“We draw from not just Kettering, but the entire Miami Valley,” said Wesley Young, executive vice president of St. Mary Development Corp., co-developers of the 52-unit Senior Village. “The shortage of affordable housing is just acute.
“Almost anywhere, you have demand,” he said. “Kettering just happens to be in more demand than most places.”
County Corp. President Steve Naas, whose organization co-developed the 51-unit Lofts complex, expressed similar thoughts.
“Every community in Montgomery County needs housing, including affordable housing units,” Naas told the Dayton Daily News.
Each development was an investment of more than $12 million and both are joint projects with the Oberer Companies, both Young and Naas said.
Both complexes also qualified for Ohio Housing Finance Agency affordable housing tax credits, state records show.
Some Kettering residents have been critical of new housing developments in the city receiving tax state tax credits. But local officials have told them state applications for tax credit assistance on those projects in Kettering score well due to amenities like public transportation and shopping.
Regardless of the community, Naas has said, “there are landlords that don’t maintain properties appropriately … and then there are landlords that do exactly what’s needed to be done.”
Residents in both complexes started moving in this spring. The Senior Village is set to hold an open house from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday.
The complex features one- and two-bedroom units varying from 650 to 863 square feet, serving those ages 55 or older who earn 30%, 50% and 60% of area median income, according to records.
The apartments “help tremendously … in giving an option for Kettering residents to move into something that’s more appropriate for their particular lifestyle,” city Planning and Development Director Tom Robillard said.
The Lofts include one-, two- and three-bedroom units ranging from 681 to 1,140 square feet and includes residents in the same range of area median income, Ohio records show.
Affordable housing in Ohio is lagging, according to a March study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio.
Statewide, the ratio of 40 affordable units available to every 100 households remained unchanged from 2023 to this year’s report., the two groups found.
Ohio’s largest cities had similar affordable housing shortages, led by Cleveland (56,560 units), Columbus (52,694) and Cincinnati (49,510), according to the report.
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