On Wednesday, the Columbus Metropolitan Club held its forum about population growth called “Three Million People, One City’s Future.”
The panelists were Rob Dorans, president pro tempore of Columbus City Council, Michael Wilkos, senior vice president of community impact at United Way of Central Ohio, and Monica Tellez-Fowler, president and CEO of Central Ohio Transit Authority. The panel was moderated by Jordan Laird, politics and government reporter at The Columbus Dispatch.
Panelists discussed challenges central Ohio will face as the region's population is expected to reach 3 million people by 2050. The discussion focused on the need for more affordable housing as more young people and immigrants are moving to Columbus.
Dorans talked about the city's recent zoning code changes to build more housing.
"I mean, this is one of the reasons why you have to densify portions of the city and portions of the region. You must actually put our land to better use when we think about. How do we create more housing units across the city," Dorans said.
Dorans mentioned the proposed $500 million bond package for affordable housing, which will be on the ballot this November as a potential solution to the growing need for more housing in Columbus.
The panel also discussed Columbus' poverty rate, which is around 13%, and the city's "working poor" population, which is defined as people who are employed, but still struggle financially. These people fall under classification of Asset-Limited, Income-Contrained, Employed, or ALICE, which was coined by United Way.
"They don't make enough to pay housing costs, medical care, childcare, utilities. If you are a two-parent household with two children, the federal poverty rate is $30,000 for that family of four. If you want to make it in Franklin County as a family of four, you need to make $45 an hour, or $90,000 a year to make it based on housing, transportation and medical care,” Wilkos said.
Wilkos pointed out the lack of space and availability of low-income housing and the absence of jobs that pay a living wage. He also noted that the increase in population may exacerbate these issues.