Memo to legislators: Don’t demolish housing agency

Jeers to Ohio Senate President Keith Faber and his short-sighted cohorts for mindlessly aiming a wrecking ball squarely at Ohio’s model agency for housing assistance to the state’s poorest and most-dependent populations.

Curiously, Senate budgeteers have proposed mucking up Ohio’s highly successful and rigidly accountable Housing Trust Fund in their rewrite of the proposed $71 billion state budget for the 2016 and 2017 fiscal years. Specifically, they propose bulldozing the agency with a 50 percent hit to its funding foundation and transferring that money to the state’s 88 counties for vaguely described “housing purposes.”

WHAT IS OHIO HOUSING TRUST FUND?

The trust fund provides resources for maximizing affordable housing opportunities, expanding housing services, assisting the homeless and improving housing conditions for low-income Ohioans and their families. It evolved from a 1990 constitutional amendment overwhelmingly approved by Ohio voters that designated housing as a public purpose eligible for public funding. Twelve years ago, the fund expanded greatly when legislators created a steady funding stream via added fees collected by county recorders. Typically, the statewide fund tops off at about $50 million annually.

If evidence had surfaced that the $50 million had been mishandled or misappropriated, if horror stories had accumulated about abject failures in the fund’s mission or if credible evidence had supported the need for giving counties far greater authority over housing assistance, then perhaps Faber et al may have had good reason to gut the program. Clearly, none of those scenarios resembles reality.

VALUE TO THE VALLEY

Truth to tell, the OHTF has amassed an exemplary record of service in rescuing the state’s most-needy residents from inadequate housing or, worse yet, homelessness. Just glance at its accomplishments in the Mahoning Valley for proof. According to the OHTF Beneficiaries by County Report, Mahoning and Trumbull counties received about $5 million between 2012 and 2014 for myriad program partnerships with respected organizations such as the YWCA, Beatitude House, Meridian Services and Catholic Charities. These and other groups used the OHTF support to provide transitional housing, housing aid, home repairs and other services to thousands of individuals in crisis.

In addition, by all accounts, the trust fund’s accountability is beyond reproach. The fund is administered by a single state agency with oversight by a 14-member advisory board with a 25-year track record of transparency.

The amendment would rip that working structure asunder by establishing 88 separate county administrative fiefdoms run by individuals who may have little or no experience in housing assistance. That would leave the door open for 88 new bureaucracies and 88 potential opportunities for the program to fail or be compromised.

For those reasons, mindful and responsible legislators will not permit the critically needed agency to be crushed into more than seven dozen pieces. They should act responsibly by removing the OHTF amendment from the final budget bill. If they don’t, Gov. John Kasich should show bold leadership by using his line-item veto pen on it. In so doing, he would show respect to the well-oiled state agency and compassion to the most vulnerable among us.