About 28 percent of homes in the City of Athens are non-rental units, and officials from both Ohio University and the city hope to increase that number soon.
Athens City Council is creating a commission to address affordable, owner-occupied housing in Athens, which members say is lacking.
“The commission is the public part of an eventual public/private partnership,” Councilwoman Michele Papai, D-3rd Ward, said. “You need professionals who understand the housing needs, and there’s a lot to that. The mission involves all members of the community.”
Only 28 percent of households in Athens are owner-occupied, according to U.S. census data.
According to a report by the City of Athens and Ohio University Affordable Housing Task Force, Athens has the highest rate of renter households in the 32 counties in Appalachian Ohio, and the rent disparity between student and non-student housing ranges from $86 to $895 per month, depending on the bedroom type.
The Task Force, which was co-chaired by Papai and Stephen Golding, OU’s Vice President for Strategic Initiative, said in the report student housing was lowering the value of other houses in Athens.
“The student housing market has artificially inflated the value of residential housing stock, reduces the availability of single family rental property and led to significant growth in multi-tenant student housing that has left a number of single family homes being abandoned or in disrepair within the Athens’ City limits,” the report reads.
The report says some areas of Athens are in “blight” or “the process whereby a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude.”
The report lays out recommendations to address disrepair and to create “affordable non-student rental complexes and single family structures that can lead to mixed use opportunities/developments.”
Additionally, the report recommends OU and Athens partner to increase the number of houses that cost between $125,000 and $250,000 by creating both owner-occupied and renter-occupied housing for a “wide variety of residents with diverse backgrounds and for both extended stays and multi-year contracts.”
The report mirrors the city’s Comprehensive Plan, which says the need for good housing for all groups in any community.
“A community’’s housing stock should reflect the needs of its residents’ life cycle housing continuum. As individuals progress through life, they will have different housing needs based on their income, education, marital status, number of children, special needs, and lifestyle preferences,” the Comprehensive Plan reads.
Like the affordable housing recommendation report, the Comprehensive Plan says Athens must balance between student and non-student housing.
“Athens struggles to meet the needs of a growing university student population and the needs of permanent residents as they move through the housing cycle,” the plan reads.
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