AFFORDABLE FOR WHOM?

BY SULIN NGO

Video & Photography by JP Leong, Afrochine

It was good to be back at the beautiful Mercantile Library in Cincinnati. While the pandemic hasn’t stopped Urban Consulate from holding necessary conversations — from building racial solidarity to building equitable spaces and places — the team gently returned to gathering in-person September 13th, showing care for one another by masking. Recognizing the very real ongoing public health risk, many friends opted to tune-in online — a welcomed way to stay connected.

Holding Space for Change

The evening began with music by multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Sarah Gorak, in partnership with Cincinnati Music Accelerator, followed by a land acknowledgement by host Naimah Bilal. Cincinnati rests on Kaskaskia, Osage, Shawnee, Myaamia, Adena and Hopewell land. Acknowledging this contextualizes ourselves in the past and ongoing oppression of displaced peoples — especially important for a conversation about housing, land use, property ownership and how we think about “home.”

Housing is a matter of life or death, a fundamental element to sustain human life, health, and well-being. Whether driven by a sense of responsibility to others or a belief in housing as a human right, guests agreed that every person deserves a home. Housing is a right, not a privilege.

To explore this together, Bilal welcomed guests:

Why Affordability Matters

This dialogue was inspired by Urban Consulate thought partner Katherine Gardette, a Walnut Hills neighborhood advocate who stresses this question — “Afforable for whom?” — whenever she enters a conversation about community development.

Set against a backdrop of national conversations about the growing affordable housing crisis across American cities, calls for eviction moratoriums to protect millions during an unprecendented public health crisis, proposed investments in infrastructure, and big bets to tackle homelessness, this dialogue focused on local efforts in Cincinnati.

Currently, the Cincinnati region has a housing shortage of 40,000 units, according to LISC Cincinnati. “The combination of rising housing costs and stagnating incomes is creating unprecedented housing affordability challenges. Cincinnati and Hamilton County now have a deficit of at least 40,000 units affordable and available to extremely low-income households.”

It’s why Jenkins says she fights so hard — “So it doesn’t get worse.”

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Homesteading to Home Ownership

Rachel Hastings serves as Executive Director at Price Hill Will, leading staff, volunteers and partners in collaborative efforts to improve the quality of life in the Price Hill neighborhoods.

In 2015, Price Hill Will created a homesteading program to help families overcome systemic barriers to homeownership, such as racial discrimination and lack of access to financial institutions.

“This is an equity building program for families. Equity in home ownership is the primary way by which Americans make money,” said Hastings.

In fact, she said, seventy-three percent of white families are homeowners, compared to 48% of Latinx and 42% of Black families, highlighting an intense racial disparity this program is working to overcome.

Breaking Cycles of Discrimination

There’s a connection between fairness and affordable housing, says Jeneice Jones, Executive Director at Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Greater Cincinnati (HOME).

“Affordable housing is people being able to afford a house where they want to live. The fair housing aspect comes into play when there’s a lack of that affordable housing,” said Jones. “That gives rise to a lot of predatory, exploitative behavior that violates the Fair Housing Act. It’s my organization’s role to find out what’s going on.”

It used to be that housing discrimination was very overt, Jones said. But today it might be as subtle as lower home appraisals or a property manager’s refusal to make timely repairs.

“More access to affordable units would even the playing field with some of these discriminatory practices,” Jones said.

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Eradicating Homelessness 

Mona Jenkins, Director of Development and Operations at the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition, is working to put herself out of a job. Meaning — eliminate homelessness.

The coalition is a unified social action agency, fully committed to the eradication of homelessness with respect for the dignity and diversity of its membership: people experiencing homelessness.

Coalition members work towards this goal by coordinating services, educating the public and engaging in grassroots organizing and advocacy — including petitioning the city of Cincinnati to invest in an affordable housing trust fund.

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Calls to Action

The work these leaders are doing is not limited to housing alone. They emphasized the many intersections between housing, access to food, and a livable wage. They encouraged each of us to walk away knowing that there are tangible ways we can have impact in our own communities:

  • “Engage in the democratic process at all levels and hold corporations and elected officials accountable,” said Jenkins. One way to do that is by participating in your local neighborhood citizen council, and evaluating developer proposals against an equitable development rubric to ensure the community’s needs are represented.

  • “Vote with your feet,” said Hastings. There are ways to make your voice heard outside of the electoral process, in every action you take – including where you spend your money.

  • Ask ourselves: “How do we become a good ancestor while we’re alive?” said Jones. “What do we want to give forward so future generations will say ‘They rolled up their sleeves and carried us forward, and they didn’t allow these inequities to stand’?

“Black and brown people toiling under the circumstances today are descendants of the greatest Afrofuturists that ever lived,” said Jones. “Because they saw our freedom – they saw it when there was no evidence to call upon to say that it could happen.”

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Urban Consulate brings people together to share ideas for more just and equitable cities. In Cincinnati, monthly salons are hosted by Naimah Bilal and Megan Trischler in partnership with The Mercantile Library, Afrochine, Cincinnati Music Accelerator and the Carol Ann & Ralph V. Haile, Jr. Foundation. For past & future conversations, click here.

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