Athens County is currently home to nearly 10,000 elderly residents and has maintained a near 30% poverty rate for almost 25 years. Despite efforts from local officials and housing organizations, Southeast Ohio faces socioeconomic challenges that have stunted progress toward creating fully accessible and affordable housing for elderly residents.
According to the Ohio Housing Finance Agency website, the median home price in Ohio in 2021 was 2.6 times the median household income, the largest price-to-income ratio since 2005, which could add difficulty for prospective homebuyers when buying a home.
Arianne Childrey, a candidate for the 84th statehouse district, said Ohio is an aging state and the government and other resources need to be tailored to that growing population.
Childrey said to ensure elderly individuals' needs are met, she wants to work on shifting the model for the counties that rely on local levies that fund their senior services to instead being state-funded.
“When you're dealing with impoverished areas … you're asking those same people to take more money out of their pay in order to pay for the (communal) services. It's not surprising that in many cases if they go to a levy, the levy fails … which is why I think they need good state funding.”
Not only does Athens County have a significant elderly and impoverished population, but it is also home to 20,000 Ohio University students, which may affect housing prices in areas surrounding the campus.
“The high poverty rate in Athens County is partially explained by the large portion of the population comprised of students living off-campus,” the Ohio Office of Research wrote in its 2020 Poverty Report. “Students often rely on various combinations of familial support, irregular gifts, savings, loans, grants and scholarships – which may or may not count as income – to meet expenses.”
Edward Supranowicz is a 74-year-old former Athens resident who now lives in Lancaster. He said rent prices and lack of government intervention are a part of the reason why he left Athens in the first place.
“I was trying to find a place that I can move to but because rent is so outrageous in Athens … there's no place in the town that I could afford,” Supranowicz said. “The so-called elderly or poor people apartments, they had waiting lists of a year or two years.”
However, there are resources like the Athens Metropolitan Housing Authority and Habitat for Humanity that assist and help provide affordable housing options to those in need.
Councilmember Alan Swank, planning and development chair and D-4th Ward said his committee is working diligently to provide Athens residents with suitable and quality housing.
“I'm really hoping now that we have new leadership on the Affordable Housing Commission, something will actually come out of that commission that city council can vote on and bring forward to improve the lives of our senior citizens here in Athens,” he said
Swank said several other council initiatives have been introduced to the community, but have not yet met the needs of residents. The University Estates, located at 29 University Estates Blvd., is one of these projects aimed to provide senior citizens and low-income people with affordable and accessible housing options.
Swank said there were problems with the University Estates project, including the structure of the houses being two levels and the starting price being $270,000 for the homes. He said, in his opinion, the project has died.
On the state level, Childrey hopes to introduce a comprehensive piece of legislation that would increase funding for impoverished communities, implement stronger renter protections and offer incentives for primary at-home caregivers.
“There can be pushback in certain communities when you're looking at building low-income housing,” Childrey said. “People tend to look at that very negatively … Making sure that the state government is doing their fair share to subsidize that, I think would definitely be a helpful place to start.”
Supranowicz said he wants change on all levels of government to increase his trust in his representatives. He wants to see more housing, simplified subsides paperwork and protection for the elderly from being evicted and against abuse.
Ultimately, Childrey said residents looking for more permanent, legislative change, should call their state representatives to give their feedback and suggestions.
“Letting your state representatives know what it is that you're struggling with is incredibly important so that they know what type of legislation needs to be introduced,” Childrey said.
