Full-time workers need to earn at least $20.81 per hour just to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment in Ohio, according to a report jointly released recently by the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio.
The 2024 Out of Reach Ohio report reveals a significant gap between renters’ income and the cost of rent, which has increased rapidly in recent years. Of the 10 jobs with the most employees in Ohio, only two earn more than the statewide $20.81/hour 2-bedroom Housing Wage — general operations managers and registered nurses.
According to the report, the rates in Southeast Ohio are as follows:
Athens County: The average cost of rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $983 per month. A person working full time (40 hours) would have to make $18.90 per hour to be able to afford the apartment. As of 2024, the estimated median hourly wage of renters was $9.68, meaning the monthly rent affordable at that wage is $503.
Hocking County: The average cost of rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $860 per month. A person would need to work full time (40 hours) and make $16.54 per hour to be able to afford the apartment.
As of 2024, the estimated median hourly wage of renters was $8.39, meaning the monthly rent affordable at that wage is $436.Jackson County: The average cost of rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $860 per month, meaning a person would need to work full time (40 hours) and earn $16.54 per hour to be able to afford the apartment. As of 2024, the estimated median hourly wage of renters was $10.76, meaning the monthly rent affordable at that wage is $559.Meigs County: The average cost of rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $860 per month, meaning a person would need to work full time (40 hours) and earn $16.54 per hour to be able to afford the apartment. As of 2024, the estimated median hourly wage of renters was $10.70, meaning the monthly rent affordable at that wage is $556.Vinton County: The average cost of rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $860 per month, meaning a person would need to work full time (40 hours) and earn $16.54 per hour to be able to afford the apartment. As of 2024, the estimated median hourly wage of renters was $12.86, meaning the monthly rent affordable at that wage is $669.
In some areas, the two-bedroom Housing Wage is considerably higher than the statewide average. For example, renter households living in the Columbus area need to earn at least $25.04/hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment. The Housing Wage in Cincinnati is $22.98/hour and in Cleveland it’s $21.31/hour.
COHHIO Executive Director Amy Riegel said Ohio’s statewide Housing Wage increased 9% since last year’s report.
“Wages for Ohio’s most common jobs have increased significantly since the pandemic. Employers are trying to keep pace with inflation, but the skyrocketing cost of rent has effectively erased these wage gains, pushing affordable homes out of reach for a large swath of Ohio’s workforce,” she said.
Rapidly increasing rents are directly related to rising rates of housing insecurity. Last year, Ohio landlords filed nearly 108,000 eviction cases — more than any year since 2015. And homelessness in Ohio increased seven percent in 2023 over the previous year.
While looking at groups across the state of Ohio, three of those are people whose wage or income are fixed — people receiving Social Security, people who may not be able to work. The increase cost of housing is “creating even more pressure on those individuals,” Riegel said.
She also noted that for people who have children who are still in early childhood education and have to make payments ”it’s getting very, very tight for those individuals to be able to keep up with inflation and keep up with these costs that are accelerating, in some cases, even more than the average consumer index of inflation in state of Ohio.”
Riegel said state policymakers took some initial steps to address Ohio’s housing affordability crisis in last year’s budget, but she urged them to do more. For example, lawmakers should consider ways to strengthen the Ohio Housing Trust Fund, the primary source of state funding for local housing and homelessness programs.
“However, what we are seeing is that there still isn’t a lot of dedication of addressing the needs of those who are extremely low income, those who may be on fixed incomes, and to those who are the most vulnerable within our communities,” Reigel noted.
NLIHC President and CEO Diane Yentel urged Congress to tackle the housing affordability crisis afflicting the entire country.
“This year’s Out of Reach report shows that despite rising wages, cooling inflation, and low unemployment, low-wage workers and other renters continue to struggle with the high cost of rent,” she said.
“Addressing the challenge requires long-term federal investments in affordable housing. As evidenced during the COVID-19 pandemic, federal policies and resources play a pivotal role in establishing a robust housing safety net, preventing evictions and homelessness, and mitigating housing instability among renters with the lowest incomes,” Yentel added. “Likewise, federal renter protections are needed to ensure decent, safe, and accessible living conditions for tenants around the country.”
Dealing with university sprawl
In regards to housing in areas such as Athens, where neighborhoods that were once all family-owned become filled with student rentals, Riegel noted how her neighborhood in Dayton has changed from almost fully homeowner occupied to 50-50 neighborhood with rentals for students in the past 12 years.
“(Local residents) would never be able to afford what the students are able to pay in the seven months,” Riegel said in a press conference.
While the state of Ohio is lucky in the fact that there area many higher education institutions scattered across the state, it does create a pressure and differentiation in the housing.
“In smaller communities like Athens or in Oxford or even in, like, a Bowling Green where you have so much of the housing dedicated to the students and not as much supply for other residents of the communities, it does create a unique situation,” Riegel said. “So in those communities, (solutions include) thinking about how there can be more housing development that is dedicated and preserved for populations, whether it be the senior population or individuals with limited income, that those developments can be built and preserved for populations and also to create robust programming around homeownership.”
Riegel noted that urban areas often have innovative, deeply subsidized programs that allow them to promote homeownership. Those programs need to be available to rural areas to mobilize more homeownership in those areas or be able to make homes be preserved for ownership, rather than for rentals.
Outpriced
Shameika Smith, vice president of housing with Impact Community Action in Columbus, noted that everything — housing, transportation and groceries — cost more.
Smith noted that if a landlord has someone paying $1,100 but knows someone can pay $1,400, that landlord will raise rent to $1,400. It is “pricing out a lot of people who work everyday jobs and and I mean an everyday job like a teacher, an everyday job like a social worker, these are not necessarily high paying jobs on this on the front end.”
Riegel noted that the area many have to rethink how to deal with density. Unlike having high-rise apartment buildings, like in a major city, some places in Ohio may opt for garage apartments or duplexes — multi-family housing that blends in with the surrounding neighborhood.
Aging issues
Ohio Association of Area Agencies on Aging CEO Beth Kowalczyk noted that a challenge for those in the aging community is that they want to downsize their home but live within their community, but “there’s nowhere to go and they can’t afford to access the housing that’s being developed now with the increasing rents and and lack of accessibility. And so people remain in their homes, um, for as long as they can and that may not be feasible.”
Kowalczyk noted that there are programs that help people stay on their homes, but the issue is that people can’t find affordable housing to move into.
In regards to rising property taxes, it was noted that the Homestead Exemption isn’t meeting the needs of people who are facing these increasing property taxes.
“They don’t have extra income,” Kowalczyk said. “They’re not receiving raises year after year from Social Security or whatever the fixed income is. So they’re having, uh, difficulty in being able to pay those property taxes.”
Some efforts to help particular populations, including older adults, have been discussed at the state level, but haven’t moved.
“There’s a number of bills addressing this issue from different aspects and, um, unfortunately, it hasn’t, uh, come to fruition. But it’s something we really need to be looking at,” Kowalczyk said.
For information about the Out of Reach report, visit: http://www.nlihc.org/oor
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