On February 18, 2023, the Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA) will celebrate its 40th anniversary, and it's amazing how much OHFA has done for Ohioans in need of quality affordable housing over the last four decades!
Did you know that since its inception OHFA has:
- assisted 153,324 Ohioans achieve the dream of homeownership through loans, down payment assistance, and Mortgage Tax Credits? In fact, OHFA has provided more than $11 billion in affordable mortgage loans.
- allocated more than $12 billion since 1986 to help finance the development of 146,656 affordable rental units in more than 2,000 currently active properties? Properties are funded through programs such as the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, Housing Development Assistance Programs, and many more.
- helped 43,784 Ohio homeowners since 2010 struggling with housing costs through mortgage assistance programs? The Save the Dream Ohio program, which launched in July 2021, has helped nearly 16,000 homeowners.
Our programs and operations produce $4.5 billion in output for the state every year. That means that for every dollar of input, OHFA creates $1.69 in economic activity. These inputs also generate $423.2 million annually in tax revenue, including local, state, and federal taxes. Finally, because of OHFA and its programs, 27,128 Ohio jobs are created or sustained annually.
We continue to look for ways to help create opportunities for homeownership and help communities prepare for growth. Since 2014, OHFA has worked with land banks to remove more than 1,100 blighted and vacant properties across Ohio through the Hardest Hit Fund. And, to help Ohioans financially impacted by the pandemic, OHFA administers the Save the Dream Ohio program, which provides mortgage, utility, and property tax assistance to eligible Ohioans.
Looking ahead, OHFA is focused on supporting Ohio's economic growth. We're working with the city of Zanesville on a public-private partnership to build 10 new single-family homes in the city. Each will be around 1,788-square-feet and cost approximately $175,500.
We're also partnering with Esusu Financial, Inc., the leading financial technology company leveraging rent reporting for credit building, to help 442 families build their credit scores. The Esusu online platform will link the property management software used by the managers of nine affordable housing developments to the three national credit bureaus to report on-time rent payments automatically. Capturing on-time rental payments will help residents build and/or improve their credit scores, which over the long term will improve the residents' economic mobility. This initiative along with partnerships with CONVERGENCE Columbus and The Realtists are components of the Agency's Housing Equity priorities.
Our work here at OHFA continues and we look forward to helping even more first-time homebuyers, renters, senior citizens, veterans, teachers, and so many others, realize the dream of homeownership and having a safe affordable place to call home.
Cheers to another 40 years of opening the doors to an affordable place to call home!
