RUIDOSO, NM — There’s a lot to love about the sleepy mountain town of Ruidoso, New Mexico, but life the last few years have been anything but simple for the service industry.

"After the pandemic hit, I mean, It was like, where did everybody go," said Chon Caswell, the general manager of two restaurants in town.

"Everything's short-term rentals, Airbnb. It's tough living for the backbone of this economy," he added.

"Just like everywhere in the United States, we're severely handicapped when it comes to workforce and one of the biggest contributing factors to that is housing," said Mayor Lynn Crawford.

It’s a similar story in tourism-driven places across the nation, but further hardship this town is facing may be able to change mindsets that were once against the idea of affordable housing.

In April, a wildfire wiped out around 200 homes in an area of town that primarily housed folks who were part of the local workforce. It's kicked off a scramble for affordable housing that reached a new need to re-evaluate zoning laws to allow more people to live on less land.

"The community's always been 100% for it until you pick a spot and then it's, well not, you can't do this. We don't want you to do that," said Crawford.

Changing neighbors’ minds about affordable housing is one of the biggest hurdles to its creation.

A 2019 Redfin study showed that home buyers and sellers are nearly twice as likely to oppose housing density in their neighborhoods than they are to support it and more than half support zoning policies that limit density while 27 percent support it.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition guesses that the country is short 7 million rental homes for low-income renters. That’s about 1 in 4 of all rental households nationwide.

"A lot of it is the narrative that's been put out the, that the people that live there are being brought in from outside the community, they're the dregs of our community," he said.

The data, though, disproves that stigma. The National Low Income Housing Coalition says building 100 affordable housing units generates $11.7 million in local income, $2.2 million in taxes and 161 local jobs in the first year alone.

Mayor Crawfoird says Ruidoso is beginning to see the necessity as well as the benefits of having affordable housing.

"What this fire has done and the devastation is put faces. These are some of our firemen that have lost their homes. These are people that work at the hospital. These are people that work at our restaurants, our grocery stores that stock your shelves. Those are the people that have been affected," said Crawford.

The village is working on several solutions including an enterprise fund for housing, tax credits and building modular homes. Crawford says this is possible because the state and local governments, as well as the community, are working together.

"We've been working on these plans constantly, but now some of the doors are opening and we're running through those and those people are working with us and we do appreciate everything," he said.

For business folks like Caswell, he hopes more communities change their perspective on affordable housing.

"Hopefully we can get a change of hearts and minds," he said.

BERRLIN, Vt. — Off the side of a busy road is a humble motel that has been remodeled to fit a growing need similar to that seen in communities across the country.

This is the only empty room at this shelter owned by Good Samaritan Haven in Central Vermont and it will only be empty for another hour as someone who needs shelter is moving in. The goal here is to move people out into permanent housing, but that permanent housing is getting harder to find. Some are waiting months to a year for the next available housing.

"There's a big bottleneck of housing options so that that leaves people to whether they might be ready or not to move on. The housing options might not be there. They simply aren't there," said Julie Bond, the co-executive director of the organization.

This area right outside the state’s capital is feeling the crush of a lack of available housing and the intense need to house people. Co-executive directors Julie Bond and Rick DeAngelis say they have been scrambling to help 100% more people than they were serving in 2019.

"I'm not even sure I can tell you why, except that there is a rental house in crisis in Vermont and that together with other factors has left a lot of people in a tough spot," said Rick.

With American Rescue Plan money, the state has been able to afford to take people out of congregate shelters and into motels and hotels, along with other rental and emergency assistance, which helped greatly but that money from the one-time federal payment will be spent in the spring.

"There will be some percentage of the folks who are in motels that will stay there with state assistance, but I am expecting that the lion's share will be, it'll just be over and they'll have to find, um, some other place to live," said Rick.

After skipping a year due to the pandemic, the latest point-in-time data from HUD shows 582,462 people were homeless in 2022, a .3% increase since 2020, however, the number of unsheltered people jumped almost 4%.

Although the ARPA funds are drying up, there is hope for more aid.

In December, the Biden administration announced the ‘All In Federal Strategy to End Homelessness” which hopes to reduce the number of unhoused people 25% by 2025, with an emphasis on “housing first” policies. The omnibus spending package also includes $6.4 billion for HUD than the year before to address housing.

"My hope is that as a state, we are coming together for more affordable housing options that are, that are creative, that are quick, that are things that are going to, to help in the, to stave off the immediacy of the need," said Julie.

