Affordable Housing Plan Discussed at City Council Work Session, Project in Development

On Monday, City Council held a work session for an affordable housing proposal created by the affordable housing subcommittee in the social equity committee and Revitalization Strategies Group, Inc. City Council and affordable housing subgroup members Ray English, Eboni Johnson, and Elizabeth Meadows led the work session. The public was invited to ask questions and view a presentation on the work done by the subgroup and plans for the proposal.

Throughout 2021 and 2022, the affordable housing subgroup worked to find a developer that would suit the community’s needs. They spoke with Cleveland Housing Network, Woda Cooper Companies, Inc., The Community Builders, and New Sunrise Properties, Inc., before building a proposal with the current partner.

“We got really excited when we first talked with CHN Housing Partners of Cleveland,” English said. “We talked about doing 30 homes with a nine percent low income housing tax credit. And that tax credit basically would have created a huge amount of funding for a large, affordable, owner-owned housing project. They thought we would be eligible for this, but when they looked at it, it turned out we just aren’t eligible. We’re considered a rural community, and that program is

The affordable housing subgroup eventually decided to work with Revitalization Strategies Group, Inc., a developer group led by Michael Bowen. Bowen has 26 years of experience building affordable housing. Since starting his own company in 2017, Bowen has developed about 750 affordable housing units. RSG would build eight rent-toown houses on land owned by the City. The houses would be both accessible and sustainable as well as built in existing neighborhoods. Examples of possible house layouts for a plot at 878 Kimberly Circle were included in the proposal draft. The proposed layouts were two-bedroom, 1.5 bathroom, and 1,462 square feet total, or three bedroom, two bathroom and a total of 1,668 square feet, featuring an open floor plan and covered patio in the backyard.

Before RSG could begin bringing together funding and building the properties, City Council would need to pass an ordinance and enter into an agreement with the company. After the agreement is passed, RSG would be responsible for securing funding for the project.

RSG would make use of a variety of funding sources, including applying to grants, working with investors who buy low income housing tax credits,

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and other investment sources. In the proposal, Bowen outlined five potential sources of funding for the project. Bank financing would account for the majority of funding with $1,200,000 sourced from private banks. The project hopes to earn $520,000 from the Housing Trust Fund, a federal program that allocates funds to states which then allocate money to qualifying projects. In 2022, the Ohio Housing Trust Fund allocated $53 million to various projects across the state.

Additional finances, in the approximate amount of $237,200, would be sourced from the Federal Housing Lending Bank. The Federal Housing Lending Bank is a federally organized group of private banks that provide funding for affordable housing projects. The Federal Housing Lending Bank does not use taxpayer dollars.

According to the proposal, Housing Development Assistance Programs would provide $186,000 for the project. HDAPs provide competitive loans and grants for programs that serve households at or below 50 percent of the area median income.

Oberlin is a part of the Cleveland-Elyria metropolitan statistical area. The median fourmember household income for the area is $85,400. Fifty percent below the median for a fourSee City, Page 2

The Oberlin Review is creating a directory of organizations in both the College and City of Oberlin that engage in activism for our special issue April 28. Organizations who engage in activism in a variety of ways are invited to submit information, including organizations that focus on community-building, outreach, fundraising, community engagement, etc. Please send newseditors@oberlinreview.org current contact information for your organization as well as a brief description of the activism you engage in. Submissions due April 25.