Higher rents in city core push poor out

Lonnie Thomas is one of the last two residents of Bollinger Tower, an 11-story Short North building that for decades has been home to low-income, senior residents.

Last year, a developer bought the building for $14 million to convert it into a hotel. Such changes are moving subsidized housing out of the Short North and other central-city neighborhoods in Columbus that have become more popular among developers and affluent newcomers.

Meanwhile, the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority has increased the number of rent vouchers it provides in other areas.

That’s not what Thomas wanted. He has enjoyed living at Bollinger Tower. And now, he is having problems finding a new home, even though the housing authority has provided a relocation specialist.

“I’ve been calling apartments on the Section 8 hotline. They are saying they don’t accept Section 8 anymore,” Thomas said. “I’ve been going hard at it.”

Thomas has lived at Bollinger Tower at 750 N. High St. for 13 years. “I was planning on being here forever. I’m 59. I might just have to take anything to get up on out of here.”

Thomas is trying to decide between two places “I don’t want to go.”

Seven of the 16 ZIP codes within Columbus’ pre-1950 boundaries have lost subsidized households since 1994, according to housing authority data. Meanwhile, 33 of the remaining 35 ZIP codes in Franklin County have gained households using rent vouchers. That includes large gains in the three ZIP codes near Westland Mall (43228), the old Northland Mall site (43229) and Eastland Mall (43232).

“People are using housing assistance in a wider number of ZIP codes than in the past,” said Roberta Garber, CMHA’s vice president of planning and development, who said 3,000 landlords participate in the program here.

Some neighborhoods in the ZIP codes where housing subsidies are increasing have high concentrations of people with low-income jobs, according to the research done for the Dispatch series “Dividing Lines” in March. The series highlighted the increasing concentration of wealth and poverty in the region.

Some advocates of low-income residents are worried that rents are rising too high in some neighborhoods, including central-city areas such as the Short North. According to housing authority records, the number of people living in subsidized housing in the Short North’s 43201 ZIP code has decreased by more than half since 1994, from 625 to 295. That includes people living in public housing and those using vouchers to rent privately owned units.

The average rent in the Columbus area has increased more than 4 percent in each of the past two years, and it is forecast to rise an additional 4.2 percent this year, to $898 a month, which is $10,776 a year. According to the housing authority, the average household income of those living in public housing or using vouchers is $14,197 a year.

Many people have taken their housing vouchers to places where landlords have lowered rents to fill units. “There are a significant number of older complexes with vacant units,” said Rita Parise, housing administrator for the city of Columbus.

Amy Klaben, the former president and CEO of the Columbus nonprofit developer Homeport, said the result is new concentrations of poverty.

“As rents go up in neighborhoods that are revitalized, people end up moving,” Klaben said. “Are we just making more neighborhoods with lots of poverty? I think that’s what you’re finding.”

The number of households with subsidized housing in Franklin County grew by 65 percent between 1994 and 2017, from 9,118 to 15,035. In 1994, 88 percent of those households were in the older part of the city. Today, it’s 57 percent.

Michael Wilkos, a Weinland Park resident who heads community research for the Columbus Foundation, said he sees those numbers as positives: Subsidized housing is now dispersed through more areas of Columbus and Franklin County.

Wilkos said he thinks market forces are pushing subsidized housing out of the 43201 ZIP code that includes the Short North and Weinland Park. But on the Near East Side, subsidized housing such as Poindexter Village has been demolished, leading to the decline there.

Wilkos is concerned that people have moved out to areas without enough living-wage jobs or social services.

Bryan Brown, the housing authority’s chief operating officer, said the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development approves of the way residents have been distributed across ZIP codes here. To reduce costs, the housing authority has demolished public housing such as Poindexter Village and provided vouchers to residents to find housing elsewhere.

Ava Johnson, who leads the Greater South East Area Commission, said sometimes crime and other issues crop up in relation to some of the apartment complexes that accept vouchers there. “We’ve encountered mainly burglary, property crimes,” she said.

Johnson said the commission has invited CMHA officials to discuss those issues.

She also has concerns about developments forcing residents out, as at Bollinger Tower.

“There’s no empathy, there’s no compassion there,” she said. “There should be an opportunity to have affordable housing in all parts of our community.”

Columbus Development Director Steve Schoeny said the city is not trying to concentrate affordable housing. He pointed to the Kaufman development being built in Franklinton; the 275,000-square-foot mixed-use project includes 240 apartments.

“You go to the Kaufman project, there’s middle-income stuff next to Franklin Station (a CMHA development). You’re going to have full mixed-income and some high-end stuff in there.”

Meanwhile, Homeport, which has concentrated on building and renovating homes in the central city, is considering expanding into other neighborhoods, including the Northland area, said President and CEO Bruce Luecke.

Demand for subsidized housing remains high: The housing authority’s waiting list has more than 25,000 households. mferench@dispatch.com @MarkFerenchik