Acting Secretary of HUD Visits Cincinnati to Discuss Affordable Housing Plans

Local leaders met in Avondale Tuesday with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Acting Secretary Adrianne Todman to discuss ways of creating more affordable housing in Cincinnati.

Cincinnati, like many cities across the U.S., is facing a housing crisis. Nationally, housing experts estimate there is a shortage of 4-7 million affordable housing units. In just Hamilton County, Ohio, that gap is about 40,000. U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman (OH-1) said the work being done locally to create more affordable housing is "incredible," but partnership between HUD and state and local leaders is essential.

“For most families, housing has become a very difficult part of their financial life, whether it’s rent going up or it’s a mortgage that they’re struggling to pay. Property taxes here have become a huge issue,” Landsman said during a press conference at the Urban League’s Holloman Center for Social Justice Tuesday. “But we’ve got to work with HUD and state and local leaders to build way more housing.”

As a congressman, Landsman said he wants to bring D.C. to Southwest Ohio, showing leaders like Todman firsthand the work already being done to help close the housing gap using federal aid. This includes efforts like Hamilton County’s 513Relief Bus, which can bring medical and social services directly to neighborhoods and was purchased using American Rescue Plan (ARPA) dollars.

“​​We took those dollars and the Board of County Commissioners — we said, ‘OK, Washington, release the money,’ but how do you get the money to the people? And so we came up with, what I think, is a unique way to go block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood, countywide,” Hamilton County Commission President Alicia Reece said.

“We understand that [housing] is a major issue, a major crisis, and we wanted to put some skin in the game. We [invested] $100 million with that bus to make sure that people could pay their rent, stay in their homes, and we couldn’t have done it without [the Biden-Harris administration]. … We think this is a national model, where we were able to get funding for mortgage assistance, rental assistance, utility assistance, senior citizen assistance,” she added.
Reece also shared that $40 million of the $158 million in ARPA funds were earmarked for housing. But, that money is drying up and local leaders need to explore new options, like a partnership with HUD, to expand on the work already underway.

“We have a great partner in [Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority] and HUD, and we’re all gonna do this together,” said Landsman. “But we need more units, more housing. We need more money for the Section 8 program; the voucher hasn’t been touched in a while. We need Congress to invest and give HUD the tools that they need. We’ve got to replace a lot of these buildings and properties so that people are living in places that are going to allow them and their children to thrive, and this is going to take an all-hands-on-deck approach.”

Todman said this isn’t the first time HUD has talked about partnerships with cities like Cincinnati. She said she's "laser-focused" on helping Americans with housing costs alongside President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. In 2022, the Biden-Harris administration implemented the Housing Supply Action Plan, an effort to build millions of units and reduce the housing shortfall in just five years.

“One of the reasons I’m here is to understand what the very unique needs of Cincinnati are and to be able to talk about the tools HUD has to address those needs — whether it’s building more units for people to rent, building more units for people to purchase, whether it’s rental assistance, … whether it’s folks who want to become first-time homeowners and just don’t know where to begin — HUD is here as a partner to get all of that done,” Todman said.

“This is critical to have this partnership,” Reece added. “It’s a state of emergency … [Landsman] has been fighting for Congress to act quickly, so HUD can act quickly, so we can get on the ground. This is the most dignity you can have: that you’ve got a place to stay, a roof over your head, that’s safe and that is clean and that you can call your home. That’s part of your American dream.”