For a single person in Columbus not receiving government assistance, one might think having $1,526 to spend on housing each month is plenty.
Of course, when considering that the city’s average rent cost is $1,500 a month – and anyone would be hard-pressed to find a utility package for $26 – that illusion starts to fade.
Not only that, but developers and housing agencies actually use that seemingly bountiful $1,526 number as a benchmark for what’s considered affordable rent in Columbus. To many, that number seems exorbitant as is, let alone when it appears in the same sentence as “affordable.”
City leaders and housing experts tend to agree that affordable housing of all kinds has become an increasing need in Columbus. With the passage of Mayor Andrew Ginther’s $500-million affordable housing bond package, there is hope that the city’s housing stock will be bolstered and more of those diverse needs can be met.
“I believe that many people, when they hear the term ‘affordable housing,’ they’re thinking people in poverty,” said Michael Wilkos, vice president of community engagement at the nonprofit United Way of Central Ohio. “They’re not thinking about people that they know, or even people like themselves, who are working full-time jobs with reasonable incomes, but are struggling to navigate the housing market.”
How is ‘affordable housing’ calculated?
As housing advocates like Sarah Arellano Higgins will say, affordability looks entirely different for every individual.
But generally, Arellano Higgins, executive director of local housing nonprofit Columbus Redevelopment Corp., said affordable housing is understood as costing 30% or less of a person’s gross income, per the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s definition.
That means a Columbus resident making $76,300 a year – the area median income for a single person as of 2025 – should not be spending more than $1,907 a month on housing costs, including utilities. For a family of four, for whom the area median income is $109,000 a year, that cap is $2,725 a month.
Housing providers often use more specific, income-based benchmarks to designate tiers of affordable housing and ensure certain projects serve certain income levels. They make these calculations through area median income, or AMI.
By these standards, Arellano Higgins said affordable housing is broadly defined as anything priced for households earning up to 80% of AMI – and this is what the city’s new bond package will target. In Columbus, this is housing intended for single people making $61,050 a year or less, making $1,526 a month the upper-end benchmark for affordability. For a family of four earning up to $87,200, that benchmark is $2,180 a month.
Because this definition is so broad, Arellano Higgins said there are certain categories within it that better target specific groups.
Workforce housing tends to target people making 60-80% of AMI. For an individual in Columbus, HUD says that’s between $45,780 and $61,050 a year, meaning workforce housing rents should be set between $1,144 and $1,526 a month or less.
For a family of four that makes between $65,400 and $87,200, workforce housing rents should be set between $1,635 and $2,180 or less.
Arellano Higgins said workforce housing is usually directed at people like nurses, teachers or social workers – those who make too much to qualify for government assistance but not enough to keep up with private, market-rate rent costs.
“Those are the units that really mostly help stabilize neighborhoods,” Arellano Higgins said. “They keep essential workers close to where they work, and they are really about keeping the local economy functional. It makes sure the people who serve your community can actually afford to live in it.”
United Way’s Wilkos said that “very little middle-tier housing is being built anywhere across the metropolitan region, but as the population of the region continues to grow, we have a lot more people in those middle incomes that need that housing.
“And that housing availability has really disappeared substantially over the last 15 years,” he said, “putting a real squeeze on those families in particular.”
How housing vouchers and other government aid factor in
Another tier under the affordable housing umbrella is low-income housing, which targets people making 30-60% of AMI or below. For an individual in Columbus, that’s between $22,900 and $45,780 a year or less.
To qualify for federal assistance like the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program or Section 8 – the housing voucher program that helps very low-income families, seniors on fixed incomes, veterans and people with disabilities – individuals usually must make 50% of AMI or less. For a single person in Columbus, that’s $38,150 a year or less. For a family of four, that’s $54,500 or less.
But instead of just taking 30% of these income levels to calculate what would be considered affordable housing for this group, HUD uses rental market data. Fair Market Rents, or FMRs, are calculated annually as the 40th percentile of gross rents for average-quality units in a particular area, essentially creating a cap on what a housing voucher will subsidize.
In Columbus, HUD set this year’s FMR rate for a one-bedroom at $1,194 a month. For a three-bedroom housing unit, the FMR rate is $1,741 a month, and for a five-bedroom, it’s $2,230 a month.
The vision for Columbus’ housing market: ‘More of everything’
In light of the “massive shortage” of affordable units in Columbus, Arellano Higgins said it’s critical for the housing market to be varied, and she hopes that’s what the city’s new bond package will aim to address.
“We can’t just build one kind of housing,” Arellano Higgins said. “Columbus really needs a mix of deeply affordable and low-income, moderate, and workforce units to make sure everyone has that mixed-income neighborhood we always prefer.
“Your goal is to create stable families; your goal is a stronger neighborhood; you really want a more inclusive local economy,” she said. “And the only way to get that is to build more of everything.”
Reporter Emma Wozniak can be reached at ewozniak@dispatch.com or @emma_wozniak_ on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: What does ‘affordable housing’ actually mean? This is how it’s defined in Columbus
Reporting by Emma Wozniak, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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