Stark County plans study to address affordable housing shortage
CANTON – Stark County commissioners plan to pay for a countywide study looking at ways to address a shortage of affordable housing.
The study will involve talking to employers, real estate agents and developers to pinpoint housing needs in the community. The Stark Economic Development Board has proposed hiring Next Move Group LLC, which has offices in Missouri, Louisiana, Florida and Kentucky, to conduct it.
After collecting the data, commissioners hope to encourage construction through tax incentives, county administrator Brant Luther said.
The study will also consider rental properties, which Luther said have become less affordable.
“What we’re also seeing is a lot of people that have been buying housing stock and out-of-town folks buying large apartment complexes and really jacking up the price of apartments,” he said. “If you have a single person or two people or two people and a child that are not needing maybe a full house, but a two-room apartment, those prices are really jumping and becoming cost-prohibitive.”
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The county has a desperate need for more affordable housing, said Julie Sparks, executive director of ICAN Housing, a Canton agency that provides housing support.
“We have to have affordable housing because over the years the affordability has changed dramatically,” Sparks said. “Whereas people’s incomes, particularly people in poverty and deep poverty haven’t changed in any respect to keep up with that.”
A 2023 study from the National Low Income Housing Coalition found residents in Stark County would need to work full time making $16.56 an hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment. The Ohio minimum wage is $10.45 an hour.
Having more affordable rentals available would mean fewer people would be homeless and burdened by rent, Sparks said.
The county is also anticipating population growth because of jobs moving into Stark County for businesses such as the new Amazon fulfillment center in Canton and even remote workers from the Intel plant under construction in suburban Columbus.
“We think there’s going to be some people that the cost of living in Columbus and Franklin County is probably 30% or 40% higher,” county Commissioner Richard Regula said. “With some people working at home, … we want to make sure we have enough housing to attract people into the economy so it can continue to grow.”
Luther said the board plans to sign the contact to initiate the three-month study within the next few weeks. The study will cost just under $100,000.
Reach Grace at gspringer@gannett.com. Follow her on X @GraceSpringer16.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Stark County commissioners to spend $100,000 on housing study