While these long-term plans fall into place at the federal level, Rick and Julie say they’re still running out of time to fit the needs of today.

They are hoping for more action on local levels to address housing needs more efficiently; programs like home sharing or people using their short-term rentals for long-term homes are a couple of solutions they want to see.

"Is there a way to shift from a profit-minded space to a compassion and heart-centered need-based economy right now? You know, that's the, that's the hope," Julie said.

Big federal plans are a good thing, they tell me. But to address the day-to-day realities they see, actions at this point are necessary to continue the good they still need to do.

"We're just not meeting the need enough. There are so many people suffering with substance abuse and mental health issues. We provide a very basic service here, and I wish we could be providing more," said Rick.

SUMMIT COUNTY, Colo. — Affordable housing is already tough to find, and for those who live in tourist destinations, vacation rentals can push housing prices even higher. As many ski towns enter the busiest season of the year, many of the workers have nowhere affordable to live.

In Summit County, Colorado, about an hour and a half outside of Denver and home to popular ski resorts like Breckinridge, there are solutions helping frontline workers.

“They need workers, but they can’t pay people enough to live,” said Matthew Briggs, a seasonal worker who comes every winter to work at the ski resorts.

This avid snowboarder started coming out to the Rockies for a few months out of the year three years ago, and he is hoping to make a permanent move. The housing crisis has been a huge obstacle to making that dream happen.

Briggs works two jobs, but still, he says affordable housing is out of reach. During the busy winter months, finding housing options becomes even more expensive. He said it’s hard to secure anywhere to stay unless you look months and months in advance.

“It’s definitely tougher because this is when everyone wants to find housing,” said Briggs of finding a place to stay through the ski season.

Whether it’s tourists or remote workers, more people are moving to Summit County, and it’s pushing housing prices to record highs.

“If you want to live by yourself in a studio apartment, you’re going to have to put down $1,500 at least to be competitive,” said Briggs.

The prices are forcing some people to consider places they never otherwise would. “There’s a place in Leadville I know that is just a bed, no kitchen no bathroom you have to go to the county store next door just to go to the bathroom,” said Briggs.

Briggs said the ski resorts do offer employee housing, but it is not an ideal situation for him.

“Employee housing gets rough, just because like, a lot of people are out here just to have a good time,” said Briggs. “Kind of like Spring Breakers, I'd say. It'll be one in the morning, and you'll hear screaming and partying, and so you can't really get a good night's sleep there.”

But this year, Briggs doesn’t have to live in resort employee housing. He was able to get a room in the Alpine Inn: a county-leased hotel that subsidizes rent for frontline workers of all kinds.

Within one week of opening applications for the 38 rooms in the hotel, the county had more than 200 applications. The rent at the hotel is about half of what it would cost to live anywhere else.

“This place is great for me because I can afford it,” said Briggs. “I have a full bedroom to walk around, all my clothes fits, all my snowboard gear, they have a waxing stations. I can make sure my boards are up to tune.”

Frontline workers and their families lease the rooms for several months at a time, and if they find a permanent housing solution that they can afford, they can vacate the lease at any time, without penalty.

County housing director Jason Dietz worries the impact the pandemic made on the housing market will never go away. That’s why he is so excited about the relief the Alpine Inn can provide.

“Ever since the “zoom town” effect of COVID hit the mountain towns and the rest of the country as well, the frontline workers, police firefighters, doctors, are having the same issues as ski resort workers in finding housing, it is all across the board,” said Dietz.

Dietz said affordable housing is the biggest issue in his community today. “We needed about 2,000 more units in the next three years to maintain, and kind of hit an equilibrium,” said Dietz of the need for housing pre-pandemic. Now, the need is much greater. “It’s probably gone up by at least 50% where we need at least 3,000 or more units.”

While the Alpine Inn only has 38 rooms, it is the beginning of a swath of affordable housing solutions the county is working on. “This is an investment in the community, it’s an investment in the people of the community. Housing is infrastructure,” said Dietz.

Dietz said there is no easy fix for the housing crisis his community is in. There is little land that can be easily developed, and construction costs in the mountains are high.

He knows every room the county leases for a subsidized rate is helping house the backbone of his community.

“If we didn’t have the Alpine Inn here, the people who are here would be commuting long distances. They may be in overcrowded situations with family and friends, staying in their cars. The Alpine Inn is really providing a place for transitional housing, to avoid homelessness.”

