KNOWLEDGE
WORTH HAVING

Housing, whether rented or owned, for which the household pays no more than 30% of their income for house costs (rent/mortgage), including utilities.

What is affordable housing?

A distinct fund established by a city, county or state to receive ongoing dedicated public funds to support the preservation & production of affordable housing to increase opportunities for families and individuals to access safe, healthy & sustainable affordable housing

what is an affordable housing trust fund?

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In Cincinnati, we are short approximately 28,000 homes affordable to households with incomes at or below 30% of the Hamilton County area median income (AMI) or roughly minimum wage. In addition, thousands of households are currently living in affordable housing (rental & ownership) which is threatened with eventual closure because of inadequate maintenance or gentrification, unless there are funds to save them.

How Many Affordable Homes do we need?

62% of Black Cincinnati Households cannot afford 96% of the new housing City Council gave tax abatements to in 2020.

At the median annual income of Black People ($27,580) in Cincinnati, you can afford 8 of the 667 new homes City Council gave tax abatements to in 2020.

unequal development

In 2017 more than 54% of the 27,725 Cincinnati households who reported being severely cost-burdened because they were spending more than half of their income for housing alone, were Black.

unequal Burden

School Kids

Thousands of Cincinnati children are growing up without a consistent home, often afraid of being evicted, displaced; thrown out again.

Each year, approximately 20% of children in Cincinnati Public Schools experience homelessness .

The affordable housing shortage is so dire that on an average day, most families with children who seek shelter are turned away because there is not enough room to accommodate every family loosing their home. Even so, in 2021 25% of people in Cincinnati shelters were children.

families with Children

Dollars

The midpoint of a geographical area's income distribution. Half of area households have income higher than the AMI & half have income lower than the AMI.

what does area median income (ami) mean?

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A household is "cost-burdened when they pay more than 30% of their income for housing (rent or mortgage & utilities). You are "severely cost-burdened when you pay half or more of your income for housing alone.

what does it mean to be "cost-burdened or severely "cost-burdened"?

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While about 41.4% of people in Cincinnati are Black, in 2021, approximately
64% of people in shelters were Black, & specifically, approximately 78%
of people in shelters for families with children were Black.

Race and homelessness

According to the Census Bureau, half of Black and Hispanic households reported having at least one of the following four problems: 1) cost burden, 2) lack of complete plumbing, 3) lack of complete kitchen, 4) overcrowding.

unequal living conditions

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Over the last 6 years, more than 559 people have died young in our community because of homelessness. This represents only the early deaths of people we know about & is a fraction of the actual number of deaths caused by homelessness. Their approximate average age was less than 51, or 25 years less than the average life expectancy in our city.

Life & Death

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The City of Cincinnati's current involvement in housing development most often results in housing that most people struggling to get or keep a roof over their head cannot afford.

the city is
missing the target