The housing shortage is one of the more pressing issues facing central Ohio and much of the nation, but Ohio's two U.S. Senators and the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development believe the government should be taking less of a role to address the problem.
Senators Jon Husted and Bernie Moreno toured two Columbus locations alongside HUD Secretary Scott Turner on Friday. The three touted a small home, transitional community for former homeless people that the federal government played no role in funding.
The three spoke at Vista Village near Refugee Road on the city's southeast side and toured one of its 420 square-foot homes. The three later toured the Connect Housing Blocks factory on the northeast side of Columbus.
At Vista Village, it was pointed out that the community was a collaboration between local and state funding sources and private fundraising. The faith-based community offers low rent at $350 a month to help former homeless people get their footing in life.
Turner said the nationwide housing shortage doesn't need to be fixed with federal funding from his agency.
"I think (Vista Village is) a great example of you don't have to depend on the federal government. You don't have to wait on a federal government and to (the senators' point) Washington is not the answer, the answer is local," Turner said.
Turner falsely said Columbus has 250,000 homeless people. If true, that would mean Columbus has
one-third of the country's homeless population. The last point-in-time count for Columbus put the city at more than 2,500 homeless people, which was a 7% increase.
Central Ohio is estimated to be 30,000 to 40,000 homes behind where it should be as the region's population booms. The state as a whole is also behind. Experts say the nation has a shortage of an estimated four to seven million homes.
Turner, a former NFL cornerback from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, applauded the public-private partnership that built the community, but didn't mention that HUD had no part in it until asked by a reporter.
"This public-private partnership shows a very powerful example that the federal government is not the solution. The federal government is not the answer. HUD is a great convener. HUD is a bringer of stakeholders to come to the table. HUD is great partner, but when you see public and private coming together, you get results such as Vista Village," Turner said.
Turner's agency is responsible for administering programs that provide housing and community development assistance. HUD also works to ensure fair and equal housing opportunities for all.
President Trump's recent budget slashed the agency's funding to $43.5 billion in gross discretionary appropriations, which is about $45.6 billion, or 51% less than the $89 billion from the final year of the Biden administration.
Trump's budget proposed funding reductions for most HUD programs and activities.
Turner said there's been a lack of proper stewardship of American taxpayer dollars to address housing and homelessness.
"And so we have to reduce the regulation. Decrease the cost in order to increase the supply. So it's not how much more can the federal government pour into projects? It's the money that is being poured into projects isn't being stewarded properly," Turner said.
Turner said just pushing homeless people towards temporary shelter isn't enough. He applauded the housing community's wraparound services.
Moreno, Husted and Turner didn't say what other policies they'd like to see in place to address homelessness.
Most recently, Trump threatened Washington D.C.'s homeless population with arrest unless they left the city or went to a shelter after he sent in the National Guard and took over the local police department.
Husted said little has been done by communities in central Ohio to make building housing easier, despite the communities funding a lot of studies on the topic. He did say Columbus has done a good job reducing regulations to make housing easier to build.
"If you do not make it easier for people to develop, if you don't let them develop in a manner in which is affordable, then you will not solve the problem," Husted said.
Husted said it is not that the federal government shouldn't have a role, but that more of the federal money should be invested in projects like Vista Village.
Senator Bernie Moreno blamed the housing crisis on undocumented immigrants, the Federal Reserve's interest rates and former President Joe Biden.
"What we need to do is focus our government on helping Americans who are in need and doing it in a way that's creative, that's innovative, that's unique, that doesn't just say, 'let's just throw more money at the problem, but how do we structurally fix it,'" Moreno said. "And the issue of housing, unfortunately, over the Biden administration years was a total disaster."
Columbus' housing crisis began long before Biden took office.
Moreno said he'd like to see Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell leave his post sooner rather than later. Powell's term ends in May next year. Moreno said Trump is pushing for more incentives for communities that build more housing.
All three praised the creation of opportunity zones in Trump's 2017 tax cut law. These zones are an economic development tool that allow people to invest in distressed areas in the United States, like where Connect Housing Blocks is in northeast Columbus.
The purpose of these zones is to spur economic growth and job creation in low-income communities while providing tax benefits to investors.
"Rather than having it be a government-led program, which we know how that works out, this is allowing the private sector to do what it needs to do to develop where it otherwise would not participate," Moreno said.
Moreno said without the zone, the factory would not have been built in northeast Columbus. Connect Housing Blocks builds modular housing units which can be stacked into an apartment complex.
These units were used to build an apartment complex on Columbus' Near East Side near the East Market on Oak Street.