“It was great relief,” said Briggs of when he found out he and his friend’s application was accepted for the Alpine Inn. “I wake up and look out the door, and I'm like, ‘I really live in the most beautiful place in the world.’ So, I'm very grateful.”

For places across the country as beautiful as this one, Dietz said it’s going to take a community effort to keep them running.

“Without housing, the community services don’t work,” said Dietz.

But this snowboarder sees how a community can get to work if they have a place to call home.

“This is great. This was a great example of what they should be doing,” said Briggs.

He’s hoping living at the Alpine Inn is his first step in helping him find a place to live year-round in the mountains he loves most.

BRANSON, Mo. — Branson, Missouri is a tourist destination for tens of thousands of families every summer. The winter months bring colder temperatures and empty amusement parks, meaning high unemployment across the community. This year, COVID-19 has made the widespread seasonal poverty even worse.

Kevin Huddleston runs the Christian Action Ministries Food Bank in Branson and helps feed thousands of families per year. He said this year, they've handed out twice the amount of food as they did last year because so many families have been financially struggling through the pandemic.

Huddleston said the need for services has fluctuated throughout the year, skyrocketing at times and leveling out when the stimulus checks and expanded unemployment benefits kicked in. With winter on the horizon, he is worried for what is to come.

"I really am concerned that we are entering our season of highest demand, and typically, normally people enter this period of time with some stored back, they have some money set aside, some food set aside, to get them through the dark days of winter when our tourism season is dormant here. We don’t have that fallback this year, people are not prepared," said Huddleston.

He is also worried that the community, without a homeless shelter or affordable housing units, will see more community members on the streets than ever before.

"I think we’re likely going to see a housing problem this winter, seeing more people being homeless situationally, so we as a community are scrambling trying to do something."

The city is opening up a warming center for people to have somewhere to go to escape the frigid temperatures, but it is not an overnight place yet. Huddleston is hoping a homeless shelter will be able to open up soon.

Despite the adversity families are facing across this tourist town, Huddleston said he does have hope.

"Our financial contributions have been very good this year, much better than we’ve expected in this kind of economic situation," he said, adding that their shelves are often overstocked.

Thankfully, food supply has not been an issue. The food bank has been able to help thousands without ever running out.

Still, he says handing out food does not fix the problem. He and other community leaders said poverty in Branson needs to be addressed at the root. He is part of a group helping to build resources in the community so families can work themselves out of a constant situation of struggle. However, he is worried these solutions will not come quick enough.

"We are planning for a very dire situation this winter," he said. "We are going to practice as if that’s going to happen, and if it doesn’t, we’ll be blessed."

DENVER, Co. — While a spotlight has been shown on the affordable housing supply crisis, experts say how we got here has been a decades-long journey.

"There simply aren’t enough homes for anyone who wants to buy them," said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin.

Supply and demand are causing home prices to skyrocket this year. The average home price is up 13.2%. That’s already a record, but in other spots around the country, it’s worse. The average home price for Phoenix rose 23.5%, Salt Lake City and Denver rose around 20%.

"We got into this mess, partly because in the last decade there were fewer homes built, but in any decade, going back to the 1960s and even before then, we were falling behind on building entry-level homes. Back in the 1980s, about 40% of new construction homes were entry-level. And now, that's down in just single digits," said Fairweather.

A few factors have gone into the lack of entry-level homes, one of them being that construction slowed down to a halt during the great recession, which impacted supply, and now entry-level homes are not being built, because demand has driven up the price of land.

"If a developer wants to buy a piece of land, they want to put the most luxurious building on it so they can recoup the expense of just acquiring that land," she said.

Another factor is zoning laws. Many neighborhoods in cities across America, where land is pricey, are zoned for single-family homes. The power to change that lies on the hyper-local level, but that has proven to be a contentious issue.

"It's very easy for a group of homeowners to rally together, to get a multifamily zoning block. They can show at the town hall meetings and they have vested interest in keeping their property values high. Even if that goes against the community interest and keeping housing affordable. So it's a very hard problem," said Fairweather.

Jonathan Cappelli is an affordable housing advocate in Colorado. He says 37% of all single-family homes in the state are rentals, not owned by the families living in them.

"We're seeing that trend just increase," he said.

Like Fairweather, he agrees that one solution would be to change zoning laws to add more apartments and condos that families looking to buy their first home can afford.

"Density is really synonymous with equity right now," said Cappelli. "If you're against making room for low to moderate income people in your community, then you're kind of taking the ladder that you climb to get to where you are and you're kicking it out for the next year."

