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Legislative Directory for Cuyahoga County
Hearing testimony presented by Mary Helen Petrus, Director of Policy
Development,
Cleveland
Neighborhood Development Coalition Thank you Chairman Milligan and members of the Affordable Housing Taskforce for giving me the opportunity to provide testimony regarding the affordable housing needs in the State of Ohio. My name is Mary Helen Petrus. I am here speaking on behalf of the Cleveland Neighborhood Development Coalition (CNDC), a trade association representing 48 community development organizations (CDCs) and another 66 businesses and non-profits with a vested interest in neighborhood revitalization, a key component of which is housing development. CDCs focus on one or more neighborhood and engage in such programs as new home construction and housing rehabilitation, home ownership counseling, commercial and retail development, industrial development and retention, and a variety of quality-of-life activities, many times through community organizing. I would like to submit for the record background position papers CNDC developed to support our Neighborhoods, Ohio platform. The Neighborhoods, Ohio platform is a list of those state issues our members feel are the most important for legislators and administrators to address. The platform was created for candidates running in statewide elections this month, and for those newly elected and re-elected in order to raise awareness of community and economic development issues in the Cleveland area. The Neighborhoods, Ohio platform is based on the results of a survey of our membership. The platform lists priorities for housing, community and economic development, land assembly, and commercial or industrial investment. For housing, the most important priority identified by our members is for the State to “address Ohio’s affordable housing crisis through a commitment to adequately fund key housing and community development programs. Create a permanent, dedicated source of revenue in the Ohio Housing Trust Fund.” Cuyahoga County has received $11.6 million from the Ohio Housing Trust Fund since 1992. With this, 271 affordable homes were constructed; 619 rental units were rehabilitated; 427 homes were repaired or rehabilitated; 2,298 households received short-term rental assistance; 1,273 first-time homebuyers received down payment assistance; and 7,927 households received homelessness prevention services. In 2002, three member organizations of CNDC received a total of almost $320,000 in financial assistance through the Trust Fund’s Request for Proposals Program, benefiting almost 559 individuals. Four member organizations received a total of close to $1.5 million through the Trust Fund’s Housing Development Assistance Program. The Housing Trust Fund has proven to be an efficient tool to address housing needs. Every dollar Ohio invests in housing leverages $5 in federal and private resources. Every $10 million invested in Ohio’s housing industry equals 3,000 new jobs and more than $74 million in wages. Despite these accomplishments, increasing housing costs coupled with a dwindling supply of affordable housing has led to a housing crisis throughout Ohio. According to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition’s Out of Reach 2002: America’s Growing Wage-Rent Disparity, the “housing wage” in 2002 for Cuyahoga County is $14.38 an hour, an increase of over 3 % from 2001, and 279 % of the present minimum wage of $5.15 per hour. NLIHC defines the housing wage to be the amount a worker needs to earn per hour in a 40-hour week in order to afford a two-bedroom unit at the area’s Fair Market rent. Funding of key housing programs has significantly decreased in recent years and we face further budget cuts in the 2004-2005 biennial budget. The Ohio Housing Trust Fund, which has always been too small, now relies on fluctuating appropriations such as interest and general revenue funds. It requires a permanent and dedicated source of revenue to give affordable housing programs long-term stability. CNDC encourages the State Administration and the Ohio General Assembly to examine opportunities such as county recordation fees for a permanent, dedicated funding source for the Housing Trust Fund. In the interests of time, let me briefly mention two other priorities of our membership that impact upon the resources available to develop affordable housing. The first is the Neighborhood Assistance Program (NAP). This is legislation that would give tax credits to businesses for contributing to community development organizations and programs, including the rehabilitation and development of affordable housing. NAP legislation was introduced in 2000 as SB 88 and we are confident that it will be reintroduced into the next General Assembly in January, 2003, and hope to see it included the next biennial budget. CNDC believes that there is a need to bring businesses and nonprofits together to leverage more private sector dollars to invest in the housing needs of economically disadvantaged areas. CDCs in Cleveland have a proven track record in housing development. Throughout the 1990s, CDCs in Cleveland were responsible for the renovation and construction of more than 4,000 units of affordable and market-rate housing, representing more than $270 million in new housing or rehab investments. The second is examining how property and land become available for housing development. Our members identified the need to develop legislative reform to assist court-appointed receivers and other interested parties to acquire title to properties saddled with “abandoned” mortgage liens to preserve the stock of affordable housing and to stave off neighborhood deterioration. “Abandoned” mortgage liens are for an amount greater than the property would bring at a judicial sale. The inability to acquire or repair wasted, blighted and hazardous properties is a constant source of frustration for CDCs. The properties are left vacant and unused due abusive subprime lending and lengthy foreclosure proceedings. CDCs are faced with numerous technical and legal impediments involving title and liens against the properties. Amending the State’s Public Nuisance Abatement statue so that municipal courts can conduct judicial sales that would grant marketable titles free of all liens on properties could expedite these receivership cases. I would like to close by thanking you for the opportunity to contribute to this discussion of housing needs in Ohio. I’m happy to take questions, but I again refer you to the Neighborhoods, Ohio platform background papers for a more in depth treatment of the issues I’ve raised here today. |
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