YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The lack of affordable, desirable housing in the Mahoning Valley affects renters as well as those who want to own a home.
According to a recent housing strategy released in January by the Greater Ohio Policy Center, 70% of Mahoning County households and 72% of those in Trumbull County own their homes. In Youngstown, 56% of residents own their homes while in Warren, it’s 50%.
There are 184,785 households in Mahoning and Trumbull counties.
The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation began building homes with the goal that they be owner-occupied and that is still its core. But YNDC also builds and rehabilitates homes and multiunit buildings that it rents.
Of the 60 units being developed by YNDC, 14 are planned as rental properties.
“That kind of ebbs and flows sometimes,” says Ian Beniston, YNDC executive director. “[It’s] not because we don’t see more demand. We just happen to be, at this point in time, developing more owner-occupied housing.”
Part of that stems from available funding, particularly from the state, which is designated for owner projects.
“We definitely continue to develop rental, though,” he says. “We see a strong demand there for all the new rentals we’ve developed.”
The organization expanded to rental properties about 10 years ago while working on a block that included some duplexes. The first one was owned by an absentee landlord who lived out of state. “We got into it because we concluded that if we didn’t buy it and renovate it and manage it the way we thought it needed to be done, we weren’t confident that anyone else would,” Beniston explains.
Multifamily Units
In addition to buying smaller rental properties, renovating them and renting them out, whether they be duplexes, triplexes or quads, YNDC also constructs smaller multiunit housing to rent.
In late March, the organization broke ground on three duplexes that will be powered by solar energy.
“The neighborhoods historically in Youngstown had a mix of housing,” Beniston notes.
“It wasn’t all single family. Within the neighborhood there would be duplexes, triplexes, quads, occasionally, some bigger buildings, but not typically. So, it’s kind of preserving a mix of housing that’s more accessible and attainable for all types of people.”
YNDC also buys, renovates and rents single-family homes although that’s not as common and is generally based on the home’s value. If YNDC is working in a neighborhood and the street value of a home on that block doesn’t support renovating and reselling it, the organization would rent it and potentially sell it when values on that block increased.
But mostly the buildings YNDC builds or renovates for rental are multiunit. And the demand is strong.
“When we list a new rental unit, we’re typically receiving hundreds of inquiries, as far as phone calls and interests of people seeking information,” Beniston says.
Regarding affordability, there’s still a large segment of the housing market that’s low quality, he adds.
“I would say it’s even regionally, you see low quality rental housing,” the YNDC executive director says.
Part of that, he believes, is a lack of new development of multiunit housing.
“Relative to the county population size, we haven’t really been developing a sufficient amount of new multifamily housing on a regional level,” Beniston says. “A lot of the apartment complexes, even in suburban locations we have, were built in the ’70s, the ’80s. So, I mean, many of those even are functionally obsolete, or are nearing the end of a useful life without major renovation but also just not generally an attractive product.”
Affordability Problem
Affordability is another issue and it’s not a problem exclusive to the Valley.
“Like everywhere else in the state and really the country, the cost of rent is outpacing wages,” says Alison Goebel, executive director of the Greater Ohio Policy Center, the organization that conducted the housing study of Mahoning and Trumbull counties. “And so, there’s a housing cost burden for renters.”
Eastgate Regional Council of Governments contracted GOPC to conduct the study.
The housing study found that 33% of households can’t afford a mortgage and need rental housing. Those households will need “quality market-rate housing with monthly rents of $675-$875,” according to the study.
Rental housing should focus on smaller studio and one-bedroom units and include some four-bedroom family units, it says. The document says that according to raw numbers, there is an adequate supply of two- and three-bedroom units in the two counties.
But Goebel points out that the units may be of varying quality.
“That’s pretty common across the state, in large part because the housing stock in the state itself is just older,” she says. “And so, you’re going to have problems – mechanicals and lead paint and everything – in a lot of places.”
Units are needed in a range of sizes and configurations across the board, Goebel adds.
Spending More
The Ohio Housing Finance Agency fiscal year 2024 Housing Needs Assessment also cites affordability as an obstacle for some renters, finding that Ohioans who rent are spending more.
“Adjusted for inflation, median gross rent in Ohio increased by 10% from $788 per month in 2012 to $870 per month in 2021,” the assessment reports. “For recent movers – who typically pay more in rent – the increase over this period is even greater (+18%), from $799 per month in 2012 to $942 in 2021.”
It also found a net loss in affordable rental housing for those with the lowest incomes.
“There are 447,717 extremely low-income (ELI) renters in Ohio, but only 177,318 rental homes affordable and available to them – leaving a shortage of 270,399 units,” the finance agency’s housing needs assessment found. “The affordability gap between supply and demand for the lowest-income renters is now widening, with a net loss of over 15,000 affordable units between 2020 and 2021.”
Regarding public housing, Donald W. Emerson, executive director of the Trumbull Metropolitan Housing Authority, says that agency is at a stabilized housing level compared to some prior years.
“I think one of the things we need to continue to do is to modernize the housing that we have and continue to just basically do the good work we believe that we do,” he explains.
In late 2024, TMHA’s Section 8 waiting list opened and people lined up to apply. Section 8 allows income-eligible applicants to move into approved private landlord-owned housing. The landlord must agree. A voucher system is used to pay a portion of the rent to the landlord based on the applicant’s income.
“It hadn’t been open for about three years and we took in probably over 1,300 people who have essentially applied for Section 8 vouchers now,” Emerson explains, adding that appointments have been set up through April 2026.
Agency personnel will go through the process of qualifying individuals for their particular vouchers.
Whenever the list opens, people apply, seeking that privately-owned housing, he adds.
Pictured at top: Ian Beniston, executive director of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, stands on the porch of a home at 844 W. Indianola Ave., Youngstown, that the agency renovated and recently rented to a tenant. Next door, at 840 W. Indianola, stands a fourplex that YNDC renovated and rents to tenants.