He says the best solution is for policies to become more affordable and equitable and that communities need to recognize and embrace that.

With homeownership tied to wealth building, experts and advocates alike say that while it wasn’t our decision to end up in a low housing supply, it’s up to local government and citizens to help fix it.

OAKLEY — The city of Cincinnati is holding an inventory study in various neighborhoods to evaluate the state of the housing market. The effort has a special emphasis on assessing housing affordability; officials are currently holding the study in the neighborhood of Oakley.

“The inventory relies heavily on available and what we call 'accessible data' from of course the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and then also the National Housing Preservation Database," said Markiea Carter, the interim director of the Department of Community and Economic Development. "The 2019 American Community Survey is also our primary data source."

The Oakley study began last year; officials hope to finish the project in July. Carter explained the effort is strictly meant to create a snapshot of neighborhoods' housing markets with clear, organized data that other entities can turn to as a resource. She said the city is refraining from making conclusive statements or theories about what is happening in Cincinnati's markets and their affordability.

Carter acknowledged that city workers have had to adjust their workflow to the constraints of the pandemic and said that there have been resulting connectivity problems. She also said that much of the impact of COVID on the populations they are studying in 2020 likely will not be apparent for months or years to come. Still, she does not believe the pandemic will have a large impact on the figures they are gathering. The city was more concerned with keeping the project a priority and sticking to the timeline it set for the project.

Results from the study will be posted to the Department of City Planning's website. This housing inventory study stems from Plan Cincinnati, a 2012 guide that strategically outlined the city's desired growth and development. The original housing inventory conducted in Over-the-Rhine was conducted by the Community Building Institute (CBI). Carter said that CBI has offered guidance and support to the city to coordinate the methodology being used in the current study on Oakley. However, CBI is no longer involved with the project. CBI declined to comment on the effort for this story.

Carter hopes gathering the information will foster a productive conversation about how to achieve goals and visions people have for their own communities.

“We know that housing is a deeply personal topic. We know that people are extremely passionate about it..." Carter said. "We see this as a goal to kind of bring local leaders and elected officials and administration together.”

Oakley, like a number of other Cincinnati neighborhoods, has seen a dramatic rise of new real estate developments in recent years. This has resultingly sparked concerns among residents about the affordability of their community.

Jason Wilcoxon is a pastor at Legend Community Church and a board member of the Oakley Community Council. Wilcoxon and his wife have been living in their Oakley home since 2002. He said it felt like there was a new development in the neighborhood every week.

“My house has at least doubled, if not tripled, in value since we moved here. Not because we've done amazing work to it. Just because the neighborhood price has gone up so high.”

He went on to say that the issue of Oakley's dwindling affordability has particularly been burdensome for some longtime residents. Initially, most of Wilcoxon's neighbors were retired blue-collar workers who had been living in their homes for decades. Now, many of those elderly neighbors have been phased out with other young professionals and their children. Some of those new neighbors have also torn down old homes and built newer, more expensive, homes in their place.

The neighborhood changes has meant that Wilcoxon will be shouldering higher taxes due to the rise in property values. However, he is more worried about his older, more vulnerable neighbors who live on fixed incomes and are less equipped to handle the rising costs of living. Two of his retired neighbors had to move out of their homes because they could no longer afford to stay.

Describing Oakley today, he acknowledged the various positive changes that have come to the area as a result of its ongoing development. He also recognized that remodeling homes in the area has been cost-effective for some his fellow residents. But it is hard to reconcile those positive changes with the disadvantages and unintended consequences for old-timers who might now be caught living on the edge.

“It's cool now to go outside and see kids, like lots of kids, running around in the neighborhood," Wilcoxon said. He was referencing the demographic changes that have also resulted from Oakley's development. "That's good for the city overall. There's just probably a more strategic way we can incentivize that kind of development that's good for everyone.”

The effort is being led by the Cincinnati Department of City Planning with help from the Department of Community and Economic Development. Officials say an AmeriCorps Vista grant is funding the study, while respective community groups are also partnering to facilitate the project. The city is also conducting inventories in North Avondale and Paddock Hills. The current study in Oakley follows others that were previously held in Over-the-Rhine and Walnut Hills.

Monique John covers gentrification for WCPO 9. She is part of our Report For America donor-supported journalism program. Read more about RFA here.

If there are stories about gentrification in the greater Cincinnati area that you think we should cover, let us know. Send us your tips at moveupcincinnati@wcpo.com.

