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Ohio is lacking more than 264,000 affordable rental units, according to a new report.
This is actually about a 1% decrease compared to last year — which had a shortage of 267,382 affordable units available, according to the 2025 Gap Report released by the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio.
“The new housing programs that Ohio created in the last budget bill are having a positive impact, even as pandemic-era housing assistance expired and rents continued rising,” COHHIO Executive Director Amy Riegel said.
Ohio has more than 438,000 extremely low-income households with only 40 affordable units available to every 100 extremely low-income household, according to this year’s report. Extremely low-income is income that is at or below either the federal poverty guideline or 30% of their area median income.
Columbus has 25 affordable housing units available for every 100 extremely low-income (ELI) household — making it less affordable than other major cities, according to the report. San Francisco has 31 units per every ELI 100 households and New York City has 34 units, according to the report.
And it’s not just Columbus. Rural and suburban counties in Ohio also have shortages of affordable and available housing:
- Van Wert has 18 units for every 100 extremely low-income households.
- Wayne County has 26 units for every 100 extremely low-income households.
- Wood County has 24 units for every 100 extremely low-income households.
- Delaware County has 26 units for every 100 extremely low-income households.
- Williams County has 28 units for every 100 extremely low-income households.
- Darke County has 28 units for every 100 extremely low-income households.
- Fairfield County has 31 units for every 100 extremely low-income households.
- Allen County has 33 units for every 100 extremely low-income households.
Ohio’s 2023 budget created the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, which is modeled after the federal version. The Ohio House Finance Agency reserved $87.5 million in tax credits for new projects during fiscal year 2024 and low-income households moved into more than 5,000 new affordable rental housing units.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s state budget proposal would invest $100 million to the Ohio Housing Investment Opportunity Program in fiscal year 2026. Lawmakers in the Ohio House are currently working on the budget, which he must sign by July 1.
NLIHC Interim President and CEO Renee Willis said pending cuts to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development would make the country’s affordable housing crisis worse. The Department of Government Efficiency plans to reduce HUD’s staffing by about half.
“There is no path to addressing the housing crisis for the lowest-income renters that doesn’t involve increasing resources for assistance and supporting the agencies that administer our housing programs,” she said in a statement.
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