent prices
NBC4i WCMH, 7 Dec. 2021 - Columbus’ 2020 Census Report: Boom Town
Columbus Monthly, 16 Dec. 2021 - Columbus home sales set record, well before year's end
Columbus Dispatch, 22 Dec. 2021 - Social services nonprofit groups turn Northland hotel into apartments for the homeless
Columbus Dispatch, 26 Dec. 2021 - Residential construction in Columbus: Here's what 2021 looked like
Columbus Business First, 28 Dec. 2021 - Agenda 2022: Homebuilders fighting delays, rising costs as they struggle to meet demand
Columbus Business First, 30 Dec. 2021 - Agenda 2022: Developers bullish on downtown Columbus comeback
Columbus Business First, 30 Dec. 2021 - Letters: Columbus knows how to solve problems. Days numbered for affordable housing crisis.
Columbus Dispatch, 29 Dec. 2021 - 51 Urban Development Projects Announced in 2021
Columbus Underground, 30 Dec. 2021 - Agenda 2022: Homebuilders fighting delays, rising costs as they struggle to meet demand
Columbus Business First, 30 Dec. 2021
Article: Why It’s So Hard to Build Affordable Housing
- Published in Columbus Underground, this explainer with Carlie Boos, Executive Director of the Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio (AHACO), explains housing affordability in a way that helps simplify a complex issue.
- Boos highlights one reason so many new housing projects are targeted at higher income tenants: developers must pay ‘debt service’ on the money they borrow for their projects.
- Similar to how homebuyers pay an interest rate and (sometimes) mortgage insurance for their house, developers have to account for these costs as well. Developers then pass these debt-service costs on to their tenants through monthly rents, and when they can charge higher monthly rents they can pay less of their project toward debt servicing.
The N4MN Perspective
- Until policymakers and financial institutions find a way to make mixed-income housing development viable in all neighborhoods and municipalities without a web of complex subsidies, applications, and competitions among subsidized housing developers, the housing landscape will continue to be dominated by power players who have the most important ingredient in housing development: money.
- At N4MN, we want housing to be built at all price points, while focusing on price points with the most need. We want housing to be built in all neighborhoods and municipalities, especially to help repopulate our historically-dense urban center and offer housing opportunities in communities that have historically excluded people of low-income and people of color.
- Undoing our legacy of exclusion, discrimination, and segregation will take decades—but building more housing is a key part of that proposition.
Show your neighbors you support more housing and welcome new residents!