CINCINNATI — Cincinnati is preserving affordable housing in the West End, but some believe it is coming at the expense of more than two dozen families.

Chris Griffin, West End Community Council president, said his father is one of the people paying the price for upgrades to the Arts Apartments.

"My father has been a 30-year resident at those apartments, and he's being displaced," Griffin said.

Griffin said his father fell victim to a policy involving tax incentives used to upgrade the Arts Apartments, long recognized as an affordable housing development that did not enforce specific income requirements.

By taking advantage of those tax incentives, apartment residents will now have to meet specific income requirements.

Griffin said those displaced are "poor" but "not poor enough" to live there.

"These people shouldn't have to move," he said. "They've been paying their rent there for a long time."

Cincinnati city council approved the tax exemption for owner and developer Birge & Held in November.

The company also applied for Low Income Housing Tax Credits through the state. And committed to making all units affordable.

Of the 248 units, 83 will be Section 8 housing. The remaining 165 units will be deemed affordable, with rents varying by income levels below 60 percent of the area median income.

For the West End, that means a family must make below $35,800 to live at the Arts Apartments.

Under the new terms, 28 existing tenants don't meet those income qualifications and must leave.

"My dad…he sent me a photo and said I don't want to end up like this," said Griffin, who shared a photograph on Twitter that appeared to show a displaced resident.

Welp this is what’s going on in the West End, Market-rate renter were forced out of their homes. 29 families the CDC and city council approved to be displaced from the west end @GregLandsman @ChrisSeelbach @voteSundermann @voteSmitherman @Dr_JRTate @VoteDillingham @StaceySmithCCC pic.twitter.com/czd0XSPMvw

— Christopher Griffin (@Chris_SupaG) August 25, 2021

But Mary Burke Rivers, executive director of Over-The-Rhine Community Housing, said that is not what's happening in the photo.

"In that particular image was a person who relocated on site while their unit was being renovated. And when they moved back they didn't want their furniture. So they talked to the property mangers and said, 'I don't want this. I'm going to put this out,'" she said.

OTRCH is working with Birge & Held on the project.

Rivers said those displaced are being offered relocation assistance.

"All moving expenses are being covered, nobody is set out, and can get upwards of over $9,000 in relocation benefits," Rivers said.

She added that the goal for her organization is to help preserve affordable housing, not end it for some residents.

"We know that it's so important to preserve affordable housing, because you can't get it back," Rivers said.

Some residents and West End representatives argue the changes in the neighborhood, such as those at the Arts Apartment, aren't helping everyone who lives there.

"This is just an example of the double-edge sword if we don't look at all outcomes of the actions that we're taking, and the development that we're doing," said Ashley White, West End Community Development Corporation president. "We need to talk to everyone and not just one side."

Both the West End Community Council and the West End Community Development Corporation said they want more say before the city council makes any further decisions on developments as more housing projects with set income levels are on the way for the West End.

"If we convert everything to deed-restricted income-based housing… we really don't have affordability for anybody at any other income," said Noah O'Brien, vice president of the West End Community Council.

CINCINNATI — Long-anticipated demolition work began Monday on the blighted Millennium Hotel at Fifth and Elm streets, making way for what will be another improvement in downtown Cincinnati's ongoing facelift.

The former hotel closed in 2019 with plans to bring down the aging building last year, but work was delayed, in part, by COVID-19. While specifics of the building that will replace it remain unclear, here's what is clear: If the pandemic has kept you away from Downtown for the last year, you might not recognize it when you return.

"Everything's under construction right now by design," said Mayor John Cranley in an interview with WCPO. "Because of remote work, we've taken advantage of this to dramatically expand outdoor dining. Sidewalks are doubling all across Downtown. We're closing down streets to make permanent entertainment districts at The Banks and Over-the-Rhine."

The outgoing mayor has spent much of the last twenty years at City Hall working to attract big development contracts to the city. He said he anticipates this year's will be a "summer of Cincinnati love" as the pandemic begins to wind down.

"When people come back for the summer, vaccinated and safe, for Reds games, [FC Cincinnati's] new stadium, they're going to be just blown away by the vibrancy," he said.

Walking tour of a new Downtown

Walk one block west from the old Millennium to Race Street, and even a short stroll will showcase multiple ongoing Downtown development projects: The former home of apparel retailer McHahns at the corner of Race and Seventh streets is being renovated into a Towneplace Suites hotel, and the Kinley Hotel -- home of the acclaimed restaurant, Khora -- opened last year just across the street.

