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Notice/Advertisement Title: Housing, Homelessness, and Building Committee "Yes in God's Backyard" Housing Policy Hearing Minutes
Contact Name: Jessica Clinger
Contact Telephone Number: 614-645-6354
Contact Email Address: jnclinger@columbus.gov
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Columbus City Council
Housing, Homelessness, and Building Committee Hearing Minutes
Hosted by Council President Hardin: City Hall, Corban Commons, 3426 Corban Commons Dr, Columbus, OH 43219
Thursday, October 2, 2025 at 2pm
Call to order: 2:05pm
Present: Council President Shannon Hardin, Council member Nancy Day-Achauer, Building and Zoning Services Deputy Director Tony Celebreeze, Zoning Administrator Shannon Pine, Mario Dovell, Marion Meadows, Katie Fallon, and Jessica Clinger.
Presentation:
Introduction and welcome to hearing: Council President Shannon Hardin
Opening Prayer - Pastor Johnny Pitts
Opening remarks - Council President Hardin
- Background Yes In God’s Backyard housing policy idea. Discussion meetings with faith based leaders, importance of building more housing. Mentioned barriers that stand in the way of this type of development. Discussion of Columbus’ rapid growth and need to work on creative solutions to solve the housing crisis.
Council member Nancy Day-Achauer: Council member mentioned her role as a Pastor in Methodist church. Previously lived in San Francisco where commuting an hour is typical, where being priced out of housing is the norm, when she was earning $75k a year could not find housing and couch surfed for 3 months with her child. We can’t have Columbus become like San Francisco.
Invited Speaker:
Johnny Pitts, President, Dayspring Christian Community Development Corp
Grateful to work with Council President on this policy - those with experience are happy to provide partnership, mentorship, and capacity building.
We need everybody interested to grab a shovel and meet the growing need. Having 25+ years in this space, the city can help support new, smaller and minority developers. If prioritizing these new, small emerging developers - it must be reflected in the details of programming and outreach about available funding. A broad review of who is historically accessing housing should reflect how the city has been in getting - if thresholds need to be set, they should be intentionally set to meet noted goals. All of the current affordable housing funding programs through DoD are tied to OHFA. OHFA famously has barriers to entry for urban, minority, new developers from accessing credits. It also de-prioritizes buildings in minority neighborhoods. Makes it hard to tie the city’s funding to the state’s program. It hurts the small, minority developers -restricts funding to projects that already have funding, of which there are too few in Columbus.
- City does not have preservation funding to help them keep LIHTC in place after credits expire - properties must sell, get more credits, or raise rents. The city is losing more affordable housing. The quality of aging housing is declining.
- Last programs required new build - removing “preservation” Corban commons is owned by a 25 year partnership - Agler limited partnership is comprised of 3 faith based CDCs and a quasi governmental agency, Dayspring agency, New Salaam Baptist, My Brother’s Keeper, and CHP (Homeport).
CP Hardin: Bond package $500 Million that would go to affordable housing - we can borrow at a lower rate of interest.
Johnny Pitts: We would like to prevent CDCs from jumping through hoops to get forgiveness of loan and wanting to keep affordability and preserve it.
Invited speaker - Sheldon Johnson, executive director PACT.
There is a neighborhood issue with underutilized land - there are examples of policies that are making it easier to build. Near East side is a small set of 4 churches (largest land owners) and we will have an outsized impact on the neighborhood. We know there is interest. We were standing room only with the churches saying “we’re ready” - we can provide land, there are church leaders who have done this work. Now is the time to make those connections with the City able to bring those units online.
CP Hardin: What technical assistance components would be helpful? Deacon boards may not have the expertise. This is not just building housing but about protecting the church itself? With the partnership with 5/3 what are those dollars being used for?
Sheldon Johnson: Especially in Black and brown neighborhood, there is the connection to the church that has been a backbone to the neighborhood. That connection is really important - FBO groups bring connection. What they don’t bring is architecture. Tax credits, how to navigate OHFA and financial institutions. WE don’t want them to turn into developers but want them to be knowledgable enough to make decisions and walk beside them.
Sheldon Johnson: Tapping fees are tapping into underground utilities
CP Hardin: Need to figure out how far tapping goes - it is complicated
Invited Speaker: Joe Recchie, Praxia Partners - Two significant assets: stewardship - they start with few resources and hold those tightly and they are tightly connected to the community. They are often public - making it possible for the collective to have more and better information. For those with a small amount of excess land - none of those projects necessarily fit into a tax credit property, but they can build housing in. The ground of trust that made it possible to build vulnerable preservation of the church. Each of these was set up among trusted parties. The operating agreement is available to all of you - you can put and paste
Councilmember Day Achauer: Scattered site complex could be interesting - can you share an approach?
JR: Homes on the Hill - 60 units across multiple. It is now 35 years old and is a LIHTC. Nonprofits grabbed it out of bankruptcy. Standardize architecture and requirements over and over. Having a range of product kits that go through a special desk - this is the same plan that is sited. You can proceed quickly. A zoning change like others that you create a standard template that can help speed the process.
