Law impacting affordable housing now in effect in Ohio

“When an affordable housing development is created there’s lots of different tools that get layered in because the rent that you charge will never cover your costs of operating the building in total,” said Kristen Baker, LISC Greater Cincinnati executive director. “That’s really going to cause a financial strain for affordable housing providers in our communities.”

Husted said lawmakers had the recipients of property taxes in mind with this provision.

“They were very interested in the tax treatment of those projects in local communities as it relates to the funding of schools and other things,” Husted said.

The governor said he is working on a solution after his office received many calls about the provisions. DeWine is putting together a statewide affordable housing approach that he’ll present to the legislature in his budget proposal at the end of the month.

“We will be advocating the establishment of tax credits to promote the development of more single-family homes, more home ownership,” he said.

DeWine said this will include a state low-income tax credit, something he said fixes lawmaker concerns about stacking tax credits.

Many housing advocates are optimistic about this proposal, but in the meantime, they still don’t know exactly how this new law will impact current projects or projects already planned out.