Evan Millward (WCPO)

Walk a few blocks south and you'll find Fountain Place, the former home of Downtown's Macy's department store and soon to become The Foundry, which will house a mix of office space and street-level retail space. Once the project is completed, the Skywalk that spanned over Fifth Street will be gone, and sidewalks will have expanded along Fifth, Vine and Race streets.

Continue further toward the river, and you'll find the long-anticipated Fourth and Race development near its final form, where there will be more than 260 apartments and a public parking garage with nearly 600 spaces.

Before continuing down toward The Banks, be sure to look left down Fourth Street corridor, which is seeing its own renaissance lately.

Take Race all the way to The Banks, and you'll find the Andrew J. Brady ICON Music Center, one of two venues that soon will open along the urban core's riverbanks.

WCPO file

The new apartments and hotel rooms are just the beginning, according to retail and real estate experts, especially as companies that once rented Downtown office space might reconsider their leases now that the pandemic has shown just how real a possibility remote working can be for so many businesses.

"I think what we'll see is office buildings being repurposed as either apartments, condos or even hotels," said Josh Rothstein with OnSite Retail Group. "So the strong office buildings will stay strong and all the other stuff, instead of sitting there and collecting dust, will be repurposed and continue to trend that we see Downtown of collecting density."

One example of this can be found at Seventh and Vine streets, where the former Provident Bank and office building has transformed into apartments as The Provident. Three blocks away, at Fourth and Vine, PNC Tower will be restored and repurposed into residences, too.

That's not to say, though, that office vacancy is on the rise during the pandemic. According to CBRE Research, Downtown's vacany rate remained steady at just above 14% throughout 2020.

Cincinnati Office MarketView Q4 2020 by WCPO 9 News on Scribd

Push for convention hotel

While momentum seems to be building toward more people moving to Downtown, there also is a push for getting more people to visit. That's why replacing the Millennium Hotel -- which sits directly opposite the region's largest convention hall, the Duke Energy Center -- with a new facility with more meeting space is such a critical project, according to Julie Calvert, president and CEO of Cincinnati USA Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"The standard is 10,000 square feet of space for every 100 rooms," Calvert told WCPO 9, pointing out that the Millennium Hotel had about that much space but for nearly 900 rooms. For an 800-room hotel, 80,000 square feet of meeting space would make Cincinnati "very competitive" for attracting meetings and conventions, Calvert said.

Watch WCPO 9 News anchor Evan Millward's live conversation with Calvert in the viewer below:

Changing Downtown, Pt. 2: What's at stake in replacing Millennium Hotel?

"That really puts us right on par with Columbus, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Pittsburgh," she said. "It will open us up to all sorts of different meetings of different sizes. We could host multiple meetings at a time either here or at the Duke Energy Convention Center, at different hotels, so it's a game-changer for Cincinnati. That's for sure."

Calvert estimated a new convention hotel would bring an additional $18 million in economic activity to the central business district each year.

Rising tides lift all boats... and costs of living

But the new developments do come with a cost: namely, swelling rental rates. According to the real estate marketplace, Zumper, the average cost to rent a one-bedroom apartment in Downtown is $1,445 per month; the average for a two-bedroom is $2,095. That's high -- especially for two-bedrooms -- when compared to similar apartments in downtown Indianapolis and downtown Columbus.

WCPO

The city's need for affordable housing has never been greater, according to advocates with the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition, who have successfully petitioned city voters to place an initiative on November's ballot that would establish a $50 million annual affordable housing trust fund.

"It's about Cincinnatians using our tax dollars, that we pay in, to benefit Cincinnatians in our neighborhoods," said Joshua Spring, the coalition's executive director.

Lann Field heads up development for the Cincinnati City Center Development Corporation, also known as 3CDC. She said the group is working to bring a mix of market-rate and affordable housing units to its work throughout Downtown and neighboring Over-the-Rhine.

"I think it's important that we provide a wide range of housing options for all different income levels, but there has to be also acknowledgment of the challenges of doing that and the realities of the cost of development and things like that," she said.

3CDC currently has seven development projects in design or underway throughout Downtown and OTR, and the Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority has dozens of projects on its resume.

It's a feather Cranley has pinned to his cap.

"All of our solutions get easier if we continue to grow jobs and people in the city," he told WCPO. "Bottom line is, you're growing or you're dying. For 70 years, the city was essentially dying in the sense that it was losing population and jobs. Now it's rising again."

CINCINNATI — The city is one step closer to getting more affordable housing units. Demolition began this week to make room for John Arthur Flats in Northside.

