YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Eastgate Regional Council of Governments officials are working to try to help a Lordstown company house its workforce.
Ultium Cells in Lordstown wants to build 400 condominiums to serve its workforce of Korean employees, Jim Kinnick, Eastgate executive director, said at the agency’s annual meeting Thursday at Stambaugh Auditorium.
“They just floated the idea out there,” he said. “I’ve got to sit down with them.”
Those employees live in Solon, but if the housing is built in the Mahoning Valley, the employees would live in the condos for three years and then return to Korea, and 400 new employees would come in to live in the condos and work at the company.
“They want a community,” Kinnick said, adding that such a community could also draw restaurants. “So I’m going to try to meet with them, go with the [Youngstown/Warren Regional] Chamber and see if they would invest with us. We’ll find some space. I think they really like the Warren area.”
Kinnick listed some of Eastgate’s accomplishments from the past year, including expansion of broadband across Mahoning, Trumbull and Ashtabula counties, demolition of dams along the Mahoning River and the release of a housing strategy to address the shortage of affordable homes.
The annual gathering drew government, business and nonprofit officials from across the three counties.
Housing was also the topic for the featured speaker, Chris Allen, director of events and partnerships at Strong Towns, a Minnesota-based nonprofit.
People agree that the country is in a housing crisis, Allen said. But they disagree about how to fix it. It’s close to an even split between those who think the solution is lower housing prices and those who point to higher prices as the answer.
“We’re having two completely separate housing conversations, and we’re continually surprised that we can’t find the right answer,” Allen said. “One of these conversations is that housing is a basic human right and should be available to all of us.”
The other is an entire financial market that’s built on the back of housing, he added. And federal policy is pushing both positions.
“We have tax dollars and subsidies going for creating affordable housing. At the same time, we have policies for down payment assistance,” Allen said.
Changes in policy over the past several decades have made it easier for more people to borrow more money to pay for more housing, and housing is no longer the product. The mortgage is, he said.
He suggested code reform, local financing and eliminating parking mandates for housing as potential solutions.
“We need to do things like allowing accessory apartments,” Allen said. “In most places in America, renting out one of your rooms to help make ends meet” is illegal.
But allowing a backyard cottage – also called a granny flat or accessory dwelling unit – on a property encourages developers to get creative. Small homes on small lots, which used to be a staple, are illegal in most communities.
“This is one of the first things we have to fix,” Allen said. “We wonder why housing costs are prohibitively high. We can’t build the housing that we know we need – that we’ve needed and built for generations.”
Kinnick said much of what Allen talked about is included in Eastgate’s housing strategy recommendations released earlier this year.
Kinnick also encouraged meeting attendees to tell the positive stories of what’s happening in the Valley, participate in regional initiatives and be a cheerleader for the region.
Thursday’s meeting also included the presentation of the first Community Leadership Awards. Struthers Mayor Catherine Cercone Miller and Pat Kerrigan, Oak Hill Collaborative executive director, received the awards.
Pictured at top: Jim Kinnick, executive director of Eastgate Regional Council of Governments.