Did Ohio Metro Play NIMBY With Affordable Housing?

Getting affordable housing constructed can be challenge, to be certain, but the location of that housing can often create problems rather than solutions—a situation that is currently playing out in the Dayton, Ohio, metro area housing market.

According to a Dayton Daily News report, Low-Income Housing Tax Credits were used to help fund affordable housing developments in this metro area. But a report by the Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio noticed something wrong: Nearly six in 10 affordable family units were being located in communities where 75 percent or more of residents are African-American, while more than one-third of these new units were constructed in high-poverty areas. In comparison, 3.4 percent of these units were built in Dayton area communities with lowest levels of poverty.

Matthew Currie, managing attorney at the non-profit Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, questioned the placement of the affordable housing units.

“Generally speaking, Low-Income Housing Tax Credit awards end up in areas that are high poverty and areas of high racial concentration,” Currie said, adding that the state government needs to intervene to prevent this type of situation from being repeated.