Northsiders Engaged in Sustainable Transformation, or NEST, owns the property on Apple Street where the complex will be located. The group says it is designed for seniors, and it will be open summer 2022. Leaders say it will be the city’s first LGBTQ+-friendly complex.

Overton, Andrew

Northside residents say seeing the demo Friday brought mixed feelings.

“Yes! We welcome the development,” said Jeanne Vennemeyer. “It is such an improvement for our neighborhood. This is such a diverse neighborhood.”

The property used to be a Save-A-Lot grocery store, but it closed in 2012, turning Northside into a food desert where residents must travel miles outside their neighborhood to access fresh foods.

In 2017, Apple Street Market Cooperative was formed to build a community-owned grocery store. But three years later, roadblocks like parking officially ruled out the former Save-A-Lot location, keeping them in the market for a market.

Overton, Andrew

"We have to look for a store again where we can be successful, where we have parking, where we have access to trucks, where people can see the store, where we have size," said Dr. Heather Zoller, a researcher and professor who studies public health at the University of Cincinnati.

Those seeing demolition on the site begs the question for those who donated money to the market: What's the latest on the project?

WCPO reached out the coop for an update, but has yet to hear back.

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — With affordable housing in short supply, more Americans are ditching their cars in exchange for cheaper rent.

The trend is gaining traction as cities reduce minimum parking requirements for new developments.

“I’ve been doing real estate development in San Diego County for 20 years, and there’s never been a time where you could build without parking," said Gilman Bishop.

In 2019, the city removed parking requirements for multifamily residential developments in transit priority areas and passed the Complete Communities initiative last year, creating incentives to build homes near transit and provide more mobility choices.

Bishop is among the first developers taking part in the urban experiment, breaking ground on the apartment development Secoya on Fifth.

“We could’ve built $25 million condos here, with parking," said Bishop. "But we’re looking to build mixed-income housing, and that’s why we went with micro-units with no parking, so it’s affordable to the lower and middle class.”

The eight-story building features 100 micro-units, including a mix of studios, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom units.

Had they been required to include parking, Bishop says it would've cost an additional $30,000 to $50,000 more per unit.

"Those savings we can pass on to our tenants in the way of lower rents," said Bishop. "We're looking for 100 households that have a more mobile lifestyle, that embrace walking around their community, walking or biking to work, walking to the grocery store."

"They're going to be very high-end, too. A brand new concrete building with beautiful custom cabinetry and neat finishes. We're trying to make it a really nice place to live, as well as affordable," said Scott Murfey, principal at Murfey Company.

In California, Assembly Bill 1401 would prohibit cities from requiring off-street parking within a half-mile of public transit stops in transit-rich areas.

“Parking is the single biggest land use in any city. The footprint of parking is much greater than the footprint of housing, or manufacturing, or retail, or anything else," said Donald Shoup, professor of Urban Planning at UCLA.

Shoup says parking requirements have contributed to urban sprawl, increased carbon emissions, and traffic congestion.

“I think it will be a very slow withdrawal process because most of the parking is already here," said Shoup.

As Bishop and his team's once-impossible vision becomes reality, they other cities will take a chance on change.

Blight, a plant disease, and how to get rid of it are issues cities are grappling with across the country.

“Seeing these properties that I used to drive by as a kid, used to see burning, burned down buildings, houses where people are selling drugs, you got homeless people staying at these properties," described Dajuan Robinson.

The emptiness of an abandoned lot can be filled with the problems that plague a community.

On the South Side of Chicago, Bonita Harrison sees a future.

"I see a family that can't be here. I see kids that can't play. That's what I see," the South Side native said.

She shares that vision with four other developers, all of whom grew up on the South Side.

“We all have an affinity to the South Side of Chicago and making it a better place to live," developer Sean Jones said.

The natives have backgrounds in contracting, flipping homes, and real estate. They came together to buy 13 vacant lots in the West Woodlawn neighborhood.

"Even though this is a 100 percent Black community, we own less than 30 percent of the real estate," Harrison said.

The group's vision is to build and sell affordable, multi-family homes.

"Significance to us is not just a dollar, it’s about the value of the neighborhood and the value we are bringing to the neighborhood," Robinson said.

To buy the land, they used the Cook County Land Bank, an organization started in the wake of the housing crisis to fight blight. The organization buys vacant properties and sells them to developers that can give them life again.

"They level the playing field for us. They stepped in and basically [have] been able to give us access to the properties that we, as smaller investors, would not have had," Jones explained.

