RISING RENT: How can Jackson keep up with the rising cost of rent?

• Video shows Rachael Wingle, Board Chair of the Affordable Housing Commission Board, sharing her thoughts on the state of rent cost in Jackson.
• Wingle says rent has risen about 10-12% in the past year.
• The City of Jackson has partnered with an Ohio-based affordable housing developer, to bring two new affordable housing apartments downtown.

"I know across the board, we need housing for everybody," says Rachael Wingle, Board Chair of the Affordable Housing Development Board. She says rent has gone up about 10-12% in the past year, in Jackson.
"We're seeing great tenants starting to get further and further behind, and once you get three or four months behind, it's very difficult to get caught back up," says Wingle.

With half of Jackson's population being renters, according to Wingle, it has neighbors wondering how prices have gotten this high.

One part being demand, the other part being lack of inventory. Wingle explains, "If you look at the average age of a city home in Jackson, it's over 100 years old. You're looking at deferred maintenance, investors are not putting money back into their properties like they should. The quality of houses is dropping, so once those houses leave the housing stock, they're not getting replenished."

The city has started to tackle this issue by partnering with developers to construct two new affordable apartments coming to downtown: The Greenwood and The Blackstone. The City of Jackson's Aaron Dimick says, "These two developments are offered to people of low to moderate income or workforce housing. People who work in healthcare, education, or the service industry; we want this to be affordable to them."

The developers working on this project are based out of Ohio and specialize in affordable housing developments. They say these units will bring more than 100 one to three bedroom units that they say are substantially below market rent.

Though new apartments will start to fill the gap, Wingle hopes to see more options for all of Jackson's populations: "Across the board, we have a very diverse population of city residents and we need to offer a diverse inventory for rentals, as well. Focusing more on single-family and more duplexes to serve our families. I think that'd be huge."

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