Invited speaker: Anna Teye-Kasongo - Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio: removing zoning and permitting barriers under the guidance of community. We did a temperature check - we found overwhelming support zoning policies that support our shortage and reduce costs. ¾ of our neighbors love or care for someone who has been impacted by the housing shortage. Another 20k families will slip into housing insecurity. We have a divine mandate to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. What greater way to make sure our neighbor has a head over their roof and a place to call home. Faith groups alone own over 1300 acres of land in our city. Many groups want to build or preserve. Current zoning code restricts, and adds uncertainty and cost. AHACO recommends - 1. Local zoning flexibility should be designed to complement state funding to ensure that it can be large or compact enough to pencil out - at least 40 dwelling units per acre to qualify for housing. 2. Many nonprofit groups already own housing - any YIGBY can accommodate housing preservation; 3. Lastly they need technical assistance, which includes legal counsel, predevelopment funding, and viable financial products such as loans or credit enhancements. This ensures they have the ability to keep up with out of state actors.
CP Hardin: 1300 acres with the land and that is a lot of the community. Some land can be scattered and some can be on the church property. Pandemic changed how we attend church - some of these could help turn underutilized space into land that can be used for housing. Solving the housing crisis is not just the private or government sector. Best when we all have a role.
BZS has committed to work with us to do expedited zoning, allow applications to be processed and completed within 45 days. Allow applications go directly to council - expedited project management and a project manager. Eligible parcels
Deputy Director Tony Celebreeze: We are doing zone in project and we see about 40% of the city is re-zoned early next year, how do we make it easier for people to develop on their parcels. That is part of a zoning package and this is a great opportunity. We’re excited for this land that could bring housing online for folks. Internally- setting up hard timelines within the city; how do you construct the building? Close to 85% of building plans are submitted electronically and reviews are done electronically
Public Speakers:
Rev. John Edgar, Columbus Housing Enterprise: Churches will be able to more easily put churches into play. I want to stress - that is only ½ of what is essential. It is the technical assistance. A lot we can learn about the Enterprise model. A lot can be done with the 150 million of housing was always done in partnerships and we learned as we went. We need to figure out how to come alongside FBO that want to do it for the first time and not re-create the wheel. Each church should have legal representation that understand Affordable Housing; put together a loan fund that can be made available to churches to do redevelopment - going through a program and examples of OCCH 300k available for CD4AP that would only be paid back if project went forward.
Pastor Josh Lawrence, World Fire Church: Support YIGBY gives FBOs ability to build in a way that meetings the city’s need. Hamilton Rising in former fort rapids site. This has been closed since 2016 we are transforming it into a community with up to 325 new home for working families in East Columbus - it has a faith element for services to support holistic and health family.
Alice Foeller - EDP and REDI - Churches are operated by committee and many must be brought on board that the legal and financial hoops and risk are worth it. Often developers make money by increasing value of land and selling it - FBOs don’t want out - so getting project off starting blocks. The church partner almost always owns land and can wait forever to begin. One helpful strategy would be a time incentive - permit fees or discount if a project gets off the block sooner; make them more attractive to church by making a better deal on operations side - invest in energy savings (geothermal or rooftop solar) working on IMPACT with appliances or incenting the developer to sustain the trees; invest in energy aspect to make them more enticing? Partners want to minimize costs - and so we could help activate the value of solar and other investments make the long-term cost savings helpful. Land use - working on 161 - as part of new design standards, church would need to comply with facade design standard which would require re-building the church - allowing us to subdivide the aprcel make it easier to overcome hurdle because they need to separate anyway. Making it easier would be helpful.
BZS: Only new building need to meet new designs of code. Since there are no parking mins in the new code, you would not need a variance for having parking on one parcel used by another parcel. Two barriers removed
Janet Daniels: Home lease option program and went to 15 year lease option program. Today we have not yet purchased the home, I am here representing the people and ask for help. Ichole Hardy also present. Program through Homeport.
Jyoshu Tsushima, Patsy Thomas, Legal Aid of Southeast and Central Ohio: Please keep in mind you still have a lot of power on what the tenant relationship looks like. What property management company are you using? Does the company have a license? Lots of details that can be looked into -YIGBY conference - to start sharing ideas and coordinating on what we can do collectively. Individuals in eviction court are single mothers with children, they used to have church support. But one thing - we need to keep the tenants in the affordable housing, having tenants come to court - maybe it’s for nonpayment, almost all of it is late fees. What I would suggest is with the abatement - I promise to hire so many employees over this time, what about with Faith Based leaders with the development and when it is done we promise to hire a licensed property manager that knows what they’re doing. We won’t have individuals being brought to eviction court - but that eviction filing is still on that record. We have to get it sealed Some property managers will use a standard lease, but they have per day late fees. No per day late fees
Adam Troy, Community of Caring Development Foundation: Ed Dudley, Joe Ritchie, Johnny Pitts - stand in support and related policy proposals. Practical because faith based organizations own land. This proposal is visionary because it aligns with dignity, justice, and opportunity. CDCs allow churches can carry out their business by working around the idea of church and state separation. The horizontal lines, which is access to housing health care and food scarcity and education. They are set up as separate entities and CDC can quickly outpace the church budget.
Adjourned at 4:07pm