This group believes the true impact of what will fill this land comes from the power of who is behind it.

“We’re looking at recycling the Black dollar, leaving an example in the presence for our youth and neighbors in the neighborhood. That this is for us, by us," Jones said.

Housing is a complicated issue in both cities and suburbs nationwide. In places like the South Side of Chicago, it can be hard to find the exact number of lots that are vacant. But for this group, who is dedicated to bringing positive change to where they call home, they say it’s not just about the structure you build, but the people who will call it their own.

“I mean, what it means to me personally, is that I made a change in not my neighborhood, but somebody’s life," Robinson said.

AKRON, Oh. — On your first trip to Akron, the brick-covered streets may take you by surprise.

“They add character, but they’re not the smoothest ride; they slow people down,” said Jason Segedy, the Akron city planner.

They’re considered beloved relics from the turn of the 20th century when the city’s population was booming. While the days of creating new brick roads are over, Mayor Dan Horrigan would like Akron to once again be growing.

“We probably lost 100,000 people from 1960 to 2015, but we have this infrastructure. We have this space for a lot more,” said Horrigan.

The problem: many existing homes in Akron are old. Built in the WWI era for factory workers, many weren’t meant to last 80 years, but they continue to stand. Horrigan says repairs are too expensive for the public or city to fix them all.

Segedy says what Akron is going through is being seen throughout the nation.

“We are really trying to get supply and demand right in like our supply-demand equation right now,” he said.

Last month, Mayor Horrigan joined the mayors of Tempe, Arizona and Bozeman, Montana in testifying in front of U.S. senators. What the mayors have in common is an affordable housing shortage, driving people out of their cities. In the hearing, they proposed an idea: add funding for more affordable housing to Biden’s multi-trillion infrastructure plan.

“I do not expect the federal government to build new housing from the ground up, but I do expect you to do something to give tools to local governments to fill the gaps the private sector is not meeting,” said Mayor Cyndy Andrus of Bozeman during the meeting.

While they may believe affordable housing needs more avenues of funding, are they right in considering housing as infrastructure? Horrigan believes so.

“All the water meters, all the roads, all the water lines that lead to houses, they all lead to commercial buildings. So, we think it's a key part of the infrastructure in many urban areas across the country.”

Republicans at the hearing cautioned the committee, urging frugality and state control when it comes to infrastructure. Housing, as of now, has not been included in the plan, but Mayor Horrigan continues to hope for some extra help, so those brick roads will lead more folks to their new home

“When they get involved, they help out so many people. It's such a large scale. That's the difference that we're trying to make,” said Mayor Horrigan.

CINCINNATI —

A ballot item on the May 4 primary election would require the city of Cincinnati to put $50 million a year into a trust fund for affordable housing.

“Issue 3 is the idea of thousands of Cincinnatians,” Josh Spring said.

Spring is one of the petitioners who said the trust fund would build and maintain housing that’s affordable for 41% of Cincinnatians.

The message from opponents is if the measure passes it will lead to major cuts to the budget.

“As someone who helps put together the budget each year, $50 million being diverted out of our general revenue fund is almost unfathomable. I don’t know where we would start,” City Councilman Greg Landsman said

Spring calls his opponents’ claims nothing more than fear tactics.

“The fact is $50 million every year isn’t enough. It will not fill the gap. We are short 28,000 affordable homes in the city of Cincinnati,” Spring said.

The city already has money in a housing trust fund and announced this week the creation of a private fund.

“A new fund that will sit outside city hall and attract private money in addition to the public money we’re going to put in, tens of millions of dollars going to affordable housing but we’re not doing it at the expense of city services or our workers,” Landsman said.

Supporters say Issue 3 will create jobs. They say it the way to pay for the trust fund, in addition to the city’s general fund, a developer’s fee, an income tax on some stocks and money from the lease or sale of the Cincinnati Southern Railway.

Posted at 5:27 PM, May 21, 2021

and last updated 2021-05-21 17:44:28-04

This week on the Hear Cincinnati podcast, host Brian Niesz is joined by community reporter Lucy May, senior real-time editor Pat LaFleur and senior manager of enterprise/investigative Meghan Goth to discuss the latest cicada news, a project creating homeownership opportunities, the secret informant in a Cincinnati bribery case and more.

Following the panel, John Matarese joins the podcast to discuss Cincinnati's hot real estate market and the resulting pressure on renters.

Listen to this episode in the podcast player above.

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