Report details increasing gap between Ohio’s rent prices and income

(WKBN) – Full-time workers need to earn at least $20.81 an hour to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment in Ohio, according to a report jointly released Thursday by the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO).

The 2024 Out of Reach report reveals that the gap between renters’ income and the cost of rent has continued to increase over the years. According to the report, of the 10 jobs with the most employees in Ohio, only two earn enough to afford that rent price — general operations managers and registered nurses.

The report is released annually. Last year, the report noted that the wage to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment was $19.09 an hour.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition also has a tool to find how much a person would need to earn to afford a two-bedroom apartment in his or her state. You can find that here .

“There is still a large gap in what people are earning and how much they have to pay for housing,” said COHHIO Executive Director Amy Riegel.

The report also found that in some areas — like Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus — the two-bedroom housing wage is considerably higher than that statewide average.

“I think the most shocking number… is that Columbus has increased to $25 per hour that a person has to earn to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment,” Riegel said.

According to a news release from COHHIO, these rising prices have also led to increased evictions with Ohio landlords filing nearly 108,000 eviction cases last year — more than any other year since 2015.

Beth Kowalczyk, chief executive officer of the Ohio Association of Area Agencies on Aging, also spoke on the issue on Thursday, saying that the older population is affected as well.

“With the housing shortage, there are [fewer] options available to older adults that will meet their needs,” Kowalczyk said.

WKBN spoke with local tenants last year about rising rental prices. At the time, the tenants reported that their rent increased by at least $200 a month, and they were having difficulty budgeting due to the increase.

Experts that WKBN spoke with at the time pointed to Ohio’s lack of rent control, conditions of homes, high interest rates, and private investors buying up properties across the state as reasons behind the shortage of affordable housing.

Riegel applauded some steps that state policymakers have taken to address the issues like the Welcome Home Ohio program , which awards funding to local land banks for the construction and rehabilitation of new residential properties. She also discussed the Senate Select Committee on Housing, which has been listening to the concerns of people across the state on these housing issues.

She is urging policymakers to do more, however, to address the most vulnerable population.

“We are seeing action, we are seeing movement. We are seeing increased interest in what is happening in housing at the state level. However, what we are seeing is that there still isn’t a great interest, there still isn’t a lot of dedication of addressing the needs of those that are extremely low income, those who may be on fixed incomes, and those who are the most vulnerable within our communities,” she said.

She specifically asked them to consider ways to strengthen the Ohio Housing Trust Fund, which includes state funding for local housing and homelessness programs.

This is part of a series of stories that WKBN is looking into involving local housing issues in the Valley. Do you have a housing issue that you’d like us to look into? Send us your information here.

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